Asian Studies

By the late 19th century, Japan embarked on an ambitious quest to become a world power equal to the western nations such as Britain, France, Germany and the United States.  It aspired to become the first Asian superpower equal to the west.  One way it had proven itself powerful was through war and conquest, first by easily defeating the erstwhile powerhouse in the region, China and nearly 10 years later, Russia. These victories enabled Japan to acquire their territories and spheres of influence which further enhanced its image and stature on the world stage. Japan even sided with the Allies during the First World War hoping to gain more concessions.  Unfortunately, the only concession they could not get was to be treated as an equal by the western nations.  This also showed during the reduction of their armed forces where the Japanese were made to reduce more of their forces compared to the western powers as demonstrated in the Washington Naval Treaty on 1922.  This made the Japanese upset and resentful towards the west, feeling they were being marginalized.

This was further exacerbated when the Great Depression came along in the 1930s as economies around the world collapsed and these nations adopted a protectionist stance by stopping exports and imports.  Japan was greatly affected since its land is not rich in natural resources and greatly depended on these imports.  It also did not help that Japans food production could not keep up with its growing population as well as the shortage of land to occupy.  The crisis was so great that Japans democratic government failed to address these problems, thus paving the way for the militarists to take over.  Once they were in power, they offered a very drastic solution to Japans problems   aggression (Craig, 2007).  They plan to conquer Asia to be able to acquire its natural resources and provide living space for its growing population.   They invoked nationalism to motivate and get the Japanese people to support them, using the emperor (Hirohito) as their rallying point and that the Japanese are a divine race and should be masters of Asia.  In 1931, the Japanese attacked and occupied Manchuria and it was from here that Japan would embark on the road to conquest through war and later end that quest in disaster for them when the emperor ordered the cessation of hostilities following the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by atomic bombs.

Road to Conquest
Japans road to conquest began in 1931 with the occupation of Manchuria. Japanese forces based there provoked the Chinese into a shooting war giving the Japanese the pretext to fully take over the region which they would rename Manchukuo and install the deposed last emperor of the Qing Dynasty (Henry) Pu Yi as puppet ruler of this region. Following the occupation of Manchuria, the Japanese renewed their conflict with China in what would be known as the second Sino-Japanese War (Boyle, 1972).  The Japanese occupied most of China except the western regions and proceeded to rule over the Chinese with repression, especially in the city of Nanjing where they committed gruesome atrocities that appalled foreigners living there.  They also bombed major population centers like Shanghai to flaunt their supremacy and brutality against the Chinese which they now considered inferior to them.  Their expansion north was checked by a very powerful Soviet that was not the same as they had fought in 1904 and 1905 in the (first) Russo-Japanese War (Batty, 1973).

Japanese aggression in East Asia did not go unnoticed around the world and several countries, led by the United States, imposed an embargo of raw materials to Japan to get them to halt their aggression.  Instead of bowing to international pressure, the Japanese remained defiant and withdrew from the League of Nations and directed its attention on the resource-laden region of Southeast Asia.  It wanted to secure the  rice bowl  region of Southeast Asia and Indonesia which is rich in oil that was vital to its industries.  Standing in the way of the Japanese were the western powers that were the colonial masters of the region such as Britain (Malaysia and Singapore), the Netherlands (Indonesia) and the United States (Philippines).  The Japanese decided to launch a surprise attack hidden in diplomatic overtures to give an appearance that the Japanese were keen on maintaining the peace in the region.  Then they struck when they attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.  A few days later, they attacked the British Navys flotilla, sinking the warships Prince of Wales and Repulse. From here, and without the British and American navies to challenge them, they launched an invasion on Southeast Asia and the islands of the South Pacific which fell one by one to their aggressive and relentless attack though several put up stubborn resistance such as Wake Island and the Philippines which had upset the Japanese invasion timetable.  Except for the tenacious resistance put up in places like Wake Island, Bataan and Corregidor in the Philippines, the Japanese victories in Asia destroyed western prestige which was underscored by the fall of Singapore, regarded as an impregnable fortress in Southeast Asia (Barber, 1968).

When the Japanese began their invasion of Southeast Asia, they attempted to pass themselves off as friends of the Asians, selling the idea of  Asia for the Asians  and enjoining them to take part in the Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere where all Asian nations should share in their resources to benefit everyone.  This was also intended to foment resentment and hatred towards their western colonial masters which backfired as these Asians were more loyal to their colonial masters.  It also did not help when the Japanese began to show their true colors in trying to make them part of the Japanese empire by requiring them learn Japanese and even bow to sentries posted along streets under the pain of death.  Japanese efforts to win over the Asians were dashed when their troops began committing countless atrocities in the occupied territories that even the Nazis were appalled by it.  Several of these Asian nations organized resistance movements to challenge the Japanese occupation while being covertly aided by the Allied powers (Wolfert, 1945).

The Tide Turns
By 1942, the momentum of the Japanese offensive sputtered to a halt, starting with the battle of the Coral Sea where the US Navy forces checked the Japanese advance into Australia which ended in a moral victory for the Allies.  In June of that same year, the Japanese once again went on the offensive, this time it would be Midway Island which would put them within striking distance of American territory (Hawaii) and sent their Mobile Strike Fleet, the Kido Butai, the same flotilla that attacked Pearl Harbor to action.  Fortunately for the Allies, they discovered the movements Japanese and intercepted them, resulting in the loss of their precious aircraft carriers which was their main offensive punch and thereby checking their expansion eastward though the Japanese managed to secure parts of the Aleutian Islands (Prange, 1972).  The Allies scored another moral victory when they intercepted and downed the aircraft carrying Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, one of the chief architects of Japans war effort.  His death left a vacuum no one could fill as far as directing Japans war efforts was concerned.

The Allies began to go on the offensive with its  island-hopping  campaign in the Pacific theater while similar operations were being carried out in the western part known as the China-Burma India theater where Allied troops fought side by side with Chinese and Indian forces to undermine the Japanese occupation of mainland Asia under the British Admiral Louis Mountbatten.  The Pacific theater was jointly run by Admiral Chester Nimitz from Pearl Harbor and General Douglas MacArthur from Australia.  Gradually, the Allied forces were taking back lost territory despite the very stubborn resistance put up by the Japanese in defending their conquered lands as though it were Japanese territory itself and the closer the Allies were getting to Japan, the more difficult it became and this showed when American forces invaded the remote Japanese island of Iwo Jima which cost thousands of American lives and took more than a month to secure.  This would be repeated in the island of Okinawa where a similar and much greater resistance was expected.  Furthermore, the Japanese began to unleash a surprise in the form of the Kamikaze attacks where combat aircraft would deliberately crash into Allied ships and destroy them. Despite the heavy casualties, the Allies still prevailed.

After experiencing the tough and fanatical to the point of suicidal resistance of the Japanese, Allied leaders predict that the casualty rate would be far greater if they attempt to invade the Japanese Home Islands.  Even though the leaders in the theater of operations were getting ready for the most challenging offensive (that would never take place).  A decision in Washington was made to employ a new weapon   the atomic bomb, which was dropped in Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 and another in Nagasaki three days later. A few days later, Emperor Hirohito spoke to his people in an uncommon move never done before.  He told his people to  bear the unbearable.   He was implying they surrender without trying to make them lose face, a very important trait among the Japanese (Batty, 1973).  On September 2, 1945, representatives of the imperial government signed the article of surrender aboard the USS Missouri before the assembled military leaders of the Allied forces presided by General MacArthur.  A few days later, Allied troops, mostly Americans, landed in Japan to begin the surprisingly peaceful occupation and the slow road to recovery which would bear fruit 20 years later.