Meiji Restoration
Japan’s traditionalist feudal government was overthrown in the Meiji Restoration in 1869. A concerted foreign policy moved the Emperor to open up Japan to the ideas of the West: industrialization, modernized warfare, and colonialism: they colonized and consolidated Hokkaido and the Ryukyus. They also intensified agriculture, built railways and developed a strong civil service with the work ethic of retired samurai.
Russo-Japanese War
At the start of the Twentieth Century they defeated the Russians and gained control of Korea and Taiwan (then called Formosa) and foothold in Manchuria’s Liaodong Peninsula in northern China.
World War I
Japan had learned the lesson of Imperialism well from Europe, and when the First World War ensued, they took the opportunity to join the war against Germany, and with little difficulty they took the Caroline, Marhsall and Mariana Islands and the German enclave of Tsingtao on the Chinese coast. The Treaty of Versailles granted Japan the islands permanently.
Sino-Japanese War
The economic upswing of the 1930s, the economic slump and Japan’s increasing population, combined with the initiative of militarist officers caused agitation for new conquests, not unlike the demand for ‘breathing room’ that mobilized Nazi Germany. On the initiative of the army in mainland Asia, the Japanese conquering Machuria and ultimately much of China’s coast and major cities were under their control. The infamous Rape of Nanking was one of numerous atrocities they brought about in their advance.
Prelude to Pearl Harbour
Having established themselves so, they took advantage of the situation in Europe to sign an alliance with the German and Italian fascist governments. When Germany took control of France, the French Indochina colony was conceded to Japan. However, they lacked the natural resources to maintain a large empire. They declared the intention to form an “Asia-Pacific Co-Prosperity Sphere.” Their targets were the autonomous Dutch East Indies and Southeast Asian rubber and oil resources.
Their expansion in China had not gone unnoticed: the sole Western power not involved with war in Europe, the United States, had objected repeatedly to Japan’s aggression, and ultimately signed an embargo against export of oil and scrap iron to Japan, and froze all foreign accounts, forcing them to accelerate their plans. The Americans were the only one of the Western powers which had a naval presence in the Pacific Ocean which the Japanese leadership judged to present a threat to their ambitions. The Japanese looked to their top naval official, Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto, to neutralize that threat. He assembled Japan’s new crack aircraft carriers, and attacked the American Pacific fleet, based at Pearl Harbour, Hawaii, while at almost the same moment, they invaded Thailand, forced the surrender of Singapore, and attacked the Dutch East Indies and the Philippines.
Declaration of War
December 7, 1941, the date of the Pearl Harbor attack, was the culmination of a process of diplomacy, colonialism, commerce, and finally warfare that brought about the rise of the first post-colonial empire, and ultimately, finally, its demise.
Bibliography
“Japan” in Encarta Encyclopedia, Microsoft Inc., 2004.
John Keegan, The First World War, Hutchinson, 1998.
Andrew Wiest and Gregory Louis Mattson, Pacific War, Spellmount, 2001.
Dan and Peter Snow, “Midway” Episode 2: 20th Century Battlefields. Produced by Ben Lawrie. 2007. Available online at: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=E84E8F59DF3BF617&search_query=20th+century+battlefields+midway
Robert Ballard, The Lost Fleet of Guadalcanal, Narrated by Stacy Keach, National Geographic Video, 2001.
