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Japanese propaganda in the period just before and during World War II, was designed to assist the regime in governing during that time. Many of its elements were continuous with pre-war themes of Shōwa statism , including the principles of kokutai , hakkō ichiu , and bushido .
Propaganda activities in Japan have been discussed as far back as the Russo-Japanese War of the first decade of the 20th century. Propaganda activities peaked during the period of the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II. Scholar Koyama Eizo has been credited with developing much of the Japanese propaganda framework during that time.
New forms of propaganda were developed to persuade occupied countries of the benefits of the Greater Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, to undermine American troops' morale, to counteract claims of Japanese atrocities, and to present the war to the Japanese people as victorious.
In the light of this question, it is plausible to state that the legacy of the Sino-Japanese War of 1937-45 has left a unique heritage to the relations between the two countries; the Empire of Japan’s imperialist war propaganda is still a stumbling block in current Sino-Japanese relations.
- Semiha Karaoğlu
- 2020
- Overview
- The establishment of Manchukuo and the creation of the United Front
- Initial Japanese conquests
Second Sino-Japanese War, (1937–45), conflict that broke out when China began a full-scale resistance to the expansion of Japanese influence in its territory (which had begun in 1931). The war, which remained undeclared until December 9, 1941, may be divided into three phases: a period of rapid Japanese advance until the end of 1938, a period of vi...
For much of the early 20th century, Japan had exercised effective control of Manchuria, initially through the terms of the Twenty-one Demands (1915) and later through its support of Chinese warlord Zhang Zuolin. However, a serious conflict was developing, and the Chinese in Manchuria were especially restive under the privileges held by the Japanese. Chinese citizens formed the vast majority of the population, and the legal title of the region was held by China. Yet Japan controlled much of south Manchuria through its railways and its leasehold on the Liaodong Peninsula and in other ways that compromised Chinese sovereignty.
In an attempt to assert their independence, the Chinese began building a series of railroads that would in part encircle the Japanese lines and terminate at Huludao, a port which the Chinese were developing. Zhang Xueliang, Zhang Zuolin’s son and the ruler of Manchuria after his father’s murder by Japanese officers in 1928, was increasingly disposed to ally himself with the Kuomintang (Nationalist Party) and its desire to rid China of foreign control. In the summer of 1931 the friction expressed itself in minor incidents. Those in control of the main body of Japanese forces in Manchuria believed that the time had passed for temporizing and compromise. On the night of September 18–19, 1931, alleging that Chinese had blown up part of the track of the South Manchuria railway near the city, the Japanese seized Mukden (Shenyang). Facing little resistance from Nationalist forces, the Japanese established the puppet state of Manchukuo in 1932 and installed the deposed Qing emperor Puyi as its titular head. Japan soon demonstrated that it was not content with confining its control of China to regions north of the Great Wall, and in the spring of 1934 a pronouncement from Tokyo in effect declared all China to be a Japanese preserve in which no power could take important action without its consent.
In 1935 the Japanese forced the withdrawal from Hebei and Chahar (now part of Inner Mongolia) of any officials and armed forces that might prove unfriendly to Japan. These territories passed partly into Japanese control, and Suiyuan, Shansi (Shanxi), and Shantung (Shandong) were threatened. Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek did not offer open opposition, preferring instead to pursue his campaign against Chinese communist forces. In December 1936, in what came to be known as the Xi’an Incident, Chiang was seized by forces under the command of his own generals and compelled to ally with the communists in a United Front against Japan.
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A History of War
What proved to be a life and death struggle soon broke out between China and Japan. The opening engagement was a minor clash between Chinese and Japanese troops at the Marco Polo Bridge, not far from Peiping (Beijing) on July 7, 1937. The conflict quickly ceased to be localized. The Japanese came to feel that since Chiang and the Nationalist government would not yield to their wishes they must be eliminated. To the Japanese, the rising tide of nationalism in China—directed, as much of it was, against them—had become intolerable.
By July 1937 practically all Chinese regional military and political groups had rallied to support the Nationalist government and Chiang Kai-shek in their decision to oppose Japan by every means. The communists, who had urged a united front against Japan since 1935, pledged their support and put their armies nominally under command of the government.
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From a strictly military point of view, however, Japan was so much better prepared than China that its armies achieved rapid initial success. Within the course of two years Japan obtained possession of most of the ports, the majority of the chief cities as far west as Hankow (Hankou), and the larger part of the railways. Peiping and Tientsin (Tianjin) were occupied in July 1937. After fierce fighting, the Chinese armies were driven out of the Shanghai area by the middle of November 1937. Nanking (Nanjing), the Nationalist capital, fell in mid-December 1937, and the liquidation of that city and its inhabitants became known as the Nanjing Massacre. As many as 300,000 Chinese civilians and surrendered troops were killed. Moreover, tens of thousands of women were raped on the orders of Japanese commander Matsui Iwane. The capital was moved west to Hankow. The Japanese followed and took that city in October 1938. In the same month, the Chinese lost Canton (Guangzhou). The Japanese pressed northward and westward from Peiping along the railway lines into Shansi and Inner Mongolia. They dominated Shantung and took possession of the Peiping-Hankow, Tientsin-P’u-k’ou, and Lung-hai railways and of the rail lines in the lower part of the Yangtze valley. They had complete command of the sea. Always superior in the air, before many months they had all but destroyed the Chinese air force and bombed Chinese cities at will. The loss of life, particularly for the Chinese, was enormous.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
National Rail and Tourism from the Russo-Japanese War to the Asia-Pacific War: The Rise and Fall of a Business Approach to Rail Management Download; XML “Orient Calls”: Anglophone Travel Writing and Tourism as Propaganda during the Second Sino-Japanese War, 1937–1941 Download; XML
Spanning from the First Sino-Japanese War through World War II, these important documents build a visual narrative that charts the rise of an imperialist nation and demonstrates how expansionist policy disseminated through mass media to shape a modern Japan, forever changing political relations between East and West and between Japan and its nei...
