foreign policy. Great-power cooperation proved
singularly ineffective in China and certainly did
not reduce either that country’s internal conflict
or its anti-imperialist feelings. Good relations with
the US were seriously harmed by the passage of
an immigration law in 1924 which excluded the
Japanese, further strengthening the military view
that the US had become Japan’s most likely
enemy. The rise of Chinese nationalism and
Chiang Kai-shek’s thrust to the north in 1926
were seen as threats to Japan’s position in
Manchuria.
The new emperor, Hirohito, whose reign
began in December 1926, chose Showa, ‘enlight-
ened peace’, as the name of his era. But the
domestic and international difficulties besetting
Japan were to make the coming years a period of
war and violence.
1
THE EMERGENCE OF JAPAN, 1900–29 85
