WORLD WAR II IN THE PACIFIC

- On December, 7th / 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor (an American naval base in Hawaii)

- WW II ended up being two wars: the war in Europe and the war in the Pacific.

- Some historians have said that the Emperor Showa (Hirohito) was much involved. Even though the Emperor was the head of state, he was not held guilty by the Allies in 1945.

- Japan’s clear aim was to conquer Asia. Some historian have also suggested that Japan’s aim was to liberate Asia from western domination.

- Historians argue that Japan had been continually provoked and mistreated by the West.

- As with Germany in Europe in the 1930s, Japanese aggression has been seen by many historians as the main cause of war in the Pacific.

JAPANESE RELATIONS WITH THE WEST

- For 200 years, the Japanese remained separate. Politically, economically and socially, Japan functioned as a feudal state until the arrival of Commodore Perry, in 1853.

- Commodore Perry was determined to negotiate with the Japanese to open up to American requests for trading and refueling stops.

- The Japanese were impressed by Perry’s American gunboats, the government tried to buy time, and Perry agreed to return in one year with more gunboats.

- China had tried to resist Britain in the Opium Wars (1839-1842 / 1856-1860) but it was continuously humiliated and forced to sign a series of unequal treaties.

- The Treaty of Kanagawa (1854) gave USA what it had wanted, but more significantly it “opened up” Japan to the outside world.

- In 1868, Emperor Meiji (Mutsuhito) started to modernize his country. Japan rapidly industrialized and sent its youngsters to be educated abroad. A new modernized army was developed with the introduction of conscription. (Meiji Restoration)

- Japan proved its modernization program during the first Sino-Japanese war (1894-95).

- Only general and admirals could be appointed ministers for the army and navy from 1900, this meant the government had a military influence.

- In 1902, the Anglo-Japanese Alliance was signed. If either power was attacked by two other states, the first would come to help. Britain was heavily involved in the development of the Japanese Navy.

- Japan’s second victory was over Russia (1905), which competed with Japanese interest in Manchuria (Manchukuo). Admiral Togo Heichachiro destroyed the Russian fleet.

- The Russians were forced by the Treaty of Portsmouth to recognize Japan’s paramount political, military and economic interests in Korea.

- Japan became the first non-European nation to be considered by the west as a world power.

- In 1910, Japan formally annexed Korea. Japan had inspired the respect of the West and the admiration of other Asian countries.

JAPAN AND WORLD WAR I

-Japan demanded German colonial possessions in China, when the demand was ignored Japan declared war on Germany.

-Japan also issued China with “Twenty-one Demands” in January 1915. This would’ve turned China into a Japanese protectorate. The international reactions were hostile. The USA was the most critical.http://thediplomat.com/2015/01/china-japan-and-the-21-demands/ http://www.firstworldwar.com/source/21demands.htm

JAPAN AND VERSAILLES: A “MUTILATED VICTORY”

-Japan (a victorious power) demanded for the German Pacific territories and the inclusion of a racial equality clause. The USA was sympathetic to the Chinese delegates’ request for the reversal of gains made by Japan. Nevertheless, Shandong remained in Japan’s hands.

- The Four-Power Pact and the Five Power Naval Treaty (1922) supported Japanese expansion in the region. However, the Nine Power Pact (1922) (USA, Britain, China, Japan, Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and France) agreed to respect China’s sovereignty.

THE LIBERAL 1920S: A PEACEFUL JAPAN?

- Hara´s government led Japan into the League of Nations. The government fell into economic difficulties as the wartime boom ended in 1920.

- WWI had made Japan the industrial center of the East. The profits Japan made from WWI were not well invested, much was spent on funding various Chinese warlords who didn’t pay back their debts.

- The printing of extra money hit the bank system.

- After Hara’s assassination, by a right-wing extremist, in 1921, Japan had 19 Prime Ministers until the appointment of Hideki Tojo in 1941.

- Different ministers tried to fix the economical problems with little or no success.

- Hirohito became emperor in 1926. The government introduced social and economic reforms.

- Osachi Hamaguchi became the new Prime Minister in 1929.

- Hamaguchi attempted to cut by limiting expansion, and cutting military salaries by 10 per cent.

- The military criticize the government.

- Hamaguchi was shot in November 1930 and he died from his injuries in April 1931.

JAPAN AND THE SHORT-TERM CAUSES OF THE PACIFIC WAR: “THE DARK VALLEY”

-As the military gained more and more influence, so Japan became more aggressive. The increasing power of the military led Japan down the road to war. The attack of Manchuria resulted from a plot devised by the Kwantung Army, not the Japanese government.

-The creation of Manchukuo had not been part of government policy, but it was accepted. The army continued with Jehol. -The relations between Japan and the Western democracies deteriorated in the 1930s due to:

- The West was alarmed by the bombing of Shanghai in 1932.

- Japan left the LON (in 1933) after the council accepted the Lytton Report.

- In 1934, Japan unhappy because of having an inferior navy than the USA, pulled out of the Washington Naval Treaty and refused to attend another conference.

SINO-JAPANESE WAR (1937 – 1945): NO RETREAT

-In May 1933, Japan signed a truce with Chinese nationalists, which led to relative peace until 1937. The military, however, were pressuring for expansion in northern China.

-The trigger for the war between Japan and China in 1937 was a clash of the two forces at the Marco Polo bridge in Beijing.

-The nationalism was running too high on both sides, and the fighting spread.

-The Japanese had entered the war with no clear plan of how to end it, and a war on this scale required vast quantities of men and resources.

-Japanese forces captured Shanghai in November 1937. They moved up the Yangtze River and laid siege to Nanjing. They finally took Nanjing in December and then perpetrated the “Rape of Nanjing”.

- With the tension increasing in Europe, Britain and France did not want to become enmeshed in a conflict in Asia. America was also unwilling to get involved, although, the USA verbally condemned Japan’s aggressions.

- During the attack of Nanjing, Japanese forces sank the USS Panay, the Americans accepted the apologies and compensation on behalf the Japanese government (so did the British when the HMS Ladybird was attacked).

- The USA began to take a harder line in 1938, and in December started to give aid to China. In July 1939, the Americans cancelled the Commerce and Navigation treaty with Japan.