Essay Example on Japan's Aggression: War in the Pacific 1930s-WWII

Introduction

The decision of Japan to declare war and attempting to take over the pacific is the continuation of its earlier aggression, which is traced to the 1930s. At the beginning of the decade, Japan expanded its territories by taking over parts of China through war, and they invaded some territories which were claimed by the Soviet Union. The aggression continued to the fight across the nations of pacific in the second world war. Starting in 1931, Japan established a puppet regime in Manchuria after they invaded the location, which was referred to as the Mukden Incident. Another puppet resembling that of Manchuria was established in Mongolia in 1936. Then after a year in 1937, Japan launched the Second Sino-Japanese war through an invasion of China. The conflict was a three-way war between Japan, Chiang Kai-Shek's nationalists, and Mao Zedong's communists. Later, that war merged with the second world war. The Sino-Japanese War in the history of Asian wars is considered to be the largest war in that century and the major cause of pacific war casualties, as the casualties from that war were 50 percent of the whole victims in the pacific war. Throughout 1940 and 1941, Japan expanded its aggression with invasion in southern Asia, after which they successfully captured the Philippines, Hong Kong, and British Malaya. Japan also took over several oil production zones, such as Cepu, Borneo, Dutch East Indies, Central Java, New Guinea, Sumatra, and Malang.

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Factors that Influenced Japan Decision to Enter the Second World War

Japan saw the opportunity of becoming economically self-sufficient if they acquire regions that contained important raw materials like petroleum, tin, and rubber, which were abundant in colonies such as the British-held Malaya, Dutch East Indies, and French Indochina. The seizure of such natural resources motivated Japanese in the Second World War as they looked forward to becoming the dominant power in Asia. Because Great Britain was confronting the might of Axis alone in Europe as a whole, the strategists of Japan had to count, mainly, with the U.S opposition to their plans to acquire more territories across colonies. In 1940, U.S protested for the action of Japan troops to enter Northern Indochina. Japan decided such invasion after an agreement made in the same year from the Vichy government of France. After such action, two countries, Italy and Germany, recognized the superiority of Japan, and they decided to join together and form the Axis powers via the Tripartite Pact agreement.

The Japanese aggression and guest for power through the Second World War and prior wars were caused by the country's economic background, domestic politics, ideology, and racism.

Economic Background

In the 1930s, Japan was in the process of emerging from the period of depression, and the country then became committed to economic security through the expansion of its territory. In the same decade, the free trade was in disgrace as the great powers protected their economic rights with spheres of influence, and they reinforced their sagging economies with trade manipulations such as high tariffs and dumping of goods. Japanese sought to copy the same protection method, but they faced the problem of scarce natural resources. The few natural resources forced Japan to use cruel trade practices in selling light industrial goods like steel in U.S and East Asia markets, severely undercutting the European manufacturers. Japan also established sources of raw materials in colonies they developed in Manchuria, Korea, and Taiwan. At the same time, the military of Japan faced a tactical problem as rubber and oil were not available in Japan and its area of influence. Instead, most of its oil was from the U.S and rubber from British Malaya, the nations that restricted Japan's expansion. It was the oil embargo placed on Japan by the United States, which triggered conflict between Japan and the Western nations.

Two years earlier the Second World War in 1937, Japan was drawn into a draining war with China because the Chinese have intensified their resistance over Japan's pressure. Then after the war started in 1939, holding the same reason for territorial expansion as a means of developing its economy, Japan started the war in the far south with the French Indochina to get oil and attacked the British Malaya to control rubber. Therefore, it was economic factors which triggered Japan to join the Second World War as they wanted to fight the western nations which were against its guest to control raw materials in different Asian and Western territories. Specifically, Japan was compelled by the American embargo on oil, trade protection, and colonialism. Japanese saw a solution to their economic problem from raw materials reserves in other countries. Japan saw an opportunity to conquer Dutch and British colonies in Southeast Asia with the quest to gain complete control over rubber and oil needed.

Domestic Politics

Japan got involved in the Pacific War and the Second World War in general because of its domestic politics during the period. At the spell of the Second World War, the political structure that existed in Japan was a military-dominated politics which was inherited from the Meiji era. The Japanese military in the period behaved autonomously, and they wanted to be on top position on the Asian mainland, and they had increased authority in home politics. From the start of 1937, Japan invaded China, and by 1941, when they started a war with the United States, the country was in a total war as the military forced their policies on government and the civilians. Japan had an authoritarian government where the prime minister came from the military, and the government had no power to control the economy fully.

Ideology

Ideology is the other contributing factor to Japan's involvement in the Second World War. The Japanese ideology, which was based on the emperor, emerged during the Second World War. The ideology dates back to the Meiji era when more efforts involved uniting the response of Japan over the Western challenge. At first, before Meiji restoration, the emperor was viewed as a symbol of culture. It was such an ideology that made Japan more aggressive in battles as they protected their country and the emperor to an extent where they can give their lives. That is the reason that caused the emergence of several wars. The major goals of Japan in the Pacific War were to seizure natural resources and, at the same time, establish strategic military bases in various parts of the Pacific to defend its empire in Asia and the Pacific Ocean.

Racism

Japanese were proud of their resented racial slurs and several battle accomplishments from the 1930s. Japanese greatly felt aggrieved at the actions of the United States and Great Britain, which vetoed the act of Japan to establish racial equality in the League of Nations Covenant. In the Covenant, the state of California in the United States opposed the action of Japan concerning racial equality. The relation between Japan and the two powers U.S and Great Britain, deteriorated, and Japan decided to form the Axis powers with Italy and Germany. On the other hand, Great Britain and the U.S formed the Allies powers. In the process, the Japanese military underestimated the will of other nations and was overconfident in their ability. The military thus became rooted in its racial typecast and its misleading ethnic stereotype. Japanese wanted to liberate the colonies of Asia from western nations like Great Britain, and the U.S. Japan was in war with other Asian nations like China because the racial prejudice and arrogance of its military government resulted in great resentment.

Strategies and Ways Japan used in the Pacific War

The Japanese military strategy, which evolved vigorously during the Second World War, was based on the Pacific Ocean's irregular geography. Also, the strategy was based on the unpreparedness and the relative weakness of the Allied military that was in the Pacific Ocean. Half of the Western part of the Pacific Ocean contained many islands, small and large. More so, Japan utilized the advantage of few military forces of the Allied powers, notably the Dutch, British, American, and French in the pacific region. The total troops from such nations were approximately 350 000 troops in the west of Hawaii. Most of the troops lacked combat experience. The air power of the Allied forces consisted of obsolete planes; hence the airpower was weak.

On the other hand, the Japanese had well equipped and large armies who were hardened by war with China before the Second World War. The Japanese troops launched coordinated attacks very quickly from their mandated pacific islands, from Japan itself, and Formosa. Also, Japanese troops could easily overrun entire Southern Asia, the western Pacific Ocean, the Allied forces, then acquire the resources of such areas for industrial advantage of the military.

Japan developed a very strong defensive perimeter from western Burma to the northern part of New Guinea and the southern part of Dutch East Indies as part of their war strategy. The fortified perimeter extended to the Marshall Island in the east and south, as well as to the Gilbert Islands. Japanese believed that the counterattack of both British and America against the perimeter could be easily repelled. After that, Japan expected the two nations to seek peace, allowing Japan to keep the newly won empire.

Throughout the end of 1940, the Japanese strategists had assumptions that a new war was to be waged against its enemies with a strategy of attacking only one enemy. But, in 1941, Japan decided to change its war strategy as they decided to wage war with more enemies. The strategy was formulated after it became clear that the Dutch, Americans, and the British must be attacked. Such war plans were then sponsored by Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku, who was the Combined Fleet commander in chief. The plans of Yamamoto prescribed two different operations, which involved the entire strength of his navy. In the first operation, the resources allocated for war were six navy aircraft carriers, eleven destroyers, two battleships, and three cruisers, and it was to wage a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. In the second operation, the navy was to over support to the Japanese Army, who were continuing with operation in the Southern part of the Pacific region. The second operation was allocated with seven tanks regiments and 11 infantry divisions with assistance from 795 combat planes. Two drives were undertaken in operation, one from Hainan Island and French Indochina via Malaya and the other from Formosa via the Philippines with a plan to converge at Dutch East Indies. The two drives intended to capture Java as a base of 150 days for the campaign.

Japanese did not invade the Soviet Union even after most of the Red Army got destroyed by Germany. Instead, their war strategy was inclined toward invading the United States by waging war on Pearl Harbor. The invasion was directed to U.S pacific fleet at the harbor, which President Roosevelt had moved forward to Pearl Harbor. Japan's strategy was to smash the fleet as part of its battles in the pacific region. They wanted to weaken Americans, to stop them from preventing their ambitions to take over various resourceful nations in the pacific region.

Japan saw no benefits in negotiating with the United States in 1941. As a result, the country strategists started to set motion several war plans and strategies that could be waged on both the United States and Great Britain. The plans were to support an existing war effort between Japan and the Allied Powers. The Allied Powers, such as Great Britain and Australia, were supported by the Far Eastern colonies and the United States...