Mr. Hill study set 10 2024-2025 (WWII - Japan)

Militarists Control Japan

In Japan, a Germany, the treaty of Versailles and Great Depression helped undermine the national political system. Japanese military officers believed that Japan was distend to dominate East Asia, that they were racially superior to other nationalities, and that Japan was straying from traditional beliefs. They blamed the country's problems on corrupt politicians, democratic parliamentary government, capitalistic greed, and influence of Western Culture (Europe and the US). These army officers were ultranationalist; ultranationalism is a political term describing an extremist form of nationalism in which a country exerts dominance though war and violent means (an example being the Nazis). These officers believed Japan was a nation of destiny, chosen by heaven to dive the rest of the region and control Asia. These Generals wanted to combine the ancient warrior traditions of the samurai with fascism (extreme militarism, totalitarianism, and racism).

Hideki Tōjō (The Razor)

High-ranking Japanese officers including Hideki Tōjō were concerned that the island nation lacked raw materials for its economy and augured that seizing territory was the only way to obtain the natural resources, especially, oil, rubber, and iron as well as food that was needed especially for Japan’s military. Hideki Tōjō (1884-1948) was a zealous militarist and ultranatinalist who despised western influence in Japan and believed in expansionist foreign policy, proposing conquest of China, Manchuria, and South East Asia in order to achieve raw materials. Military planners wanted to build an empire in China, Indo-China, and the Western Pacific, and the Japanese parliament and Prime Minister were to weak to stop them. These Ultranatinalists believed that the US and Great Britain were conspiring to subjugate Asian nations and felt war with the US was inevitable. Hideki Tōjō was the most capable, ambitious, and ruthless and of these army officers he would raise to become war _ in 1940 and Prime Minster in 1941.

Emperor Hirohito

By October 1931 though intimidation and assassination, the Japanese military took control of the government while the emperor was mealy a figurehead. Although he was considered to be a direct descendant of a Japanese g-d and a revered figure in Japan Hirohito was a weak, highly impressionable,and indecisive ruler who was easily manipulated by dominating, strong-willed military officers. Although this cadre of young officers saw themselves as modern-day samurai devoted to the emperor, they took advantage of the shy studious scholarly awkward Hirohito to pursue their own version of expansionist empire. Moreover, despite the fact that these military leaders believed Hirohito was the divine ruler of Japan, they were the power behind the throne directing the affairs of the state. The Military dictatorship created a totalitarianism state basted on ultranationlism and the belief that Japan was destined to pursue a divine mission to rid Asia of colonialism and imperialism brought about by Europe and the US.

Japan invades Manchuria and China

In September 1931, the Japanese army invaded Manchuria, a resource rich region of northern China, and easily defeated local warlords. In 1937, the Japanese army invaded Nanking (modern day Nanjing) and committed violent atrocities in terror campaigns. Japanese soldiers killed indecent became known as the Rape of Nanking or the Nanjing Massacre; it is considered one of the worst war time atrocities in modern Asian History. Fighting was brutal, massacre of civilians was commonplace during the Japanese conquest of eastern China; between 3-11 million Chinese were killed by Japanese forces. President Franklin Roosevelt condemned the Japanese invasion of China. After seizing much of China by 1940, Japan shifted its attention to the European Colonies in East and Southeast Asia and their source of raw material. The collapse of France and the Low Countries, including the Netherlands, in 1940 the beginning of WWII left French Indochina and the Dutch East Indies virtually defenseless.

Greater East Asia- Prosperity Sphere

In July 1940, the Japanese military government announced a plan to create a “new world order in greater Asia.” Proclaiming “Asia for Asiatics,” Japan moved to establish the “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere,” an appeal to Asians who wanted to rid their country of European colonial rule - but Japan wanted control instead. Great Britain, France, and the Netherlands had extensive colonies in the region and since 1998, The Philippians, Guam, and Wake had been territories of the U.S.. After gaining a foothold in northern Indochina (modern day Vietnam) Japan invaded southern Indochina.

FDR Restricts Trade in Japan

To hinder Japanese aggression in, Asia in July 1940, FDR began applying economic pressure in retaliation and restricted trade of key strategic materials on which the Japanese war machine depended on - scrap iron, steel, rubber, and aviation fuel. Furious at the U.S. for the trade embargo, the Japanese singed the Tripartite Pact with Germany and Italy on September 27, 1940 becoming a member of the Axis. The Tripartite pact was aimed specifically at the U.S., each nation pledged that to go to war with any country that declared war on the other two, thus guaranteeing the U.S. would have to fight a two front war with the three countries.

Tensions Escalate With Japan

On July 24, 1941 Japanese colonies invaded the French colony of Indochina (present day Vietnam), directly targeting British colonies in Asia. FDR demanded that the Japanese withdrew- not only from Indochina but also China. In response FDR froze all Japanese financial assets in the U.S., placed an embargo (official ban) on oil, and sent General Douglass MacArthur to the Philippians to over see U.S. forces there. In October 1941, Tōjō, the War Minister of Japan became Prime Minister. In Washington DC, negotiations between American and Japanese officials were begun in November to peacefully settle the crisis over the embargo and Japanese expansionism; by late November the talks had settled.

Japan decides to go to war

With its war absent China in jeopardy of failure due to lack of raw materials - especially oil and rubber - the Japanese planed to attack the resources rich British and Dutch colonies in southeast Asia. They also decided to seize the Philippines which was protected by the U.S. and attack the American home base Pearl Harbor. In November 1941, Japan’s military leaders coerced Hirohito to go to war with the U.S. because they believed the U.S. stood in the way of expansion into the east. Therefore Japan’s military leaders sought to destroy the U.S. Pacific fleet, allowing the Japanese empire to expand across the breath of the Pacific. Admiral Isoroku Yomamoto, the commander of the Japanese Imperial Navy devised a plan to destroy the American Pacific fleet at its base in Pearl Harbor on the island of Oahu in Hawaii.

Admiral Isoroku Yomamoto

Isoroku Yomamoto (1884-1943) was born to a samurai family and graduated at the top of his class from an imperial Japanese naval academy; then he studied at Harvard where he learned English fluently. He knew the enemy better than many others in his country, due to his time in the U.S. doing activities such as hitchhiking. Creative and unconventional, and highly respected for his intelligence and cunning Isoroku Yomamoto was a brilliant tactician; he was an avid gambler, who almost quit the military to become a gambler, and his battle plans often took enormous risks. Isoroku Yomamoto had an affair with a geisha. Isoroku Yomamoto defied ultranationalists in the army and opposed war with the U.S. because he knew about their industrial might, proclaiming “In the first six to twelve months of the war with the United States and Great Britain, I will run wild and win victory after victory. But then, if the war continues after that, I have no expectations of success.” However, once Tōjō decided to go to war with the U.S., Yomamoto was chosen to formulate a plan to defeat the American Navy. Yomamoto was the mastermind behind an audacious plan to launch a surprise attack on the U.S. Navy at Pearl Harbor. Although most American and Japanese leaders believed Pearl Harbor to be an impregnable citadel and safe from attack, Yomamoto did not agree. However Yomamoto warned government leaders about the danger of awakening a “sleeping giant” - the U.S.> Yomamoto’s plan was based on a new aggressive navel doctrine centering on aircraft carriers.

Evolution of Aircraft Carrier

The first aircraft carriers were built during WWI, and by the 1930s several nations, including Japan and the U.S., relisted the potential of aircraft carriers. With the evolution of navel aviation technology, the development of more advanced aircraft (including the Japanese Zero), and the creation of new navel _ based on the aircraft carrier, a new age was dawning in naval tactics. As a result, aircraft carriers were transformed from reconnaissance ships to the most formidable offensive weapons, capable of launching long-ranged mass squadrons of various airplanes (fighters, dive bombers, and torpedo planes) to attack a target. Dive bombers from aircraft carriers could destroy any surface ship signalling the end of the age of the Battle ship and the predominance of the aircraft carrier.

Attack Plan

Yomamoto convinced Japan’s military leaders that fighters and bomber taking off from aircraft carriers and equipped with newly - designed torpedoes for use in shallow water could effect a successful surprise on the American Pacific fleet in Pearl Harbor. Yomamoto gambled that a fleet of aircraft carriers could cross the Pacific undetected and deliver a devastating blow to the U.S. military. By 1941 the Japanese Navy was the most powerful in the world with eleven carrier forces (carriers supported by cruisers, destroyers, and submarines) and a tradition of not being defeated in a navel battle in nearly 350 years. The U.S. only had eight aircraft carriers distributed between the Pacific and Atlantic.

Pearl Harbor Surprise Attack

In late November 1941, six Japanese aircraft carriers, two battle ships, several other war ships, and two dozen submarines set out for Pearl Harbor, the Navel base in Hawaii. The Fleet traveled undetected for 3,500 miles until it was 250 miles north west of Oahu; ironically Yamamoto remained on his battleship in the bay of Hiroshima.