Essay Sample on Japan's Pacific Aggression: A History of War and Invasion

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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The Imperial Conference in 1941 pressed the Japanese advance southward with the risk of causing war with the United States and Great Britain. In the same year, Japanese forces, through an agreement with the France Vichy government, started to occupy Southern Indochina. This action made the U.S react by freezing Japanese assets and imposition of oil embargoes. The action of the U.S resulted in cooperation between the Japanese army extremism and the naval command. A policy was later passed concerning the oil embargo and freezing of Japanese assets. The Imperial Conference passed the policy on September 6, 1941, after a failed negotiation oversupply of oil from Dutch of Indochina. The policy involved starting a war with Great Britain and the United States. Japan held a negotiation with the U.S in the same year, where the U.S persisted in making some demands that Japan government could not acknowledge concerning renunciation of Japan from the Tripartite Pact that could have left the country diplomatically isolated. The other demands by the U.S on Japan were to enable an open-door regime for the continuation of trade in China and the withdrawal of its troops from Southern Asia and China. Japan denied the demands and terminated an ongoing negotiation with the U.S in that year.

Despite many victorious battles in the second world war, Japan never ended its war with China as the strategies of Japan had no plans to handle the guerrilla warfare initiated by the Chinese. Also, the Japanese commanders who were in the field were not obeying orders as they continued to occupy Chinese territory, which was against the Imperial headquarters' supreme command. In the first period of the war, the Japanese Army was tied with their ambition of invading China after both France and Great Britain started a war with Germany, which thus opened up opportunities for more Japan victories in the Pacific. Prince Konoe, who was Japanese premier, was encouraged by German victories over France and Netherlands in 1940 to put more attention on the defeated colonies and, at the same time, look at the positions if both U.S and Britain in the Far East.

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 was the motive of Japanese evil actions in the second world war as they looked forward to becoming the dominant power in the entire Pacific Ocean. 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.

Economic Background

In the 1930s, Japan was in the process of emerging from the period of depression, and most of the Japanese soldiers mobilized during the decade came from rural areas where impacts of depression were felt the most. Japan 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 the few 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, the major of its oil was from the U.S and rubber from British Malaya, the nations which are trying to restrict 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 before the second world war in 1937, Japan was drawn into a draining war with China because the Chinese have intensified its resistance over Japan's pressure. Then after the war started in 1940, 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 at the period. At the time of the second world war, the political structure that existed in Japan was inherited from the Meiji era. The military-dominated politics. 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, was a new creation during the second world war. The ideology dates back to the Meiji era whom efforts tried to unite the response of Japan over the Western challenge. At first, before Meiji restoration, the emperor was viewed as a symbol of culture. Still, the ideology changed later as emperor was brought to national prominence were because of patriotic reasons; no one was allowed to speak even the name of the emperor. It was such an ideology that made Japan protect 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 accomplishments from the 1930s. Japanese greatly resented the action of the United States and Great Britain, which vetoed the act of Japan to establish racial equality in the League of Nations Covenant after Australia resisted it and opposition from California. The relation between Japan and the two powers U.S and Great Britain deteriorated, and they decided to form the Axis powers while Great Britain and the U.S formed the Allies powers. The Japanese military was persuaded of the Japanese citizens to sacrifice for the nation, and such military underestimated the will of other nations and was overconfident in their ability. The military thus became rooted in its racial stereotype and its own misleading ethnic stereotype. Japanese entered the war as they saw themselves to less Asia representatives compared to Asia's champion. Hence, they wanted to liberate the colonies of Asia from the western nations who Japan disdained. Japan was in war with other Asia nations like China because the racial prejudice and arrogance of its military government resulted in great resentment.

Strategies and Ways Japan Used to Launch Pacific War

The Japanese military strategy, which evolved vigorously during the war period, 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 was had many islands, small and large; then, on the eastern half, there was the Hawaiian Islands where several unusable bases existed and nearly empty landmasses. More so, the military forces of the Allied powers, notably, the Dutch, British, American, and French in the whole pacific region were approximately 350, 000 troops in the west of Hawaii. Most of the troops were disparate nationalities, and most of them lacked combat experience. The air power of the Allied forces consisted of obsolete planes; hence the airpower was weak.

Conclusion

Finally, 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 from Formosa, which existed in Taiwan. Also, Japanese troops could easily overrun entire Southern Asia, the western Pacific Ocean, and can overrun the Allied forces then acquire the resources of such areas for industrial advantage of the military.