December 13
1931 Inukai Tsuyoshi (1855-1932) of the Seiyukai party became Japanese prime minister.
Inukai briefly served in the Meiji administration, but became an outspoken critic of the government and its domination by politicians from Satsuma and Choshu (the so-called hanbatsu faction). He was elected to the Diet in 1890 and served until his death. Inukai fought for constitutional government and for universal male suffrage. As prime minister, he inherited the depression-era economy and international criticism of Japan's seizure of Manchuria. He attempted to spend Japan out of the depression, but was killed in the May 15 (1932) Incident when junior navy officers attacked the government, vainly hoping to prompt army officers to join them in a military takeover. This incident marked the end of party-led governments in prewar Japan.
1937 Japanese forces captured the Chinese capital at Nanjing. These forces engaged several weeks of wholesale rape and slaughter, a tragedy remembered as the "rape of Nanjing."
Estimates vary on the number of people killed, maimed, or molested during this period. Many believe that approximately 200,000 were killed. Hata Ikuhiko, writing in the August 1998 issue of the online magazine Japan Echo analyzes the various "body counts" included in descriptions of the atrocity, concluding that between 40,000 and 60,000 Chinese civilians were killed. In this piece he also criticizes Iris Chang's 1998 bestseller, The Rape of Nanking for exaggerating the carnage as well as reviewers, such as Orville Schell, dean of the UC Berkeley School of Journalism, who lauded the book.
1941 Japanese forces moved into the British colony of Hong Kong. The Japanese took the mainland portion of the colony (the New Territories and Kowloon) and the British retreated to Hong Kong island.
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© 2001 UCLA Center for East Asian Studies