Liberal Democratic Government in Japan

Modernization in each areas of Japanese life combined with the desire to deal much effectively with the double-u, and this, as mentioned, meant relating with ways of life which were immaterial to Japan. Japanese leaders had to determine how to expand Japan's global involvement, but that meant becoming involved with western sandwich forces which were simultaneously seen as a threat to Japan. It was as if Japan was holding out its hands---one up to(p) with the desire to become a part of the world of nations, and the other(a) closed in a fist in ordinate to protect traditional Japanese ways: "In the deed of this ambitious goal the Meiji leadership displayed two striking characteristics: a readiness to try new methods and push ahead with them boldly, couple with a tenacious adherence to traditional ideals and virtues" (133).

Much bring forward and modernization was achieved in a relatively short stop consonant of time, but "nevertheless the new nation could still stomach been more(prenominal) a product of its own past than of its new contact with the wolfram" (133). What this means is that the leadership of Japan was doing a balancing act which it could not long maintain. The contradictions inherent in the slogan "Enrich th

nationalism was at first a stable force throughout these changes. It is described as "a sentiment already nourished in Tokugawa times and requiring little stimulus from the West, but which promptly grew into an all-pervasive creed and cult" (135). Added to this cult and intensifying it were "a superpatriotic cult centered upon the God-Emperor" and "the strong support of Confucian moral philosophy" (135).

These arguments established an ideological reality for Japan which simply do war inevitable. Finally, "The Emperor's Rescript declaring war on the United States and bully Britain summed up Japan's grievances against the Western democracies and explained that Japan had had no real alternating(a) to going to war" (291).

Tokutomi Iichiro's defense of the declaration of war is unspoiled of historical and cultural references (the Mirror, the Jewels, the Sword, the Three Sacred Treasures, the lofty Way, the Imperial Household, the Light of Greater eastmost Asia) which show that war with the West was a fundamental part of Japan's destiny. The war goals statement stated that the Japanese empire was a "manifestation of morality and its particular characteristic is the propagation of the Imperial Way" (294). The Greater Co-Prosperity vault of heaven was the specific goal:

Eventually, the call and justification for war itself became more overtly and blatantly declared. As Japan's empire was strengthened, the Western powers stepped up their criticism of Japan and its expansionist and aggressive policies and practices. This in crease was seen by the Japanese as a threat from the Western powers that they would do whatever was necessary to stop that expansionism. To many Japanese, the yet choice the nation had was to answer the threat of war with other threat of war. There were, therefore, no shortage of justifications for war. As Okawa Shumei puts it, the West and East must be united, for there is no style for compromise, and the only way to unite is through violence, because the ways of East an
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