OVERVIEW
Japan, faced with overcrowding and a shortage of raw materials, aspired to build a vast empire to establish themselves as a world power. Japanese expansion began in 1931, when Japanese troops stormed into Manchuria in northeastern China and began a prolonged battle with the Chinese that strained the Japanese economy. Japan expanded its goals to include gaining access to resources in the plentiful colonies of Southeast Asia, including the American colonies of Guam and the Philippine Islands. The American government began aiding Chinese resistance against the Japanese and eventually severed oil shipments to Japan after the Japanese invasion of French Guam. On December 7, 1941, after growing tensions between Japan and the US, a Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor devastated the US Pacific Fleet, leaving some 2,400 Americans dead and more than 1,000 wounded. After the attach, the Japanese went on to conquer more than 1 million square miles of land, many of it former American and European colonies. Japan's massive gain of power threatened the US, and many Americans wanted revenge for Pearl Harbor. The first American bombs dropped on Japan did little damage, but turned the tide of the war as America finally entered the global combat. The vast Japanese empire became increasingly difficult to control, and the Allies, for the first time, were able to successfully stop Japanese southward expansion during the Battle of the Coral Sea. After the success of the Battle of Midway for the Allies, the Allies decided to take an offensive position against the Japanese. General Douglass MacArthur lead the Battle of Guadalcanal on an island in the Solomon islands were the Japanese were building a large air base. This battle was grueling, torturous, and deadly, lasting 6 months. Finally, the Japanese abandoned what they came to call "the Island of Death", leading to another Allied victory.
10 BEST ARTICLES
Lead by Lieutenant Colonel James H Dolittle, the bomb strikes on Japan in 1942 were unlike any the world had even seen before, and sent the message to the world that Japan could and would be targeted by the Allies. This article tells the story of the Dolittle Raiders. " Making do and hoping for the best defined everything about the raid, said Col. Mark K. Wells, a professor of history at the United States Air Force Academy. Unlike the specialized elite teams that are typically honed for dangerous, high-profile missions in today’s military, Colonel Doolittle’s fliers were mostly enlisted men and officers with ordinary training who had raised their hands at a time of national crisis and volunteered to go."
An in-depth summary of the Battle of Guadalcanal and its affects on World War II "Strategically, this campaign built a strong foundation on the footing laid a few months earlier in the Battle of Midway, which had brought Japan's Pacific offensive to an abrupt halt. At Guadalcanal, the Japanese were harshly shoved into a long and costly retreat, one that continued virtually unchecked until their August 1945 capitulation."
During the war, Japanese scientists tested the affects of bombs and chemicals on citizens of their captured lands in a process called "field testing". "Japan's biological weapons program was born in the 1930's, in part because Japanese officials were impressed that germ warfare had been banned by the Geneva Convention of 1925. If it was so awful that it had to be banned under international law, the officers reasoned, it must make a great weapon."
This article presents excerpts from a dispatch sent to the New York Times by Robert Thrumbull, the correspondent at Pearl Harbor. "Two of the great stories of world naval history concern Pearl Harbor. First is the stunning blow dealt the United States Pacific Fleet in the Japanese sneak attack here Dec. 7, 1941. The second, which may well be the more significant story when the world returns to the ways of peace, deals with the miracle of reclamation and repair accomplished here to undo the incredibly complex destruction wrought by the Japanese bombers."
This article outlines the confusion preceding, the turmoil during, and the vengeance afterwards that characterize the Attack on Pearl Harbor and make it an event that greatly shaped the outcome World War Two. "On top of practical economic considerations, early military success and an inherent sense of racial superiority led Japan to believe that it deserved to dominate Asian politics. As with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, this combination bred an aggressive and neo-colonial foreign policy, the 'Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere'."
This article examines the determination of the Japanese military and government during World War Two and discusses Japan's motives behind continuing the fight, despite the casualties and bleak looking future. "To most Japanese - not to mention those who had suffered at their hands during the war - the end of hostilities came as blessed relief. Yet not everybody was to lay down their arms. Tens of thousands of Japanese soldiers remained in China, either caught in no-man's land between the Communists and Nationalists or fighting for one side or the other."
This article investigates and compares the atrocities committed by German Nazi leaders and those committed during the "Asian Holocaust" lead by the Japanese. "Though not approaching the systematic exterminations by the Nazis, the Japanese record of atrocities -- what victims call ''the Asian Holocaust'' -- is still producing revelations more than 50 years after the end of World War II."
This article examines Japan before the war and explores the growing frustration, dissatisfaction, and tension with the Western world that lead to the outbreak of war between Japan and Europe. "Massive changes were unleashed in Japan by the Meiji restoration - a period of radical modernization - in 1868, and out of these emerged the desire for wealth, power and prestige as a way of redressing the imposition of unequal treaties that had been placed upon Japan by western powers in the past."
Post World War II Japan is a confusing place still haunted by the effects of war. One of those effects is a growth of extreme nationalism, expressed through the controversial Shinto shrine that honors Japan’s war dead, including war criminals from World War II. "On Thursday, one year after coming to power, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited Yasunuki, the controversial Shinto shrine that honors Japan’s war dead, including war criminals from World War II. China and South Korea swiftly criticized the move, as did the United States. Mr. Abe’s visit will worsen Japan’s already tense relations with China and South Korea, which see the shrine as a symbol of imperial Japan’s wars of aggression and colonialism."
A summary of Japan's involvement in World War Two, and how the Pacific battles served as turning points in the war. "Faced with severe shortages of oil and other natural resources and driven by the ambition to displace the United States as the dominant Pacific power, Japan decided to attack the United States and British forces in Asia and seize the resources of Southeast Asia."
Audio and Video
News report from 1942, including video footage of American troops fighting overseas, outlining some of the military strategies used
Franklin Roosevelt's famous speech following the attack on Pearl Harbor
Firsthand accounts of the conditions on Guadalcanal during the important battle against the Japanese held there.
Primary sources
A memorandum summarizing a meeting between the American secretary of state and the Japanese ambassador to America on July 10, 1939, regarding the country's interests in avoiding war.
A telegraph following the attach on Pearl Harbor explaining the motives of the attack and outlining expectations for the future of both America and Japan.
The declaration of war between America and Japan and of the Japanese as alien enemies.