The Rise and Fall of the Japanese Economy during World War II

Although many people deny and overlook Japan’s involvement in World War II, the Japanese imperial army assisted greatly in oppressing the Pacific coast and committed many war crimes and atrocities, specifically in China. The emperor at the time was Hirohito and he lived a common Japanese royal life. During his rule, chaos was ensuing in western Europe. The Nazi’s were rising in power and started to invade other countries. Japan soon turned to ultra-nationalism and militarism. While neighboring countries were becoming more involved, Japan was never truly a part of the war.

Japan was urged by Germany to join the war against the Soviets, and after many altercations and meetings, they did. Japan’s hunger for power all began with the global economic depression and their fight to regain control and balance throughout the entire country. The worldwide financial collapse destroyed Japan’s foreign market and the country suffered greatly. Due to Japan’s economic decline, the possibility of villagers changing their very low incomes from rice farming with silk production which caused a widespread of poverty. While some of the financial crisis had to do with the after effects of World War I, most of it had to do with Japan’s financial instability due to incomplete restructuring in the business sector and delays in disposals of bad loans by financial institutions. Although they suffered greatly, Japan evaded the depression earlier than most countries with the help macroeconomic stimulus measures initiated by Korekiyo Takahashi, a veteran Finance Minister.

Takahashi instituted macroeconomic policy measures, including exchange rate, fiscal, along with monetary adjustments. Japan soon introduced a mechanism in which the government would receive easy credit from the central bank without establishing other institutional measures to govern its fiscal policy. Fiscal policy is the means by which a government adjusts its spending levels and tax. During the Great Depression of the 1930s ,people began to think that military conquest would help solve Japan’s economic problems. The idea of being a very powerful country and having major control of important parts of Asia seemed crucial to the Japanese leaders and became a vital goal. Japanese officials felt the only way to reach their goal was to conquer all of Southeast Asia. The idea that a using strong military aggression to keep other countries and their own citizens in line seemed like the logical decision. Many of the soldiers that were admitted into the military came from rural areas, where the depression hit the hardest.

They fought actively to expand Japan’s territory in order to secure economic security so that another depression could never affect them. Japan sought to copy the leading countries around them, mirroring their ways of trade and communication. Although Japan lacked natural resources such as oil and rubber, they gained profit by taxing the little exports they gave out. They then began to establish colonies in neighboring countries and gathered new resources from the land, put high tariffs on them, and exported them out as Japanese goods. Since Japan could not attain oil and rubber from their circle of influence, incredibly necessary things to have at the time, they got oil from the United States and rubber from the British Malaya. These two countries were the main opposing forces towards Japan. In 1937, the intensification of Chinese resistance to the pressure of the Japanese military drew Japan into a draining war in the vast reaches of China proper, and in 1940 into operations in French Indochina, far to the south. Thus, when the navy pressed for a ‘southern’ strategy of attacking Dutch Indonesia to get its oil and British Malaya to control its rubber, the army agreed. This allowed Japan to have access to essential products needed to fight their war of power. While it seems that economic factors were important in Japanese expansion in East Asia, it would be too much to say that colonialism, trade protection, and the American embargo compelled Japan to take this course.

Hirohito was the newest emperor of Japan and had been ruling for thirteen years before Japan joined the war. He lived a life that was custom to Japanese royals. According to custom, imperial family members were not raised by their parents, but instead raised by an ex-military official or religious leader. Hirohito was raised by a retired vice-admiral and then an imperial attendant. He attended schools that were meant specifically for children of nobility. He was taught to focus on instruction in military and religious matters. According to TitleHistory.com , “ in 1921, Hirohito and a 34-man entourage traveled to Western Europe for a six month tour. It was the first time a Japanese crown prince had ever gone abroad.” In 1923, his chronically ill father and Hirohito assumed the duties of emperor. Hirohito officially became emperor when his father,Emperor Taish?, died in December 1926 . Hirohito had many adversaries that advised him to act as quickly as possible towards the persistence and influence of Nazi Germany . Although Hirohito was a new emperor, that did not mean he did not have experience in making big decisions for his country. He sought to bring money,glory and power to Japan and carry out his father’s vision . When Hirohito assumed the throne a universal male-suffrage law had just passed and political parties were near the height of their prewar powers . Japan viewed their emperor as the highest spiritual authority so when Hirohito decided to fire the prime minister no one saw it as an act of an extremist.

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