ABSTRACT
The third and final phase of the development of Japanese modernism opened with a series of shocking events in the early 1930s, euphemistically called "incidents". In 1932, Japanese forces attacked Shanghai and occupied the city for several months before the Shanghai Ceasefire Agreement was brokered by the League of Nations. This was a prelude to the Battle of Shanghai at the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937. Because of their intimate connection with social expectations, cultural identity, and national aspirations, Japanese architects were in an increasingly tenuous and potentially dangerous position as this treacherous and eventually tragic drama played itself out. In Japan, the official position about modernism conformed to the National Socialist view in Germany. A symposium that included prominent writers, philosophers, artists, cinematographers, musicians, historians and scientists was held in Tokyo in 1942 that was considered to be the beginning of the end of Japanese hopes for victory in World War II.
