The phrase "imperial period" is not meant to imply that the emperor ruled absolutely in the style of [[Louis XIV]] or a [[Russian]] [[tsar]]; indeed, the emperors relied on [[prime ministers]] throughout this period. Rather, it refers to Japan competing with [[European]] powers and the [[United States]] for colonies and influence during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The high point of Japanese prestige was the [[Russo-Japanese War]] of 1904-5, in which Japan became the principal power in [[Manchuria]] and consolidated its control of [[Korea]] and over the southern portion of [[Sakhalin]] Island and Taiwan. In [[World War I]] Japan fought over a limited number of German-controlled pacific colonies as part of the Anglo-Japanese alliance, gaining control of [[Qingdao]] (Tsingtao), a German-controlled colony in China, as well as several German-controlled Pacific Islands, the most significant being Truk lagoon.
===World War II===
Japan's success at this great game would ultimately prove its undoing. Japan invaded Manchuria in 1931 and set up the puppet state of Manchukuo. In 1933, Japan resigned from the League of Nations. By 1936, during the reign of Emperor [[Hirohito]], the Japanese Empire would adopt the [[Orwellian]] title "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere". The increasingly powerful [[Japanese armed forces]], partly inspired by European [[fascists]], came to dominate Japanese politics, assassinating politicians whom they deemed insufficiently devoted to the Emperor and nation. For the next nine years, the military leadership installed its own members (such as [[Hideki Tojo]], chief Japanese strategist of [[World War II]]) or, occasionally, civilians who were completely identified with their agenda, as prime minister. The Japanese invasion of China in 1937 followed Japan's signing of the "anti-Comintern pact" with Nazi Germany the previous year and was part of a chain of developments culminating in the Japanese attack on the United States at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941.
After years of war, resulting in defeat by the loss of 3 million Japanese lives and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and NagasakiUnited States, Japan signed an instrument of surrender on the [[battleship]] [[USS Missouri (BB 63)|USS ''Missouri'']] in Tokyo Harbor on September 2, 1945. As a result of World War II, Japan lost all of its overseas possessions and retained only the home islands. Manchukuo was dissolved, and Manchuria was returned to China; Japan renounced all claims to Formosa; Korea was occupied and divided by the U.S. and the U.S.S.R.; southern Sakhalin and the Kuriles were occupied by the U.S.S.R.; and the U.S. became the sole administering authority of the Ryukyu, Bonin, and Volcano Islands. Total Japanese military fatalities between 1937 and 1945 were 2.1 million; most came in the last year of the war. Starvation or malnutrition-related illness accounted for roughly 80 percent of Japanese military deaths in the Philippines, and 50 percent of military fatalities in China. The aerial bombing of a total of 65 Japanese cities appears to have taken a minimum of 400,000 and possibly closer to 600,000 civlian lives (over 100,000 in Tokyo alone, over 200,000 in Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined, and 80,000-150,000 civilian deaths in the battle of Okinawa). Civilian death among settlers who died attempting to return to Japan from Manchuria in the winter of 1945 were probably around 100,000.<ref> John Dower, "Lessons from Iwo Jima," ''Perspectives'' (Sept 2007) 45#6 pp 54-56 at [http://www.historians.org/perspectives/issues/2007/0709/index.cfm]</ref> ===Occupation=== Japan was placed under international control of the Allies through the Supreme Commander, Gen. [[Douglas MacArthur]]. U.S. objectives were to ensure that Japan would become a peaceful nation and to establish democratic self-government supported by the freely expressed will of the people. Political, economic, and social reforms were introduced, such as a freely elected Japanese Diet (legislature) and universal adult suffrage. The country's constitution took effect on May 3, 1947. The United States and 45 other Allied nations signed the Treaty of Peace with Japan in September 1951. The U.S. Senate ratified the treaty in March 1952, and under the terms of the treaty, Japan regained full sovereignty on April 28, 1952. The 1972 reversion of Okinawa completed the U.S. return of control of these islands to Japan.
====Current Status====