New History Textbook (Chapter 4 & 5) 2005 version - Bakumatsu Films

The dictatorship of Mussolini’s Fascist Party over Italy began in 1922. Italian troops invaded
Ethiopia in 1935. The dictatorial militarism of the Fascist Party was called “fascism.” After the
Great Depression, fascism spread to nations suffering economic woes.
Germany, already saddled with huge reparations payments from World War I, was beset by
hyperinflation, which caused serious unrest among the citizenry. Soon Hitler emerged as the leader
of the Nazi Party. He promised to restore to the German people the glory that was once theirs, and
gradually won their support. Capitalizing on internal chaos resulting from the Great Depression,
which began in 1929, the Nazi Party became the majority party in Parliament. The next year, Hitler
took the reins of government and immediately began exerting dictatorial control.
Paramount on the Nazi platform was race. The Nazis spared no pains to preserve the racial purity of
the German people. The Jews were the victims of particularly drastic persecution. Like Stalin,
Hitler made use of secret police and concentration camps, slaughtering millions of people. The two
totalitarians were always rivals, but each learned from the other’s skill at wielding power.
69 The Anti-Japanese Movement in China and the Failure of Cooperative Diplomacy
At a time when cabinets were party-based, why did Japan’s diplomacy of cooperation fail?
The Anti-Japanese Movement in China
Post-Qing China was being splintered by warlords and their private armies. Chiang Kai-shek, who
had succeeded Sun Yatsen as Nationalist Party leader, attempted to unite the warring factions. By
1928, Chiang had gained control of Beijing, where he established a new government. The
movement to unite China eventually reached Manchuria, where Japan had interests. Japan’s
response was to send troops to the Shandong region three times, ostensibly to protect Japanese
settlers there.
As efforts to unite China progressed, attempts to expel foreign nationals with interests in China, as a
result of the unequal treaties, gained momentum. Among them was ethnic opposition from Chinese
against control by Western powers (which eventually became radical), influenced by Soviet
communist ideology, which had prompted the Russians to stage a successful, though violent,
revolution. An anti-Japanese movement, which arose in reaction to an increasing Japanese presence
in China, also gained momentum. Japanese goods were boycotted, and Japanese citizens attacked.
The Failure of Diplomacy of Cooperation
Shidehara Kijuro served two party-based cabinets as foreign minister. He favored a diplomacy of
cooperation that empathized with Chinese ethnic pride, and supported China’s demands for the
restoration of tariff autonomy, while honoring the terms of treaties signed with Great Britain and the
U.S.
But the anti-Japanese movement, perhaps encouraged by the Chinese government, never lost force.
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