Prologue to war <\/p>\n
The European war presented the Japanese with tempting opportunities. After the Nazi attack on Russia<\/a> in 1941, the Japanese were torn between German urgings to join the war against the Soviets and their natural inclination<\/a> to seek richer prizes from the European colonial territories to the south. In 1940 Japan occupied northern Indochina<\/a> in an attempt to block access to supplies for the Chinese Nationalists, and in July 1941 it announced a joint protectorate with Vichy France<\/a> over the whole colony. This opened the way for further moves into Southeast Asia<\/a>.<\/p>\n The United States<\/a> reacted to the occupation of Indochina by freezing Japanese assets and embargoing oil. The Japanese now faced the choices of either withdrawing from Indochina, and possibly China, or seizing the sources of oil production in the Dutch East Indies. Negotiations with Washington were initiated by the second Konoe<\/a> cabinet. Konoe was willing to withdraw from Indochina, and he sought a personal meeting with Roosevelt, hoping that any U.S. concessions<\/a> or favors would strengthen his hand against the military. But the State Department<\/a> refused to agree to such a meeting without prior Japanese concessions. Having failed in his negotiations, Konoe resigned in October 1941 and was immediately succeeded by his war minister, General T\u014dj\u014d Hideki<\/a>. Meanwhile, Secretary of State Hull rejected Japan\u2019s \u201cfinal offer\u201d: Japan would withdraw from Indochina after China<\/a> had come to terms in return for U.S. promises to resume oil shipments, cease aid to China, and unfreeze Japanese assets. With Japan\u2019s decision for war made, the negotiators received instructions to continue to negotiate, but preparations for the opening strike against the U.S. fleet<\/a> at Pearl Harbor were already in motion. Japan\u2019s war aims were to establish a \u201cnew order in East Asia,\u201d built on a \u201ccoprosperity\u201d concept that placed Japan at the center of an economic bloc consisting of Manchuria<\/a>, Korea, and North China that would draw on the raw materials of the rich colonies of Southeast Asia, while inspiring these to friendship and alliance by destroying their previous masters. In practice, \u201cEast Asia<\/a> for the Asiatics,\u201d the slogan that headed the campaign, came to mean \u201cEast Asia for Japan.\u201d<\/p>\n Early successes <\/p>\n The attack on Pearl Harbor<\/a> (December 7 [December 8 in Japan], 1941) achieved complete surprise and success. It also unified American opinion and determination to see the war through to a successful conclusion. The Japanese had expected that, once they fortified their new holdings, a reconquest would be so expensive in lives and treasure that it would discourage the \u201csoft\u201d democracies<\/a>. Instead, the U.S. fleet was rebuilt with astonishing speed, and the chain of defenses was breached<\/a> before the riches of the newly conquered territories could be effectively tapped by Japan.<\/p>\n Battle of Midway<\/a>Panoramic combination of two photos depicting the Battle of Midway. After being struck by Japanese bombs, the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown is burning while the cruiser USS Astoria (CA-34) passes in the background, June 4, 1942.(more)<\/p>\n The first years of the war brought Japan great success. In the Philippines<\/a>, Japanese troops occupied Manila<\/a> in January 1942, although Corregidor held out until May; Singapore<\/a> fell in February, and the Dutch East Indies<\/a> and Rangoon (Burma) in early March. The Allies<\/a> had difficulty maintaining communications with Australia<\/a>, and British naval losses promised the Japanese navy further freedom of action. T\u014dj\u014d grew in confidence and popularity and began to style himself somewhat in the manner of a fascist leader. But the U.S. Navy<\/a> had not been permanently driven from the South Pacific. The Battle of Midway<\/a> in June 1942 cost the Japanese fleet four aircraft carriers and many seasoned pilots, and the battle for Guadalcanal<\/a> Island in the Solomons ended with Japanese withdrawal in February 1943.<\/p>\n Japan on the defensive <\/p>\n After Midway, Japanese naval leaders secretly concluded that Japan\u2019s outlook for victory was poor. When the fall of Saipan in July 1944 brought U.S. bombers within range of Tokyo<\/a>, the T\u014dj\u014d cabinet was replaced by that of Koiso Kuniaki<\/a>. Koiso formed a supreme war-direction council designed to link the cabinet and the high command. Many in government realized that the war was lost, but none had a program for ending the war that was acceptable to the military. There were also grave problems in breaking the news to the Japanese people, who had been told only of victories. Great firebombing raids in 1945 brought destruction to every major city except the old capital of Ky\u014dto; but the generals were bent on continuing the war, confident that a major victory or protracted battle would help gain honorable terms. The Allied talk of unconditional<\/a> surrender provided a good excuse to continue the fight.<\/p>\n In February 1945 the emperor met with a group of senior statesmen to discuss steps that might be taken. When U.S. landings were made on Okinawa<\/a> in April, the Koiso government fell. The problem of the new premier, Admiral Suzuki Kantar\u014d<\/a>, was not whether to end the war but how best to do it. The first plan advanced was to ask the Soviet Union<\/a>, which was still at peace with Japan, to intercede with the Allies. The Soviet government had agreed, however, to enter the war; consequently, its reply was delayed while Soviet leaders participated in the Potsdam Conference<\/a> in July. The Potsdam Declaration<\/a> issued on July 26 offered the first ray of hope with its statement that Japan would not be \u201censlaved as a race, nor destroyed as a nation.\u201d<\/p>\n The end of the war <\/p>\n Atomic bombs<\/a> largely destroyed the cities of Hiroshima<\/a> and Nagasaki<\/a> on August 6 and 9, respectively. On August 8 the Soviet Union declared war and the next day marched into Manchuria, where the Kwantung Army could offer only token<\/a> resistance. The Japanese government attempted to gain as its sole condition for surrender a qualification for the preservation of the imperial institution; after the Allies agreed to respect the will of the Japanese people, the emperor insisted on surrender. The Pacific war came to an end on August 14 (August 15 in Japan). The formal surrender was signed on September 2 in Tokyo Bay<\/a> aboard the battleship USS Missouri<\/a>.<\/p>\n USS Missouri: Japanese surrender<\/a>Japanese representatives, including Foreign Minister Shigemitsu Mamoru (with walking cane) and Gen. Umezu Yoshijiro (front right), on board the USS Missouri during the surrender ceremonies, September 2, 1945.(more)<\/p>\n Military extremists attempted unsuccessfully to prevent the radio broadcast of the emperor\u2019s announcement to the nation. There were a number of suicides among the military officers and nationalists who felt themselves dishonored, but the emperor\u2019s prestige<\/a> and personal will, once expressed, sufficed<\/a> to bring an orderly transition. To increase the appearance of direct rule, the Suzuki cabinet was replaced by that of Prince Higashikuni Naruhiko<\/a>.<\/p>\n Postwar investigators concluded that neither the atomic bombs nor the Soviet entry into the war was central to the decision to surrender, although they probably helped to advance the date. It was determined that submarine<\/a> blockade<\/a> of the Japanese islands had brought economic defeat by preventing exploitation of Japan\u2019s new colonies, sinking merchant tonnage, and convincing Japanese leaders of the hopelessness of the war. Bombing brought the consciousness<\/a> of defeat to the people. The destruction of the Japanese navy and air force<\/a> jeopardized the home islands. By the end of the war, Japan\u2019s cities were destroyed, its stockpiles exhausted, and its industrial capacity gutted. The government stood without prestige or respect. An alarming shortage of food and rising inflation threatened what remained of national strength.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prologue to war The European war presented the Japanese with tempting opportunities. After the Nazi attack on Russia…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4186,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[185,184,183,182,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-4476","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-japan","8":"tag-article","9":"tag-britannica","10":"tag-encyclopeadia","11":"tag-encyclopedia","12":"tag-japan"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4476\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}