World War II: Japan's Imperial Power

Japan in World War 2 is usually looked as the bad guy when in reality they were a nation faced with economic and political collapse and had little to no choice but in go to war in Asia and the United States. The beginning of the war for Japan lay in european imperial competition in Asia and the quest of modernising nations for wealth and power. Japan's rapid industrialisation, like that of the United States and Europe, require privileged access to resources overseas. To Japan, to be a modern power was to be a imperial power. By the first world war, Japan controlled the Korean Peninsula and the island of Taiwan, and demanded greater access to resources in her neighbor China. Japan's insistence on its interests in China flew in the face of

In 1918, Prince Fumimaro Konoe of Japan wrote that without imperial ambitions, Japan was "to remain always subordinate to the west".In 1928, a strong central government arose in China, Japan was increasingly isolated both politically and economically because of this. As the great depression squeezed resources and ruin economies across the word, many argued that the only way for Japan to progress was to increase its borders. The far east is usually seen as distant or minor compared to the European theatre of World War 2. The war in Asia and the Pacific began in 1931 and there was constant fighting until Japan surrendered to the United States in August 1945. Between 1941 and 1945 alone, the war in the Pacific claimed around twenty four million lives in Japanese-occupied territories, and estimates say three million of those are Japanese, and three point five million more belong to India through war-related famine. Of these victims, the United States and Great Britain casualties numbered around one percent of the total casualties in the Pacific. Such tallies though do not convey the full scale of the

It caused the United States to expand its navy to defend itself and support her allies, this caused the United States to look more sympathetically towards European imperialism. Crucially for the Japanese war effort, the occupation of Indochina was met by crippling economic sanctions from the United States, this effectively cut off Japan's oil and rubber. In late 1940 and early 1941, as diplomacy failed, the argument was voiced in Tokyo that only by war could the obstacles presented by the U.S sanctions overcome. “As Japan's prime minister Hideki Tojo told an imperial conference on November 1941: "I fear that we would become a third-class nation after two or three years if we just sat tight" (TheGuardian) Japan had two options either attack the Americans or fade into obscurity. Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor is considered one of the darkest days in United States history, but to Japan it was considered the last ditch effort for their empire. Japan needed to attack the U.S to try and knock out the U.S pacific fleet in order to discourage the U.S from declaring war on Japan. In all reality it was a gamble for the Japanese government knew they couldn’t fight a total war against the United States, but if they could break the United States spirit then they could win a war before it begins. After the attack Japan destroyed a significant number of the United States Pacific fleet, but no U.S aircraft carriers or