Fumimaro Konoe - Prime Minister and War With China

Prime Minister and War With China

In June 1937, Prince Fumimaro Konoe became Prime Minister of Japan. Saionji had recommended Konoe to Emperor Hirohito despite his hesitations, because he felt that the Prince might be able to keep the Imperial Japanese Army in check and protect the position of the Emperor. One month after he came into office, Japanese troops clashed with Chinese troops near Peking in the Marco Polo Bridge Incident. The Kwantung Army and its homeland allies saw this as an opportunity to seize northern China. Konoe yielded to pressure and dispatched three divisions of troops, admonishing the military to be sure not to escalate the conflict. The Army had no such intention, however, and within three weeks it launched a general assault.

Prime Minister Konoe began to realize that he was in a very difficult predicament. Much as he wished to contain the conflict, even considering personal diplomacy with Kuomintang Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek, he and his cabinet feared that Japanese troops would not respect any peace agreement. He was also unsure that Chiang could control his own forces. In August, Chinese soldiers murdered two Japanese marines in Shanghai. Konoe agreed with Army Minister General Hajime Sugiyama to send two divisions to defend Japanese honor. His cabinet then issued a declaration, accusing both nationalist and communist Chinese of "increasingly provocative and insulting" behavior toward Japan. The declaration ended:

In this matter, the Chinese have contemptuously inflicted every sort of awful outrage upon Imperial Japan…. Imperial Japan has at long last exhausted its patience and is now compelled to take resolute action to punish the atrocious Chinese army and to bring the Nanking government to its senses.

These incidents became the basis for a full-scale war against China. Fellow Cabinet members describe Konoe as remarkably passive during their discussions of how to respond to the Chinese. Konoe's biographer suggests that his subject was shocked by how little control he had over the military, and at how factional the military itself was. One member confided to his diary, quoting Konoe, "Right now the civilian government is too weak to do anything. Worse, the military is so divided that we do not know who to deal with…."

In December, Imperial General Headquarters, a structure completely autonomous from the elected government, ordered its forces in China to drive toward Nanking, the Chinese capital. Nanking was captured within a few weeks, after which the Army committed the infamous Nanking massacre. Such aggressive moves were received exuberantly by an elated public and press, inspired in part by the National Spiritual Mobilization Movement, as the Army seemed invincible.

Konoe's biographer reports that the seizure of Chiang's capital left "the entire nation… lightheaded over the victory." This was the apex of Japanese military success in China, and the government's peace proposals to Chiang were suitably ambitious:

• China would provide diplomatic recognition of Manchukuo.
• Chiang would cease cooperating with the communist forces, and join Japan in combating communism.
• China would agree to continued Japanese occupation in certain critical areas.
• China would allow local government in North China that would facilitate "co-prosperity" between Japan, Manchukuo, and China.
• China would pay reparations.

Chiang refused the terms put forth by the Japanese.

Frustrated, Konoe's government announced in January 1938 that it would no longer deal with Chiang, but would await the development of a new regime. When later asked for clarifications, Konoe said he meant more than just non-recognition of Chiang's regime but "rejected it" and would "eradicate it"., Meanwhile, Konoe and the military pushed a National Mobilization Law through the Diet. This allowed the central government to control all manpower and material.

Japanese victories continued at Hsuchow, Hankow, Canton, Wuchang, Hanyang – but still the Chinese kept on fighting. Konoe was not the only one to be frustrated; the Army wanted a settlement so that it could transfer more troops to the north in order to be prepared for combat with the Soviet Union. Attempts were made to establish a puppet Chinese government, under Nationalist defector Wang Ching-wei, but this also proved unsuccessful. Konoe, stating that he was tired of being a "robot" for the military, resigned in January 1939, and was appointed chairman of the Privy Council. Kiichirō Hiranuma succeeded him as Prime Minister. Konoe was awarded the 1st class of the Order of the Rising Sun in 1939.

Konoe was also discouraged over his failure to negotiate an end to the conflict in China, having broken off the Trautmann Mediation with Chiang. This action was also of great importance for the Communist Party of China, as it has been argued that following the Nanjing Massacre Chiang's failure to break off the Trautmann Mediation led to the perception that the entire Kuomintang was weak.