Jap Just Before Entering World War II

By the start of the great depression Japan had already began losing several major trading partners. Therefore their number of exports had decreased drastically, leaving many Japanese people unemployed . Famine had also began to take it's effect due to rice crop failure. To make matters worse Japan was running out of natural resources putting a halt to their industrial revolution. So in 1931 Japan invaded Manchuria, China in hopes to start creating an Asian empire and obtain more resources such as oil, rubber and slave labor. As Japan began invading more areas of China and Asia they took pride in their successful war leaders and developed a collective consciousness of their military accomplishments. Soon the Japanese government was military operated and their passion and dedication to nationalism had

After the world war I allied countries had signed the treaty of Versailles. Japan had felt left out because it wanted to include a part about racial equality. They felt that they weren't being treated equally. So Japan had started to take control and conquer land in southeast Asian countries. They wanted to spread their rule and race. The U.S. didn’t agree with Japan’s action and over the years tension has developed between the two countries. Japan bombed Pearl Harbor because of their nationalist mindset, America’s embargo of oil, and the fear of being attacked by the United States because of its growth.

Japan was a very nationalistic country in which the purpose of the civilians was to fight until death for their emperor. This was evident in the fact that they had practiced an extremely nationalistic concept of Bushido. This concept made surrender unacceptable for all Japanese people and they lived to die for the emperor. There nationalism was fueled by the fact that they won 2 large battles (Sino Japanese War and Russo Japanese war) against larger countries. Along with this, the Japanese also had Kamikaze pilots who suicide by deliberately crashing planes into American warship as a tactic of fighting. This extreme nationalism shows that they could not be fought with regular weapons and so posed a threat for the whole world.

Although Japan changed in many ways from 1853 to 1941, there were also many factors that remained the same throughout the history of Japan. One such continuity was the maintained existence of a figurehead ruler controlled by other political authorities. The feudalistic emperor of Japan was the supposed “highest, most powerful authority” in the land, but was actually controlled by the military leaders- the shogun. Similarly, the militaristic emperor of Japan decades later continued to remain a figurehead ruler controlled by military and government officials. In addition, Japan continued to remain reliant on exports in order to maintain its economy. As a result of Japan’s small geographical size, the island nation had few natural resources and was forced to rely on exports to survive economically. The nation also grew increasingly reliant on other nations to provide materials and supplies that it could not provide for itself. This complete reliance on other nations was seen illustrated when the Japanese military was provoked to attacking another superpower- the United States, in response to the 1940 United States embargo

In the present, Japan is a military and economic superpower with strong influence. However, it was not always like this. In the early 1700s, Japan isolated itself from the world and greeted foreigners unfortunate enough to shipwreck in Japan with hostility. In the 1850s, the United States attempted to make contact with Japan to establish a treaty. The U.S. knew even though Japan was hostile, it was weak compared to a western power. Although the U.S. was stronger than Japan, it was nowhere close to being as strong as other western powers such as Brittan or France and was struggling to keep up. Japanese hostility, U.S. power struggles, and Japan’s isolation all led to the inevitable Japanese and U.S. conflict.

During this time there was a lot going on. A few years before, between the time 1937 and 1941 Japan owned most of the land of East and Southeast Asia. When the attack of the United States in December of 1941 at Pearl Harbor, this caused the United States to enter the war. Japan did not have enough resources to fight against the United States and Britain causing them to be pushed out of the land of East and Southeast Asia (Basic Information of the Bomb). The then president at the time FDR died in February 1945, which leads to Truman becoming the new president soon after.

By 1941, Japan needed raw materials, space and respect. Japanese land was never rich with natural resources so japan had to import everything

Japan was going off the rails by taking over the different countries and trying to make a mark as being the new order of the world. They took Manchuria, East Asia, tried to take the Philippines and then started having fear of the fleet ships tripling their size and being moved to Pearl Harbor. U.S. had but a embargo on Japan because of their actions and this gave Japan a indignant feeling also the U.S. had freezed all of Japan's assets and bank accounts in the U.S. so with that happening Japan had told the U.S. to unfreeze their bank accounts and assets are they would attack them. The U.S. laughed and didn’t believe them until it had finally happened which shocked the U.S. government and which they waged war upon Japan.

Japan was a very chauvinist civilization. They believed they were better than anyone else on earth. Japan needed oil. At the time the U.S was one of the world’s largest oil suppliers, and Japan’s main source of supply. They needed to oil to pursue the war in China. The U.S put pressure on Japan to try to change their mind on the war in China. The U.S was banning a variety of resources one by one in order to get Japan to quit their war in China. They of course didn’t like what they U.S had to say, so we eventually cut off their oil supply. They obviously did not like that and hated America for it. So they bombed Pearl Harbor on that dreary December morning. It caught the U.S by surprise, which is why it stuck to America’s heart and started the Second World War. No matter what all happened back then, thankfully things worked out for the better, and we are now allies with

Majority of the Japanese economy was based off of exporting silk goods and when the price of silk dropped tremendously the Japanese became an economic state. Because of Japan lack of natural resources and their vast growing population size they needed to expand into another country. From this point on there was no stopping the Japanese; they aggressively attacked country after country with no plan to stop. The United States knew of the attacks that happening but yet did nothing about it because they wanted to try and stay neutral. Even when the United States encoded the Japanese plan to attack on Pearl Harbor the Americans did nothing.

On December 7, 1941 Japanese planes and submarines delivered a surprise attack on the United States naval and air bases at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The next day, with the support of Congress, President Roosevelt declared war on the country of Japan. This event marked the beginning of America’s involvement in World War II. Because of the Japanese nation’s small size, many people question why they decided to attack Pearl Harbor when so much could’ve gone wrong. The attacks major aims was to hold up the United States fleet long enough to keep them from interfering with Japan’s conquests. This included the Japanese strategies to expand their empire worldwide, the quest for desired resources, and plans to make sure military procedures were safe to move forward.

Withdrawal of the U.S navy: Japan was forced to open borders, they were influence by other cultures, they eventually lost the tradition.

Why Did Japan

Leading up to 1941, many countries were in all-out war because of World War II. One of these countries, Japan, was seeking to “dominate Southeast Asia for political and economic reasons” (Bruce and Cogar 1). They wanted to take revenge on the Allies and the rest of the world because of how they were treated at the peace negotiation after World War I. They felt they were ignored or excluded by the other superpowers of the

“Suddenly, in the early morning of December 7… the carriers released their planes, each stamped with a red sun representing the Japanese flag, swept down on the unsuspecting American naval base… dropping torpedoes and bombs.” President Roosevelt described Pearl Harbor as “a date which will live in infamy,” and launched the neutral United States into World War II. As every AP United States history textbook states, Japan suddenly attacked Pearl Harbor. Yet each book fails to mention a comprehensive explanation behind Japanese motives, such as Japanese politics, nationalism, and the divided nation. Although Pearl Harbor had one of the most significant impacts on the war, not much was mentioned from the Japanese perspective. If the United States adhered to their policy of neutrality, given the exceptions of the Lend Lease Act, shooting German u-boats at sight etc., why would the Japanese illogically decide to provoke the US? Every coin has two sides, and I wanted to learn about Japan’s perspective, instead of accepting the simplistic one sentence explanation I learned previously. This book certainly did not fail my expectations, for it provided a timeline of the complex year for Japan, detailed the failures of the government, the warring government officials, and thoroughly explained the decision behind why Japan decided to wage an unwinnable war, further slimming their chances of victory by inciting the United States to join.