Hello and welcome to the History of Japan podcast. Episode 15, The Home Front.

This week, I'd like to rewind the clock a bit and discuss the internal changes that

occurred in Japan after the Russo-Japanese War.

Specifically, I would like to talk about the changes that led Japan into military governance,

extremist international policy,

and eventually led it into war.

What I want to focus on this week is the great question of the era,

who is responsible for the shift of Japan into militarism.

The common explanation is that a group of fanatical military officers

seized control from what had been a democratic government

and used terror and intimidation to force a cowed populace

down a path of expansion that no one really wanted.

Since I'm devoting an entire week to this subject,

obviously I think that's a tad oversimplified.

Turning the clock back to the end of the Russo-Japanese War in 1905,

if you had told someone on the street of Tokyo that in 35 years Japan would be dominated by

a military government and at war with the major allied powers, they probably would have

treated you like a crazy person. You see, at the end of the war with the major allied powers, they probably would have treated you

like a crazy person.

You see, at the end of the war, the prestige of the army, despite victory, was at a serious

low.

After all, the major victories of the war had been a result of the efforts of the Navy, and

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