ABSTRACT

On September 18, 1931, Japan’s Kwantung Army initiated the military conquest of northeast China now known as the Manchurian Incident. With the occupation of Manchuria, Japanese imperialism entered a new and critical period. During this phase of empire building, Japan moved aggressively to expand its overseas territories, occupying first China and then south-east Asia, and initiating a succession of military conflicts against the nationalist and communist forces in China, the Soviet Union, the United States, and the British empire. During the rapid military expansion of the 1930s and 1940s, what Japanese officials called “autonomous diplomacy” signified two departures from past practice. First, it meant liberating imperial interests in Asia from a consideration of relations with the west. In the past, fearing diplomatic isolation, Japanese policy makers took careful stock of how a potential move in Asia was likely to be received in the west, and interventions were preceded by cautious multilateral negotiations. After 1931, however, the “Manchurian problem,” the “China question,” and the “advance south” were each decided unilaterally and in the face of western opposition. Second, autonomy signaled a new independence for Japan’s colonial armies. In the wake of the Manchurian Incident, military fait accomplis followed one upon another, as aggressive field officers took their lead from the success of the Manchurian occupation. Since the 1890s, imperial expansion had begun with military conquest. But by the 1930s, the imperial garrisons had multiplied and the institutional complexity of the armed services had opened new possibilities for subimperialists. The trigger-happy proclivity of the garrison armies turned the boundaries of the empire into a rolling frontier.