Japan's Defeat in World War 2 Flashcards
Strengths of the USA (Economic Strength)
The USA was the largest industrial producer in the world at the time. Although, the USA mostly produced goods for consumption instead of military equipment, it was able to quickly switch over to military production. After the economic crisis of the Great Depression, the USA had many unemployed people who were eager to work. These citizen proved to be better workers than forced labour preferred by the fascist states.
Strengths of the USA (Military and Naval Strengths)
Critically for Japan, the Pearl Habour attack did not totally destroy the USA’s capacity to retaliate in the Asia Pacific. Three aircraft carrier of the US Pacific Fleet were not at Pearl Habour during the attack. There were also three key events which proved that Japan had failed to break the USA’s resolve: the Doolittle raid on Tokyo, the Battle of the Coral Sea and the Battle of Midway. The sea battles in particular helped to stall Japan’s advance throughout Southeast Asia.
The US showed its military might through continued aerial bombings of mainland Japan. A quarter of Tokyo was destroyed, with 250,000 buildings destroyed and 185,00 civilians killed. Over 8 million civilians fled to the countryside. The flight of its workers and destruction of its factories brought Japan’s economy to the brink of collapse
Ineffective defense of overextended Japanese Empire
By 1942, Japan occupied almost the whole of Southeast Asia, which was a larger territory for the Japanese forces to manage. The Japanese Empire had overstretched itself, and it was difficult for the Japanese forces to maintain and defend the newly occupied Southeast Asia territories. Key military defeats by the Allies decimated the number of experienced Japanese pilots and aircraft carrier. Japan struggled to keep up the war effort with its limited funds, resources and manpower.
Ineffective defense of overextended Japanese Empire (Key military defeats experienced by the Japanese)
The Japanese military continued to face strong opposition from the Allied forces and were defeated in several key battles in its attempt to defend its empire such as Guadalcanal and Solomon Island, The Marianas Island, the Philippines, Iwo Jima, Okinawa. These battles inflicted heavy damage to the strength of the Japanese military and weakened its ability to effectively defend the empire.
Desire of Allies to secure a quick victory in the Asia Pacific
In its attempt to defend its empire, the Japanese turned to forced labour and the use of Kamikaze fighters. However, both approaches actually worked against it, and made the Allies even more determined to fight and end the wat quickly.
Desire of Allies to secure a quick victory in the Asia Pacific (Liberation of Allied Prisoners-of-war)
Prisoners of war were used as forced labours in the Japanese war effort. The Japanese army had police units called Kempeitai, which specialised in torturing prisoners. Japanese hostility towards Allied POWs was frequenttly highlighted in Allied Propaganda, and strengthened the determination of Allied Powers to end the war to liberate the POWs and the Japanese occupied territories.
Allied victory in Europe
The Japanese depended on the continued success of Hitlers armies in Europe to distract the Allies. Once the Allies defeated Germany, Japan lost its major partner in the war. By this time, Japan was alone in facing the Allies. Even before Germany’s defeat in May 1945, it was obvious to the leaders of both Japan and the Allies that Japan could not hope to win the war.
Allied victory in Europe (Demand for unconditional surrender)
The Allies demanded Japan’s unconditional surrender to avoid the situation that existed after WW1. They feared that if Japan was humiliated by a peace settlement but remained in control of its militarist elite, it would try to rise again and seek revenge just like Germany. The Allies were enraged by the stories of Japanese atrocities, especially against their POWs. Many of them resented the Japanese and wanted to see them totally defeated. As far as the Allies were concerned, it seemed that Japan was determined never to surrender. Japanese leaders could not bring themselves to reveal their weakness to the Allies, let alone accept unconditional surrender.
Dropping of the atomic bomb
As the war in the Asia Pacific became increasingly violent, the Americans considered using the ‘bomb’ to end the war once and for all. The US also sought to impress the Soviet Union, and defeat Japan without Soviet help. The Soviets played a major role in the liberation of Europe, and was occupying half of Europe when Germany surrendered. The US hence wanted to gain an edge over the Soviet Union by being the first to use the atomic bomb successfully.
Dropping of the atomic bomb (Hiroshima and Nagasaki)
On 6 Aug 1945, an American bomber fly over Hiroshima and dropped the atomic bomb ‘Little Boy’. The USA announced to the world the discovery of the atomic bomb and repeated its demand for Japan to ‘surrender unconditionally. Stalin declared war on Japan the following day. Japan’s leadership still did not surrender immediately. On 9 Aug 1945, the USA dropped the second atomic bomb ‘Fat Man’ over Nagasaki. Finally, on 15 Aug 1945, the Japanese Emperor announced his country’s unconditional surrender to the Allies.
Desire of Allies to secure a quick victory in the Asia Pacific(Minimise Allied losses from Kamikaze attacks)
The practice of Kamikaze refers to suicide mission by Japanese air pilot against the Allied ships with the intention to inflict maximum damage. The Allied Leaders were worried that the continued kamikaze attacks could result in an extremely high number of casualties, so they wanted to bring about a quick end to the war to minimise losses
