Page No: 18 Dulwich Despatch
Economic crisis allowed the military to take control of the government, which formed a prelude to the Manchurian incident, the cause of Japanese WW2. This conquest of China was sparked off by a bomb that destroyed a Japanese railway. The Japanese claimed that it was set off by Chinese nationalists and used this as an excuse to go to war. The well-trained and experienced Japanese army quickly overran the Chinese and set up the puppet state of Manchukuo, which was resource-rich. It has been speculated that the Japanese actually staged the bombing themselves to create an excuse to go to war. The USA tried to limit Japanese power with the Stimson Doctrine which declared that any Sino- Japanese agreements that broke the USA’s Asia policy would not be officially recognised. The Lytton Report apportioned the blame for the incident equally between Japan and China, which caused Japan to walk out of the League of Nations. This whole incident showed the weakness of
the post-WW1 peace policies in the modern era. Japan strengthened its ties with Germany and Italy, which led them into WW2, beginning with the 1939 RTB (Rome-Tokyo-Berlin) Axis pact, which continued the relations with Germany and Italy. Then in 1941 Japan rejected Roosevelt’s Ultimatum for the withdrawal of Japanese troops from China. Roosevelt therefore stopped the oil trade with Japan and this was a good enough reason for Japan to go to war with the US, starting with the bombing of Pearl Harbour, which the Japanese hoped would destroy the US Pacific fleet. This was not as effective as they had hoped and the USA fleet bounced back in two years. It was a successful war for the Japanese until the disastrous Battle of Midway where the US fleet destroyed 4
"Ford Island aerial photo RIMPAC 1986" by PH2 Thompson, USN - U.S. Defense Imagery photo VIRIN: DN-SC-87-04122.
Japanese aircraft carriers, 248 aircraft, 3,000 men and various other battle ships, crippling the Japanese fleet. In the continuing US island-hopping strategy Midway helped the US as a seaplane staging base and submarine refuelling station. The endgame for Japan began with the deployment of the B-42 long-range bombers over Japan, and the invasion of the southern home islands of Japan. The US met heavy resistance there, and this greatly influenced the usage of the nuclear bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Government of Japan surrendered and a gruelling war of kamikazes, island-hopping and nuclear bombs was over. The terms of the Japanese surrender was set out in the Potsdam Declaration, which effectively destroyed Japanese military, restored democracy and only allowed for economic industry. The losses of this war were horrific, but Japan has bounced back to become a world power once again.
Oscar Cunningham, 8W
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