Quick questions on Militarism in Japan explained: N(A)-Level History

In the 1920s Japan was a modern, industrial country with an emperor and an elected government. But Japan had important weaknesses. It was crowded, with a fast-growing population, and it was poor in natural resources such as oil, coal and iron, which it needed to import to keep its factories running. This dependence on trade and imported resources made Japan very vulnerable when world conditions turned bad.

The Great Depression of the early 1930s hit Japan hard. As world trade collapsed, other countries raised trade barriers and bought fewer Japanese goods, so Japanese exports fell sharply. Factories closed, workers lost their jobs, and farmers suffered terribly as prices fell. This economic misery caused great anger and made many Japanese lose faith in their civilian politicians, who seemed unable to solve the crisis.

The army offered a clear answer to Japan's problems: expansion. Army leaders and nationalists argued that Japan should seize territory on the Asian mainland, especially areas rich in the resources Japan lacked. Controlling such land would give Japan raw materials, room for its growing population, and the status of a great empire. To a country suffering from the Depression and dependent on imports, this promise of resources and greatness through conquest was very attractive.

The decisive step was the army's invasion of Manchuria, a resource-rich region of China, in 1931. Importantly, the army largely acted on its own, without proper permission from the civilian government. The invasion succeeded, and the conquest was popular at home because it seemed to provide the land and resources Japan wanted. This had two effects.

Explain why hardship, nationalism and the army's success led to military domination, rather than only telling the story.