Japanese Nationalism

By the end of World War I, Japan could rightfully expect to be treated as a major power.
Respected as a legitimate power since its victory over the Russians in the RussoJapanese War of 1904 through 1905, Japan had now proven itself on a much larger stage.
Almost single-handedly, it had cleared German interests from East Asia and put down
mutinies of British garrisons in Asia. Additionally, Japanese ships had sailed into the South
Atlantic to pursue German U-boats, and even landed in Russia to attempt to contain the
Russian Revolution so the Western Allies could focus on defeating Germany.
Additionally, the material needs of Japan's allies meant that manufacturing and
industrialization took off quickly, propelling Japan to industrial parity with Western states.
In short, Japan had done everything that could be expected of a first-rate power. All the
while, Japan had worked to expand its own influence in the East Asian world.
After all, since the 1910 invasion of Korea, Japan was an empire in its own right, with
significant other island holdings throughout the Pacific. Now, as the rest of the world was
busy, the Japanese used their relative strength in the region to ensure that they would gain
special treatment in China, especially Manchuria and Inner Mongolia.
Western Betrayal
Such contributions had not gone unnoticed by the Western powers. Japan was rewarded
with legal possession of its gains made during the war and was given additional powers at
the newly formed League of Nations. However, within a decade those attitudes had shifted.
America especially had been wary of Japan's expansion in China. In fact, when the
Japanese had proposed to head west and commit more forces to defeating the
Communists in Russia, it had been the Americans who protested loudly enough to
convince them to withdraw their army.
By the time of the Washington Naval Conference, those attitudes found their way to the
paper of the treaty. The conference proposed limits on the world's navies. The British and
Americans, each having interests in two oceans, were allowed a significant margin of ships
on Japan. For every five ships that either Britain or America had, Japan could only have
three.
Obviously, this meant that the Americans and the British, by now closer than ever before,
could potentially project many more ships in the Pacific than the Japanese could. Problems
plagued Japan's empire, as well. The Koreans were resentful for being under the control
of the Japanese, who treated them very badly.

Stability through Strength

Japanese resentment toward the West soon transformed into protests, and conservative
elements of Japanese society saw this as an affront to their power. Between those revolts
and the perceived insults from the West, increasingly conservative groups were voted into
power. As if that weren't enough, by 1930 Japan's economy was in a recession. Japan had
depended on its manufacturing plants to supply much of its economic growth, and much
of what was manufactured was destined for export.