Nationalism in East Asia
Korea, China, and Japan had not been formally colonized by Europe, but they did suffer from European domination. These countries also demonstrated the spread of the desire for self-determination.
The March First Movement in Korea The small country of Korea had suffered under increasing Japanese influence since the 1890s. In 1910, Japan took control of Korea. After World War I, Japan expected to expand its role in East Asia, just as European states did in the Middle East. The prospect of European support for a stronger Japan, and the mysterious death of the Korean emperor, caused Korean resentment to explode. On March 1, 1919, Koreans began a series of protests that involved as many as 2 million Koreans out of a population of 17 million. The occupying Japanese forces cracked down harshly, killing several thousand Koreans. But the March First Movement demonstrated the power of Korean nationalism.
The May Fourth Movement in China During World War I, China supported the Allies. Britain and France hired nearly 150,000 Chinese to work in factories, dig trenches and do other support work. China hoped that the victorious Allies would support China’s desire to reclaim German- controlled land on the Shandong Peninsula in northeast China. However, Japan wanted the same land. At the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, Great Britain and France sided with Japan. Infuriated, Chinese intellectuals and workers staged anti-Japanese demonstrations beginning on May 4, 1919. The May Fourth Movement symbolized China’s growing nationalism and demand for democracy. Angered by Europe’s support for Japan, many Chinese rejected Western-style government. They turned toward the Marxist model of the Soviet Union. Several May Fourth leaders joined the Chinese Communist Party. In the years after the May Fourth protests, two main groups fought for power: the communists and the nationalists.
• The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was founded in 1921. It was eventually led by Mao Zedong (or Mao Tse-tung), the son of a prosperous peasant, who was inspired by the communist revolution in Russia. Instead of energizing the working classes of Chinese cities, however, Mao believed that China’s communist revolution could be based on the revolt of peasants, who made up the vast majority of China’s population.
• The Chinese Nationalist Party, or Kuomintang, was led by Sun Yat- sen. He was devoted to full independence and industrialization, and he allied with Mao’s forces to free China from foreign domination and overthrow the warlords. Following Sun’s death in 1925, Chiang Kai- shek took control of the Nationalist Party. Chiang was a conservative and had a deep-seated distrust of communism. In 1927, Chiang’s forces attacked and nearly annihilated Mao’s forces, initiating the Chinese Civil War.
The Long March Mao and remnants of the Chinese Communist Party retreated into China’s interior, where for several years they trained in hiding. In 1934, Chiang’s forces again attacked Mao’s army in the rural areas of Jiangxi. After the attack, Mao’s forces began the Long March, a year-long, 6,000-mile long retreat. It traversed treacherous mountains, deep marshes, and extremely dry deserts. Of the 80,000 or more who began the Long March, only 10,000 remained to assemble in 1935 in northern China.
The Chinese Communist Party was weak after the Long March. However, peasants admired Mao and his army’s tremendous stamina and their commitment to their ideals. This support among peasants would later be important for the success of the Communists in winning control of the country.
While the Communists were retreating on the Long March, the Nationalist Kuomintang continued to rule much of China during the 1930s. Chiang, however, had alienated many. Old traditions were losing support, but he advocated Confucianism. When opponents criticized him, he suppressed free speech. When people accused the Nationalists of corruption, he did not stop it.
China, Japan, and Manchukuo In 1935,
the Nationalists and Communists in China suspended their civil war to unite against a more pressing danger: Japan. Seeking access to natural resources on the Asian mainland, Japan had invaded Manchuria in northern China in September 1931. Tensions increased when someone, either Chinese dissidents or Japanese soldiers, attacked a railway owned by Japan near Mukden. When the League of Nations condemned Japan’s actions in Manchuria, Japan gave up its membership in the League and seized more land. In 1932, the Japanese set up a puppet state called Manchukuo. To make Manchukuo seem like an independent Chinese state, it selected the last Chinese emperor to sit on its throne. (Connect: Create a timeline showing the steps Japan took as it moved from isolation to imperialism. See Topic 5.6.)
Japan continued to expand its empire until 1945, the year World War II ended. It seized the Philippines (under partial U.S. control at the time), the Dutch East Indies, British Malaya, Burma, and numerous Pacific islands. Japan termed these territories the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. Although Japan claimed to be liberating people from Western imperialism, people in the region experienced Japan as a conqueror.