Hirohito+&+Tojo+4

=**__// Emperor Hirohito //__**=



After WWI Japan's economy was struggling. But by 1936 Japan had full employment and the yen had dramatically risen in value. Building military resources and producing weapons helped get their economy back on it's feet. But Emperor Hirohito didn't have a big part in the military part of it. He studied marine biology and was actually made fun of for it. He was told that an emporer should be helping with war strategies and not playing with fish.

Emperor's ruled japan for hundreds of years. Hirohito carried on that tradition. Japan was all about nationalism and taught it in schools.

About the murderous emperor (Scott Weber): For most of his young life Hirohito lived a very sheltered life inside the royal palace before being called to duty at a young age. Hirohito came to power in a time where Japan was not doing well, just like the rest of the world. Japan was in bad shape so it was not hard for the Japanese government to convince people to go to war with China. The government taught that Chinese "chinks" were below animals and there was nothing wrong with killing them all and taking their land. Hirohito was seen as a living god and all of his citizens worshipped him like one. Throughout his reign as emperor he had little to no part in making any actual decisions that would effect the country. The decision to invade China was made mostly by military officials and other political figures. The emperor himself was more interested in being a marine biologist than an emperor. At the end of the war the emperor begged for mercy because he was just a figurehead and he didn't make the decisions that caused the deaths of so many lives. He was not charged for war crimes. **The depression of 1929 hit Japan hard and the Civilian Government was weak, with no solution on how to help their economic crisis. Japan was becoming vastly over populated and needed more natural resources, so taking control of Manchuria seemed like a good solution. The army of Japan was strong, and the people looked to it for help in there time of need. The army of Japan took complete control, and launched a full scale attack on Manchuria. The Chinese demanded that Japan's Army leave Manchuria, The League and the Government of Japan also supported this demand but the army refused to listen. The league threatened to place economic sanctions on Japan if they did not leave Manchuria, but it was unaffective. The government had no power. In 1933 the league determined that Manchuria should run as an independent country, with military defense from Japan. After this decision Japan resigned their position in the league of nations and took full control of Manchuria** **. Economy: ** Like most economies during the Great Depression, Japan's economy was struggling. But they did recover fairly quickly. By the mid 1930's, their economy was back on its feet and expanding. So did their need for resources from China and Malaysia. With the economy back up and running, the government thought they should start spending for a modernized army. Government spending rose from around 31% in 1931-1932 to 47% in 1936-1937. Then, a year later, spending on the military rose to a humongous 70%! With this huge government spending on the army, Japan was secretly going way beyond treaty limits. They amassed 3000 aircraft, 3500 pilots, 51 active army divisions, 133 squadrons, 1 million soldiers, and 2 million reserve soldiers. By the end of 1938 they had 1.5 million men fighting and was spending 5 million dollars a day. This, of course, put Japan in huge national debt.