THE WWII in Asia manifested itself through the military clashes waged in the Second Sino-Japanese War, between Japan and China; and on WarofPacific, between Japan and the United States. These conflicts were motivated by Japan's expansionist militarism, which wanted to expand into China and combat US influence in the region.
The conflicts in Asia started with the Second Sino-Japanese War, started in 1937, when Japan began military operations against China. THE Second war started officially in 1939, and the war scenarios expanded when the Japanese attacked a number of regions in Southeast Asia in 1940 and 1941. In late 1941, the Japanese started a conflict against the Americans through the base attackpearlharbor.
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Background to World War II in Asia
Conflicts in Asia during the Second World War, are directly related to the posture of the Japanese government in the 1930s and 1940s. During this period, Japan had an extremely
nationalist who defended the militarism as a way to defend the imperialist interests of the country.There had been war rhetoric against the United States since the 1910s, and from the 1920s onwards this discourse became even stronger. The Japanese advocated the idea that the country could not accept foreign powers dominating territories in Asia, so they believed that the war should be carried out as a way to expel them from there.
There was also rhetoric against the Russians, as a group of Japanese defended a war against the Soviet Union to expand Japanese domains to Siberia. The big target of Japanese imperialism, however, was the Chinese. In 1931, the Japanese had invaded Manchuria and established a puppet state called Manchukuo.
In 1937, the Japanese used the Marco Polo Bridge Incident as a pretext to start the invasion of Chinese territory, thus starting the Second Sino-Japanese War. This conflict lasted until 1945 and merged with the conflicts of World War II. The confrontation with China was a source of intense wear for Japan and intensified the country's imperialist desires.
![During the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Japanese army carried out numerous atrocities against the Chinese population.[1]](/f/c1faef744f0ddc1783f348042175dbe5.jpg)
In 1939, Japan became involved in border conflicts with Soviet troops, which became known as IncidentinNomonhan or Battle of Khalkhin Gol. Between May and September, Soviet and Japanese troops clashed in clashes that resulted in a harddefeat for the Japanese. This defeat weakened the ideals of expansion to the north and caused Japan to focus on expansion from the south against the Americans.
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Expansion in Southeast Asia
The defeat at Khalkhin Gol led the Japanese to sign a neutrality agreement with the Soviets and led them to approach the Germans by signing the Treatedtripartite, an agreement in which Germany, Italy and Japan pledged to declare war against any nation that attacked one of them. This agreement was intended to intimidate the United States.
Since the Japanese would not attack the Soviet Union, their ambition turned to Southeast Asia. Japan's opponents in China, especially the nationalists led by Chiang Kai-shek, received from the United States a series of supplies and armaments by routes that came from Indochina French.
The Japanese invaded the IndochinaFrench, in September 1940, and the following year, about 40,000 soldiers had already stationed there. From Indochina, the Japanese sent to Japan resources such as rice, coal and rubber, as well as fabrics used by the Japanese textile industry. The US response was to impose a Japan import embargo, in July 1941.
This embargo strongly affected Japan, as 80% of the oil consumed by the Japanese was obtained from the United States or the Dutch East Islands (now Indonesia)|1|. At the risk of having to give up its imperialist interests, and encouraged by the success of the Germans, Japan chose to launch itself into the conquest of Southeast Asia.
Quickly, the Japanese conquered the Burma, a Malaysia, Singapore and indiesOrientalsDutch. While the conquest of Southeast Asia was underway, the Japanese made the decision that absolutely changed the course of World War II: attack the United States.
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Attack on Pearl Harbor
O attack on pearl harbor it was, therefore, a decision based on the Japanese imperialist ideal. They wanted to form an alternative to the European colonialism that became known as “Greater Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere”. This concept summed up the idea of a great Japanese-led empire being formed in Asia.
Part of that concept was the idea of putting an end to all sorts of Western influence in Asia. That's why the Japanese turned against the British, French and Dutch in Southeast Asia, and why they decided to attack the United States in the Pacific. Before that, a series of negotiations between Japan and the United States took place, but they ended up failing.
The trigger for the Japanese were the demands made by the Secretary of State, CordellHull. In a document known as “Hullnote”, the United States demanded that Japan respect the sovereignty of Indochina and China, for example. The document was considered an outrage by the Japanese military – most of them eager for war.
So the Prime Minister of Japan, hidekigorse, ordered that war be declared against the United States. For the first attack, the Japanese decided that the target would be Pearl Harbor, where the US Navy fleet was stationed in the Pacific. O admiralIsorokuYamamoto he was against war, but he ended up planning the attack so as to cause as much destruction as possible.
US intelligence knew of the possibility of the Japanese attack and the information was passed on to all US bases. Still, when the Japanese attack took place, the base at Pearl Harbor was totally unprepared for the attack. The Japanese started their attack suddenly, that is, there was no formal declaration of war before the attack was carried out.
Historians have interpreted the attack on Pearl Harbor as a strategic mistake by the Japanese. First, because it mobilized the American population in defense of the war – until 1941, the war was unpopular in the USA – in addition, it mobilized an enemy for which Japan did not have the economic and industrial capacity to fight in the long term. deadline.
O Japanese attack caused the death of 2335 US soldiers and it damaged US battleships, but it did not completely destroy the war power of the United States. In a few months, Japan began to suffer severe blows from the Americans in the conflict.
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Japanese defeat
The tipping point of World War II in Asia came in June 1942, with the naval air battle that took place in midway. This battle took place between the 4th and 7th of June and was a total disaster for Japan: four aircraft carriers were sunk, being them Kaga, Akagi, Hiryu and Soryu.
With this battle, Japan lost significant war power and was never able to regain its power before Midway. Slowly, the Japanese were accumulating defeats in different parts of the Pacific. In Guadalcanal, for example, which took place between August 1942 and February 1943, the Japanese accumulated 30,000 casualties and were forced to retreat.
Japanese industry proved unable to produce at the speed that the war demanded, and so Japan saw its efforts fail in places like IslandsSolomon and Papua New Guinea, for example. The campaign in China was proving disastrous, as the resistance was relentless and the Japanese could not advance.
From 1944 onwards, Japanese wear and tear became significant and Japan lost its Philippines, Tarawa and the IslandsMarianas. The US advance ended up causing the Americans to conquer territories in Japan. In 1945, this country lost IwoJima and Okinawa and internally, the country was on the verge of collapse.
Japanese communication lines were severely damaged, American ships it was difficult to obtain resources and to send reinforcements, and Japan's air forces were practically neutralized. In 1945, dozens of cities suffered from intense attacks by US air forces.
The purpose of these attacks was mainly to damage the morale of the Japanese army and population. Historian Max Hastings claims that approximately 170 thousand tons of bombs were dropped over Japan and for every American killed during these attacks (3015 killed), nearly 100 Japanese died.|2|. The Allied advance and Japan's collapse demonstrated that Japanese defeat was certain.
Japanese surrender
Even in this scenario, the Japanese command did not accept the country's surrender. The last stage of the war was the invasion of the main island of Japanese territory – honshu. Members of the Japanese command defended peace and made efforts to get the Soviet Union to mediate an agreement between Japan and the United States.
The Japanese had an interest in retaining the lands that were still under their control in Asia. This idea did not advance, because the Soviets showed no interest in mediating a peace agreement between the US and Japan. As the Japanese did not surrender, the Allies gathered in the ConferenceinPotsdam, in July 1945.
At that conference, the terms for Japan's surrender were set. United States, United Kingdom and China demanded from the Japanese|3|:
Remove the authorities that led the country to war;
Foreign occupation until a new peace order was created in the country;
Establishment of Japanese sovereignty exclusively to the islands of Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, Shikoku and others that would be chosen by the Allies;
Dismantling the Japanese army and returning all troops to Japan;
Establishment of democracy;
Disarmament of the country;
Payment of war damages;
Unconditional Surrender.
The statement also came with a threat: if the country did not accept Potsdam's terms, the Allies threatened to “immediately and totally destroy” the country. The Japanese refused to accept Potsdam's terms, as many members of the army defended a final battle being fought on the island of Honshu.
The result was catastrophic for Japan. Under popular pressure for the war to be ended quickly and fearful of the wear and tear caused by the possible fighting in Honshu, the US president used an extreme measure: he authorized the launch of atomic bombs about Hiroshima (August 6th) and Nagasaki (August 9th).
Thousands of people died instantly, others thousands suffered from the harsh consequences of these bombs (burns and radiation sickness) and the two cities were reduced to ashes. Also on August 9, Japan suffered a severe blow: the Soviets declared war on the country and started the invasion of Manchuria.
![Emperor Hirohito was willing to continue the war if the US did not accept the maintenance of the imperial system.[2]](/f/24eda280ccd6c684a638fefaa7cc1785.jpg)
In this scenario, there were numerous negotiations and meetings between the Japanese command about ending the war. Some against, others in favor, the way out for peace stood out because of one condition: the imperial system was maintained. As the Americans agreed to keep Hirohito on the Japanese throne, he accepted the surrender. Historian Yoshikuni Igarashi, however, points out that if the Americans had not accepted the Japanese condition, Hirohito was willing to continue the war as long as possible.|4|.
THE japanese surrender was made official on August 14, 1945. The next day, a radio broadcast with the voice of the emperor announced the Japanese surrender, and on September 2, the terms of surrender of the Japanese were signed. The war crimes committed by the Japanese over eight years of conflict in Asia were tried in the International Military Tribunal for the Far East.
Image credits
[1] Everett Historical/Shutterstock
[2]Sergey Goryachev/Shutterstock
Grades
|1| HASTINGS, Max. Hell: the world at war 1939-1945. Rio de Janeiro: Intrinsic, 2012, p. 203.
|2| Idem, p. 662.
|3| BROOKS, Lester. Secret story of the Japanese surrender of 1945: end of a millenary empire. Rio de Janeiro: Globo Livros, 2019, p. 162-163.
|4| IGARASHI, Yoshikuni. Bodies of memory: post-war narratives in Japanese culture (1945-1970) São Paulo: Annablume, 2011, p.67-68.
By Daniel Neves
History teacher
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/guerras/segunda-guerra-mundial-na-asia.htm
