End of the Semi-Democracy: 1931 Manchurian Incident
As a result of the treaty that concluded the Russo-Japanese War, Japan had a lease of a railway in the northeastern region of China called Manchuria. Some Japanese army officers wanted to claim the region outright. They planted a bomb and detonated it on their own railway as a false flag attack. The general in command of guarding the railway implemented plans to bring Manchuria under Japanese military control.
High-ranking military officers in Tokyo deliberately did not intervene. The Cabinet (the government) had a different settled policy to ease tensions. Prime Minister Wakatsuki Reijiro could not negotiate with the Chinese government even after the war minister held the military in check. Prime Minister Wakatsuki resigned.
This Incident showed the inability of the Cabinet and the Lower House to control the army. These radical officers who led the false flag operation wanted to destroy big business and political parties as well, but conservative officers in the army did not want to go that far and stopped them.
Trigger to Authoritarianism: 1932 PM Inukai Assassination
Prime Minister Inukai Tsuyoshi was inclined to curb the army’s demands for unilateral actions to consolidate Manchuria under Japan. He was assassinated on May 15, 1932, by ultranationalists. His former finance minister and the head of a huge firm were also assassinated that February and March.
Admiral Saito Makoto was appointed prime minister by the emperor based on the recommendation of the genro (elder statesman) Saionji Kimmochi. While the appointment of prime ministers by genro was a formality, it was not in accordance with the de facto procedure of a Cabinet being formed in conjunction with the Cabinet and Lower House.
So, Inukai’s assassination ended Cabinets composed of and lead by party politicians identified with big business, but still moved by electoral pressures. By nullifying the influence of party politics after shocking assassinations, non-elected officers broke down the semi-democratic regime and led to the forthcoming military authoritarian state.
State of War: 1936: February 26 and China Incident
The February 26 Incident
1500 troops attempted an insurrection. The financial minister, the lord keeper of the privy seal, and the inspector-general of military education were assassinated and a building occupied. On February 26, conservative military leaders put down the insurrection. Civilian control and party politics ceased.
China Incident and Start of War with China
Japanese troops were garrisoned in China on terms of a treaty after the Boxer uprising. Japanese troops clashed with soldiers serving under a local warlord at a rail junction on the southern outskirts of Peking. Japan reinforced its troops in China twenty-fold in three months to bring pressure on the Nationalists. Japan fanned out from Peking and Shanghai and headed for large population centers and infrastructure. In December 1937, Nationalist capital Nanking was captured and sacked with tens of thousands of civilians dead. In this undeclared war, Japan controlled cities within the larger, rural areas from which Chinese forces operated.