Outbreak of WW2 in the Asia Pacific

Background to Japan’s rise to power

MHC

M: Meiji restoration of 1968

HC: Historical and cultural legacies

Meiji restoration brought about great industrialisation and

modernisation to Japan. Japan’s military and economy
strenghten. Emperor was most powerful fella, closely supported
by the military.

Japan culture made it open to strong military leaders

influencing political events. They got honour-based shogunate
act. Best thing to do in a war was to die, and the most
dishonourable act was to surrender. Influenced how japan
reacted to threats of war and relations with other countries

Japan’s ambition to establish itself in Asia & Europe

RACtArpw

R: Conflict with russia

- russia think big fk. Lose v japan. Japan get control over
south manchurian railway, southern sakhalin & liaodong
peninsula. First time asian country win. Source of pride
A: Alliance with britain
 - mutual recognition of interest. GB: India. JP: korea. Seen
as a way of establishing Japan as a world power
C: Conflicts with china
- 1st war, lost taiwan and korea.
- Taiwan ran like a colony.
- Created economic projects that mainly benefited JP
t: twenty-one demands (wanted china to become a puppet-ish)
A: Worsening relations with America (USA nvr think JP equal)
r: American racism against Japanese (KR-JP exclusion act.
Save job for themselves)
p: Paris peace conference (JP wanted equality. US would not
pass w/o unanimous agreement. GB and Aus nvr approve)
w: Washington naval conference (had to reduce naval strength.
Felt it was unfair and biased against them)

Crisis in Japan
EOM

● Economic crisis
- farmer no land grow crops and earn profit
- Farming methods were labour-intensive and slow
- Shortage of rice, led to much discontent.
- Japs lost faith in their government
- Great depression. Demand for Jap exports, esp main
export, silk. Died down
- TGD caused protectionism amongst UK and US. This
meant that there was growing opposition to free trade and
increasing restrictions and taxation of jap exports

● Overpopulation
- As population grew larger, demand for housing, goods and
products also increase.
 - Fed japan’s growing expansionist ambitions as occupation
of more territories meant access to more resources as well
as space for relocating its citizens

● Growth of military influence in Japan

- Bad political climate, military attempted to gain more
power
- The rise of militarism played a big role in its expansionist
ambitions and aggressive actions towards other nations
- Assasination of PM tsuyoshi inukai led to martial law
- Military essentially controlled gov. Cabinet was 10 military
figures and 5 political party members
- Politicians granted concessions to military to prevent
further political violence

Further expansion on militarism

● 1932 May 15 incident
- Assasination of PM inukai and attempted coup by naval
cadets and officers
- This intimidated civilian government into granting military a
greater role in government

● 1936 February 26 incident

- Another attempted coup. This time they wanted to remove
power from politicians, whom they saw as corrupt
- Claimed they wanted to restore power to empire
- Irrespective, emperor refused to support rebellion, failing it

Japanese expansionist foreign policy

EA

E: Expansion into asia

 - Japan had limited resources and had to rely on trade to
import essential resources like oil
- TGD made it difficult for Japan to obtain the raw materials
it needed from markets it did not control due to prtectinism
- Taiwan gave japan sugar, korea defend japanese isles
and provide cotton and wool. Manchuria to defend korea,
and to provide a source of minerals and wheat. Also
provided land to sustain growing population
- Militarism steered expansionism, as jap wanted to be seen
as equal as western powers (have colonies and holdings)
- Success of economic development from occupied
territories encouraged further conquest

A: Greater east-asia co prosperity sphere

- Wanted to dominate all of asia for economical gain and
support expansionist efforts
- Manchurian model would apply to all. Have jap advisors
and defended by jap military. Puppet local elite rulers
- Sought to expand to SEA due to rubber and oil, which far
east asia did not have
- Rubber and oil were crucial to war machine
- Many in the region were unsatisfied with european colonial
rule, and were receptive to Japan’s idea in hopes eventual
independence

Weaknesses of LON
MS

M: Mukden incident
- Manchuria was both economically and strategically
important to japan.
 - Good source of raw materials for japan’s growing
industries. Also provided market to sell products
- Also defend korea
- Strong position for future expansion into China,
given manchuria’s geographical location
- Bomb exploded near japanese owned railway in
mukden 18 sept 1931
- Army blamed chinese nationalists and demanded
government action
- Full-scale invasion next day. China occupied with
civil war
- Army Set up satellite state of Manchukuo. Jap
government recognize new state
- Great powers refused to recognise.
- LON set up lytton report
- Found that Japan went far-beyond self defence
- Motion was raised to condemn japan as an
aggressor. However, jap delegation at LON walked
out of assembley and formally withdrew from LON
soon after. League was unable to impose its will on
Japan.

S: Second Sino-japanese war

- Marco polo bridge incident
- China appealed to LON to intervene, western
powers unwilling to get involved as they were
occupied with developments in Europe due to Hitler
- Western powers only began providing aid to China
after the rape of nanking
Japan’s response to world developments in the
1930’s

FEP

F: American foreign policy changes

- The 1937 Neutrality Act gave the japanese the
expectation that they had a free hand in their war
against China
- American public opinion sided with China. FDR
followed accordingly to adjust
- He used Japan’s aggression to justify aid to China
- In 1939, he cancelled the 1911 commercial treaty
with Japan, thus placing restrictions on Japanese
trade with the US.
- When Japan occupied vietnam in 1940, FDR went
further and imposed a trade embargo on Japan
- This formally banned the export of steel, scrap iron
and fuel to Japan.
- These resources were essential to support the
japanese war effort in China, and made the control
of oil-rich countries in SEA even more attractive
E: War in Europe
- Outbreak of war in europe meant that SEA was left
defenseless
- War in europe created an opportunity for japan to
take place of the declining powers in the region.
 - French indochina and malaya and SG became easy
targets

P: Attack on pearl harbour

- Roosevelt had hoped that the embargoes against japan
would force it to end the war in China and limit its
expansion
- Jap politicians could not afford to back down.
- Emperor feared anger and power of military factions, and
did not want to embarass himself nor endanger japanese
imperial interests
- Navy and army chiefs convinced prime minister that war
against US was unavoidable.
- Their hope was a quick, ‘ knockout’ blow against the USA
and rapid expansion southwards would convince the
americans to negotiate for peace
- The target of this ‘knockout blow’ was the American pacific
fleet in Pearl Harbour, Hawaii. It was moved there as a
deterrence to Japanese aggression.
- The american pacific fleet had the necessary sea and air
power to control the asia-pacific region and could defend
SEA. Thus, they attacked it to ensure that they would be
able to rapidly expand without fearing the wrath of the
Americans.