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Japan in early 1930s: a stalemate of two conflicting ideals

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1. with Japan's enormous modernization, many people appealing for

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liberal ideas

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international cooperation

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2. also a national conservative faction

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Japanese nationalism

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purity of Japanese traditions

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therefore must not be vulnerable from economic pressure from England and other countries

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needs to reject culture and dominance of Western countries

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the depression in the West is evidence for Japanese conservatives that Western ideals have failed and they need to break away from West

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Kanji Ishiwara (1889-1949)

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Kanji is family name

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was a Japanese conservative

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general in the Imperial Japanese Army in World War II

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believed that Japan and China should form a pan-Asian alliance and invade Russia

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believes people in charge are paralyzed by democratic politics, so uses ways to shame their government into doing things it wants to do

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responsible for the Mukden Incident that took place in Manchuria in 1931

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pretext for invading Manchuria

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blow up train track and blame it on the Chinese

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1931 established its puppet state of Manchukuo six months later

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installed the heir to the Qing dynasty

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West sees this as a transgression of many acts

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May 15th incident: Nationalists make a bold move: seizing on visit of Charlie Chaplin, plan to kill him and Japan's prime minister

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the officers are dealt with lightly

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a clear sign that no one can stand up to the army

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Japan is moving more and more to a military dictatorship with civilian rulers on top

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Germany

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depression hits Germany hard

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July 1932 elections: 38% voted for National Socialists, 22% SPD, 15% KPD

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this kind of polarized electorate cannot form a stable government

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Paul von Hindenburg (1847-1934)

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1925-1934: president of Germany (figurehead)

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gradually gained more influence than Kaiser

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retired in 1919 but came back in 1925

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a "venerable, old general from the Great War"

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thought that it might be a good idea to give the Nazis the chance to run the government just to have a stable government and that "we will be able to control them, they are a bunch of incompetent hooligans"

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January 1933: gave Hitler a chance of running the German Republic

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within one year, the German Republic was dissolved

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Kurt von Schleicher (1882-1934)

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German general and last Chancellor of Germany during Weimar Republic

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assassinated by order of his successor, Adolf Hitler, in the "Nacht der langen Messer" between June 30 and July 2, 1934, when Nazi regime carried out a series of political murders, at least 85 people died during the purge

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Germany and Japan have both chosen to move into a world of dictatorship and imperial ambition

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1932 state of capitalism and collective security

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capitalism looks as though it is failing

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world trade begins to collapse

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in 1932, Britain abandons free trade

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had been the very symbol of it

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imperial preference finally wins out with tariffs

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demand plummets

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gold standard goes away and easy exchange rates with it

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1934 France and Poland were the only major countries still on the gold standard

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1933 international conference

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Roosevelt torpedoes the conference deciding that the United States had to cut itself loose from the European dead weights and save itself on its own

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rising unemployment

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in America, the migration of laborers

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Oklahoma to California

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Missouri to Chicago

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Tennessee to Detroit

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North Carolina to Pennsylvania

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many African Americans

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wheat-growing areas a dust bowl

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right and left-wing dictatorships

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whole east block outside of Czechoslovakia

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in all of Europe east of the Rhine, only one democracy was left: Czechoslovakia

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Germany walks out of the League of Nations because of the disarmament conference

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Italian empire on the march

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into Libya and Ethiopia

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modern warfare against Ethiopians

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League of Nations threatens oil embargo against Italy, which is ineffectual

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Soviet Union threat

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smaller countries no longer have hope in the League of Nations but in other countries such as Germany, also not a good choice at this particular period in history

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far-Eastern crisis

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Manchuria was far away be it was understood as the test case

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Britain and the United States were the two strongest countries next to Japan, but a military intervention there was out of the question under the circumstances

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the United States did not recognize what Japan had done in Manchuria, simply disapproving of it

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Japan takes offense that the League of Nations has criticized it for its behavior, and resigns from League of Nations

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three ways to obtain security in the modern world taking shape

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1. war

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2. imperialism

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3. diplomacy

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era of the 1930s

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modern capitalism failing

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institutions of security failing

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economic story converging with a political story

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contingency and choice

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those thirty days in January 1993 where a group of German politicians decide to make Hitler chancellor changed the course of millions of people's lives, he didn't have to be chancellor, the Nazis had actually done quite well in the elections and in some ways the National Socialist movement was ebbing, but the decision was made nonetheless which wholly changed the course of history

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confronting the Japanese militarists in Manchuria did not occur

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choices about going of the gold standard and have no free trade

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these choices merged and accumulated to have enormous consequences as people began to slowly realize what kind of world they really live in: populations plunging themselves into totalitarian dictatorships, whole peoples in Europe completely sacrificing their freedom. What was going on in the 1930s? Were times just so hard, people just so desperate?

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Erich Fromm, trying to find the deeper explanations for the way people constructed the world around them in the 1930s that they did, gives an argument that there are two kinds of freedom: negative freedom and positive freedom. Negative freedom is freedom from social dictates: absence of obstacles, barriers or constraints. Positive freedom is the possibility and the fact of acting in such a way as to take control of one's life and realize one's fundamental purposes. With the modern changes that had occurred since the 1890s, people had acquired much negative freedom, and with this negative freedom a sense of not knowing what one is supposed to do, of a loss of identity within a political and social context. The vacuum of dictatorships in the 1930s played in a large way on these fears and needs, giving large populations something to surrender themselves to and believe in, giving up freedom for security and social and political self-definition, or as Frome writes, "The frightened individual seeks for somebody or something to tie his self to; he cannot bear to be his own individual self any longer, and he tries frantically to get rid of it and to feel security again by the elimination of this burden". In getting ride of this burden, he ties himself to something that promises to be larger and grander, as Mussolini convinced so many followers to "find their identity in the power and mission of the state", but what was for 1930's dictators submission to a higher purpose, was for millions of Europeans a plunge into the abyss."