"War Responsibility"

I stumbled across this account of the "Showa War" (WWII). I thought it was pretty interesting. The typical war patterns - the hype and all. I've pieced together a few snips from various editions.

WAR RESPONSIBILITY - What should we learn from Showa War?

The War Responsibility series, which started in August last year in The Yomiuri Shimbun, covered the period from the Manchurian Incident of 1931 (sixth year in the Showa era) until the end of the fighting in 1945 (20th year in Showa era).

In the early years of the Showa era, or late 1920s and '30s, election-related corruption, including bribes and treating voters, was routine. These acts amplified voters' distrust in political parties and created room for the government to interfere in elections....

The starting point of the Showa War was the Manchurian Incident that took place in September 1931. Who should be blamed for having caused the incident? The main instigators of the incident were Kanji Ishihara and Seishiro Itagaki, staff officers of the Kwantung Army, a unit of the Imperial Japanese Army.

Determined to conspire together to grab power and lead the country, they became the masterminds of the act of aggression into Manchuria (currently part of northeastern China) and literally dragged the nation into a series of wars....

As it was for the Japanese government and military, the Manchurian Incident of September 1931 also was a major turning point for the media.

After the incident, each newspaper sent many correspondents to China and reported each action by the military in detail. The reports inflamed the Japanese people, who subsequently became increasingly hawkish.

Public opinion that Manchuria and Inner Mongolia should be protected by all means because they were the empire's lifeline became entrenched thanks to the media coverage.

Each newspaper followed developments such as the concept of establishing Manchukuo as an independent nation, the Lytton Report produced by a League of Nations commission to resolve the Manchurian Incident and Japan's withdrawal from the League of Nations....

After the Sino-Japanese War started after the Feb. 26 Incident, the government rapidly tightened its media controls. After the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, the cabinet of Fumimaro Konoe, which by then had decided to dispatch troops to northern China, brought together representatives of media organizations and asked them to cooperate for the sake of national unity. The government focused on a strategy to publicize its propaganda and newspapers went along with the plan.
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Oppression of human rights also tightened domestically. Backed by fears of terrorism and coups that emerged in the public after the Feb. 26 Incident in 1936, politics buttressed by military police dominated the nation.

People who criticized the war or did not actively cooperate with the government and the military were quickly suppressed by the military police. Politicians, liberal theorists, social critics and scholars were targeted.

Writers were not allowed to publish their works unless they demonstrated that they believed the war would be won and they were willing to cooperate with the government and the military.