Second World War: Japanese Warfare

World War II brought great tension between two of the strongest countries during the 1940s: the United States and Japan. Conflict started with Japan’s push past Chinese borders into Manchuria in search of the natural resources that Japan needed. The United States avoided military action with Japan and instead decided to stop economic trade. One of these measures was the Neutrality Act, which prohibited the sale of weapons to nations at war (Nash 513). The United States tried several maneuvers on Japan; they placed oil embargos to force Japan to shut down military operations in China. The US was focused on economically destroying Japan while Japan was planning a surprise attack on the US. Japan. Completely unaware of what the Japanese were

On December 7th, 1941, Japan used the paralysis of peace of the U.S to make them successfully attack Pearl Harbor; after that it was a turning point of World War II. Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor symbolized and marked the outbreak of the Pacific War, Japan 's attack on Pearl Harbor, while implementation of the "south", to launch a comprehensive attack on the South-East Asia, defeated the United States, Britain, the Netherlands East Indies in the Far East more than 300,000 troops, have occupied Thailand, Malaya, Burma, the Philippines, the Netherlands East India, some islands of Hong Kong and the Western Pacific, seized 3.86 million square kilometers of land, control of the 150 million population and wealth of strategic resources in the region, Asia-Pacific battlefield in full swing.

With racist propaganda floating around of Japanese soldiers with giant sharp teeth, such as Tokio Kid. Along with the fact that thousands of Japanese-Americans were forced into internment camps, what immigrant would trust such a government. The answer is surprisingly a lot of them, the image of the Japanese being the enemy was burned into the heads of everyone. Young Japanese-Americans were given the option to fight in the war for the same people who put them in labor camps. No one is going to join the Americans right? Wrong, a good majority of the young Japanese signed up to fight for Uncle Sam, and those who refused found themselves in a jail. After the war there were two different views from the Japanese-Americans: either they no longer identified as Japanese and wanted to be more American; or there were those who were still loyal to the Japanese Empire and are in the US for the money. The former, which mostly consisted of younger immigrants, saw those who didn’t fight in the war as worthless scum, calling them no-no boys. There was a smaller group of extremists who believed that Japan had won and there were boats on the way to bring all the true Japanese home, these people were typically older immigrants. First generation immigrants are more resistant towards assimilation and feel a stronger connection to their home country, than their second generation American-Japanese children exposed to American ways and ideas.

This confrontation between Japan and the United States impacted the battles to come in the Pacific. History has proven the island of Midway to be an important base for many operations during World War II. Had the United States lost this battle, the war may have reached a different outcome.

On the morning of December 7, 1941, the Japanese dispatched an astonishment air assault on the U.S. Naval Base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. After only two hours of bombarding, more than 2,400 Americans were dead, 21 boats had either been sunk or harmed, and more than 188 U.S. airplane pulverized. The assault at Pearl Harbor so insulted Americans that the U.S. deserted its arrangement of nonintervention and proclaimed war on Japan the accompanying day - formally bringing the United States into World War II. The Japanese were sick of arrangements with the United States. They needed to proceed with their development inside Asia however the United States had put a greatly prohibitive ban on Japan in the trusts of controlling Japan 's hostility. Arrangements to explain their disparities hadn 't been going admirably. As opposed to offering into U.S. requests, the Japanese chose to dispatch an astonishment assault against the United States trying to pulverize the United States ' maritime power even before an authority declaration of war was given.

A. Up until the Battle of Midway, the Japanese ruled the seas in the Second World War. This, however, changed when the United States dominated them at the Midway Atoll (Hone, par. 1-3).

The Japanese didn't understand how the allies could so easily surrender with no shame or dishonour as they believed that you were either to be killed in the war or commit suicide if captured. This is why they were overwhelmed by the amount of prisoners they had to put in camps. In February 1942 there was 15,000 ‘Australian’ POW, and by mid-1943 only 2,500 remained. In May 1444 Changi had a total of 5,000 Australian POWs of the 11,100 prisoners; who were all crammed into less than a quarter of a square kilometre. In Selarang Barracks, the POW’s camps, unlike others, resorted to commanding officers of the allies (who were also prisoners) to taking care and controlling what happens in the camp.The POWs were given supplies and food and left till

A study designed to produce a bomb that no one has ever developed before. This destructive device would change the outcome of war for the rest of eternity. The topic of the bombing of Japan continues to divide historians on the view of ethics. Some say it opened doors that should have been kept closed and left alone, and others say it would have been immoral to not have used the bombs to end the war. This was an atomic reactor that could wipe out a country if needed to. This bomb was used to protect the United States of America during World War II, and lead us to our Second World War victory. The nuclear activity affected many people physically, emotionally, and especially health wise. Many people are still recovering from

Across the world, on the Pacific Front, Japan was waging a war that followed the samurai code of “bushed.” This way of life basically called for “taking of no prisoners.” Japan fought from island to island, using every last man. The Japanese government instructed their soldiers to kill themselves rather than be taken by the Americans. Such acts as the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the Death March showed America what kind of foe they were

When Philips, known as Phil, and Zamperini reached the Marshall Islands, the Japanese immediately captured them. A new journey had begun for them, and it was not going to be any easier. Before they knew it, they were becoming prisoners of war. They were beaten, interrogated, forced to take unknown medication for experimental purposes, enslaved, and most importantly mentally tortured. It was the job of the Japanese guards to make them feel weak and useless individuals to the point where dignity was completely lost. Bouncing from one P.O.W. camp to the next, the food and berthing conditions were unfathomable. Updates of the war were next to impossible to receive. As Phil and Zamperini were eventually separated to different camps, it took everything Zamperini had to maintain his mental strength. Surviving on a raft was one thing, but surviving while being tormented by the enemy was an entirely different ballgame for them. All humanity was lost in this part of the war, and there was no international law that could save them from this torture. Since the suspense was clearly already as high as it gets, Hillenbrand made it even more thorough by interviewing several men from various P.O.W. camps throughout Japan. Hearing the different stories and perspectives added more reality to my wild imagination of what a P.O.W. camp would look like. It also served as a reminder of everyone else who was going through this hell, rather than remaining focused only on Zamperini’s journey. This

Throughout history, many major events have occurred and they have changed the world and its countries as we know them today. One of the major events that has happened and is known internationally, is the second World War, a confrontation mainly between Germany, Italy, and Japan in the axis side, and Great Britain, France and the Soviet Union in the allies side, which had many more countries involved. Even though those were the major countries involved at the beginning, one major turning point in war was when the United States was brought into war, which probably changed how the war ended by American intervention. The attack on Pearl Harbor is what mainly triggered the action into being involved at war from the U.S. (Unfinished Nation, p612), and from that point on, the Japanese were treated very different, with discrimination and exclusion for many years (Identification Records, p1), and many concentration camps were created to maintain control over the Japanese outside and inside of the United States (Enemy Aliens, p1).

On December 7th 1941 the United States was hit with an attack from the Japanese known as the attack on Pearl Harbor. The United States had absolutely no way to see this attack coming. As a result the United States entered WWII. Our precedent in the war made a gigantic impact on those fighting. An impact that still remains to this day.

“I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve”

perfect example of the Japanese battle attitude. Japanese pilots would strap themselves into planes loaded with explosives and fly them into American ships. By the war’s conclusion the Japanese kamikaze attacks had sunk 3 aircraft carriers, damaged 285 craft and sunk a total of 34. The Japanese also did well in increasing support for the war effort. “Both scientist and publicists were in fact powerful instruments inflaming popular hatred against the democratic countries and in regimenting the people into blindly supporting the war of aggrandizement (Ferrell 16).'; This resolve would only have been strengthened had American and Russian forces tried to invade Japan. This almost suicidal type of fighting would have resulted in a tremendous amount of casualties for both sides. American casualties alone were projected at 500,000. The amount of deaths caused by an invasion would easily dwarfed those of the atomic bombings (Purcell 82).

Many people argue that the nuclear bombs were not necessary because if given time japan would have surrendered but contrary to popular belief Japan would not have surrendered without a final attack from the allies of some kind. At this point in the war Japan was in an economical and military crisis and their defeat was inevitable. The question of the Japanese defeat was not if but when.