Japan and World War Ii

Japan was greatly affected by World War II and their failed effort to increase their spear of influence. World history writers that specialize on writing on war can explicate the affect of WWII on Japan in a custom research paper from Paper Masters.

Japan's brutal military expansion in East Asia and the Pacific pitted the strength of the United States against a less industrialized and smaller country far away from American shores. The Japanese were dominant in that part of the world as they felt destined by culture and history to command what they believed was rightly theirs. From China to Russia, Japanese aggressive policies had overtaken Manchuria, Indo-China, and various Pacific islands. They saw this portion of the world as their sphere of influence and American or other foreign control would be unacceptable.

Japanese Decision to go to War

The Japanese decision to go to war with the United States in late 1941 was a product of a 50 years of political, economic, and cultural tensions between the two countries, in addition to the American's controlling the flow of imported Japanese oil, a commodity that Japan needed if it were to continue its push towards Australia, New Zealand, and the Philippines. There appeared no doubt Japanese military moves were a piecemeal, systematic approach to overtake and dominate the whole Pacific. The United States was the only power to hamper Japan's strategy of a New Order in East Asia, and if Japan waited too long, she would not have the reserves its aircraft and warships needed to wage attacks.

The Consequences of World War II on Japan

The effect of World War II on Japan were catastrophic on one level.The country was systematically devastated by the United States air campaign.Dower gives an estimate that Japanese civilian and military deaths in World War II came to 2.7 million persons, 3-4% of the nation's population (45). Additionally, the fire bombings and atomic bombings of major urban areas left the country with an inadequate stock of housing and a devastated infrastructure.

The loss of the war, however, spelled the end of the domination of the government by right-wing military extremists. The American occupation was benign. Latourette states, "The Americans in charge of the occupation came without vindictiveness and with an honest desire to rehabilitate Japan(140)." The Americans successfully strove to lay the groundwork for democratic government and in time such a government was established.

The consequences of the war for Japan were as follows:

• The Japanese became extremely averse to militarism in any form.
• Anti-military provisions were embedded in the new constitution.
• The national psychology seems to have been altered by the war.
• Despite frequently expressed fears that the nation-an economic juggernaut, the second largest economy in the world-might someday rearm and once again embark on an imperialistic course, there have been no real signs of that.