Japan Before Emperor Hirohito
Before Emperor Hirohito had become the Emperor of Japan, his father, who is now known as the Taisho Emperor, had started the expansion of Japan into the Japanese Empire. Under the Taisho Emperor, World War I and the first Sino-Japanese War had both taken tolls on Japan. World War I had pitted Japan against Germany. However, this opened the way for Japan to wage war on China to start expanding Japan. World War I had created an unstable economy in Japan, which created problems for the Taisho Emperor, and later, Emperor Hirohito, who is now known as Emperor Showa. An economic depression had started due to urbanization. People from the countryside had started moving into larger cities, such as Tokyo. However, during this period, the Taisho period named for the Taisho emperor, Japan had started to become a major world power and had started to become more liberal overall. The government had also experienced a large shift towards a larger representational government. Internationally, Japan had started to conduct treaties with Western nations in order to acknowledge Japan's interest in Korea, Manchuria, and China. This all lead way into Hirohito's reign as Emperor.
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