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"What sort of people they think we are? Is it possible they do not realize that we shall never cease to persevere against them, until they have been taught a lesson which they and the world will never forget? -- Winston Churchill. Address to Congress, December 26, 1941
The Japanese military during the 1930s gained almost complete control over the government. The depression of the 1930s hit Japan hard. The militarists decided that the solution to the economic crisis was to carve out an empire. This meant war. Japan withdrew from the League of Nations as a resulted of the criticism of her military operations in Manchuria (1933). Japan invaded China proper, launching the Second Sino-Japanese War (July 1937). The well equipped Japanese forces rapidly occupied almost the entire Chinese coast and then moved up rivers and railroad lines into the interior. The Japanese in the process committed war atrocities on an unprecedented level against the Chinese civilian population. Despite the Japanese onslaught, the Chinese government never surrendered. America funneled supplies to the Chinese through Burma. A covert operation set up the Flying Tigers to provide the Chinese a creditable air capability. Japan joined the Axis powers Germany and Italy which since 1939 had been at war with Britain. Hoping to avoid war in the Pacific, the United States and Britain responded to the Japanese actions with an oil boycott. The Japanese militarists were unwilling to change their policy. The only force standing between the Japanese and the resources of Southeast Asia was the United States Pacific Fleet and the British garrison at Singapore. A Japanese carrier task force on December 7, 1941, executed a surprise attack on the American base at Pearl Harbor. It was a brilliant tactical victory for Japan, but perhaps the greatest mistake in modern military history as it brought an instantly united America into the War. The American carrier victory at Midway dealt a severe setback to the previously invincible Imperial fleet (June 1942). American shipyards were turning out the new Essex class carriers that would engage the weakened Imperial Navy in 1944. These carriers permitted the United States to launch a Central Pacific offensive (1943) and destroyed the Imperial Fleet (1944). With new island bases wrestled from the Japanese, the United States begins the strategic bombardment of the Japanese Home Islands. The United States dropped two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945 and the Soviet Union entered the war against Japan on August 8. The success of the Soviet Army convinced even many hard-line military officers that defeat was inevitable. Emperor Hirohito on August 14 decided to surrender unconditionally. The formal surrender was held underneath the guns of the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay.
The Pacific Naval War
The Pacific War primarily between America and Japan was only part of Japan's participation in World War II. And it did not absorb the bulk of the Empire's resources. Japan had no way of doing this. The United States in contrast was able to do precisely this. The Imperial Army was primarily committed in China throughout the Pacific World. One might ask why Japan would take on the United States while bogged down in an interminable war in China, but this is just what the Japanese militarists did. Ironically while the Pacific War is began with a dazzling display of air power and a brilliant burst of nuclear energy, again delivered by air power. It was probably the most ill conceived military campaign in human history. Japan chose to wage a naval war which mean that its massive army could not be effectively employed to protect the country. This was of no importance as long as the Imperial Navy dominated the Pacific, but given the industrial might of the United States, it was not realistic to think this could last very long and it did not. This left the route to the Home Islands defended by only groups of small islands. And the United States had the resources not only to wage the Pacific War while pursuing an even larger campaign in Europe but to conduct a two pronged drive to the Home Islands. And this time there would be no Divine Wind this time destroying an invading armada. The Japanese faced an insolvable problem. Not only was their a huge number of islands. They could only put so many men on the small islands between the Home Islands and the Americans. Physically more were possible, but they then had to be fed and provisioned. Japan did not have the capability to do this. This mean that most of the Pacific battles were fought by only a few thousand men--much smaller in scale than the European campaigns. The Japanese soldiers fought to the death, but in every case the Americans took one island after another on the drive to Japan. And once the Marianas were in American hands, the new long range B-29 bombers were able to turn Japan's highly combustible wood and paper cities into burning infernos.
Japanese Military
The Japanese military during the 1930s gained almost complete control over the government. Civilian politicians attempting to resist the military were assassinated. Communists were persecuted. The military introduced a highly nationalistic indoctrination program in the schools. Censorship of the media was intensified. Navy and army officers occupied most of the key offices in the government, including the office of prime minister. The depression of the 1930s hit Japan hard. The militarists decided that the solution to the economic crisis was to carve out an empire in Manchuria, China, and southeast Asia. This meant war. The Japanese Kwantung Army occupied Manchuria using as a pretext a faked incident on the main railroad (1931). Japan then declared "Manchukuo" an independent state, Next would be an invasion of China itself. The Japanese proved capable of defeating Chinese armies, but at enormous cost in blood and treasure. At home the Army gradually assumed total control of the Government and with the NAZI move toward war in Europe, debited how best to take advantage of the opportunities presented. The Manchurian-Mongolian border war with the Soviets chastened the Strike-North faction. The Western powers seemed a softer target and the Dutch East Indies and British Borneo offered badly needed oil. The Army officers like Hideki Tojo had no concept of the outside world are how badly that Japan was outclassed by American industrial power. Their concept was to quickly seize a vast empire in Southeast Asia--the Southern Resource Zone. Presented with a new reality, the Japanese generals who for the most part had no knowledge of America were convinced that the United States would not have the stomach to wage the bloody military campaign needed to oust them. The Japanese decision is all the more astonishing when one realizes how poorly the Japanese Army was equipped and the lack of military competence. There were some stellar figures like General Yamashita. For the most part, however, Japanese Army commanders were unimaginative an largely incompetent. This would be nowhere better exhibited than Guadalcanal, a battle the Japanese could have won. The Imperial Navy has ships of high caliber. And the Japanese had the most effective fighter in the Pacific, but the Army's equipment was of generally poor quality. Its commanders employed unbelievably poor tactics. Even worse by launching the Pacific War, the Army which was concentrated in China, had no way of deploying in strength effectively to impede the U.S. Navy's advance across the Pacific toward the Home Islands.
China (1931-45)
Japan in the late 19th century as it began to develop a modern military, followed the precedent set by Western nations and forced China to sign economical and political treaties. The First Sino-Japanese War (1895) resulted in Japan's seizure of Taiwan. Japan's victory in the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05) strengthened Japan's influence in Manchuria. The Japanese Kwantung Army occupied Manchuria, a Chinese province, using as a pretext a faked incident on the main railroad (1931). Japan then declared "Manchukuo" an independent state, setting up Pu Yi, the last Manchu Emperor of China as puppet Emperor (1932). Anti-Japanese disturbances broke out in Shanghai. The Japanese bombed the unprotected city to quell the disturbances. This was the first of many Japanese terror bombings of civilian populations. Japan withdrew from the League of Nations as a resulted of the criticism of her military operations in Manchuria and China (1933). Japan invaded China proper in July 1937, launching the Second Sino-Japanese War. The Japanese Kwantung Army turned a small incident into a full scale war. The well equipped Japanese forces rapidly occupied almost the entire coast of China and then moved up rivers and railroad lines into the interior. The Japanese in the process committed war atrocities on an unprecedented level against the Chinese civilian population. The most savage of these explosions of barbarity was the Rape of Nanking, after the fall of the capital. Here European diplomats and missionaries witnessed the brutality of the Japanese. Despite the Japanese onslaught, the Chinese government never surrendered. America even before entering the war against Japan funneled supplies to the Chinese through Burma. A covert operation set up the Flying Tigers to provide the Chinese a creditable air capability. The Chinese achieved no real military victories, but the Japanese were never able to defeat them. They moved further inland, setting up a new capital Kuomintang. The War continued on a lower scale, but involved the continued deployment of the bulk of the Japanese Army.
Soviet Union (May-September, 1939)
Large scale clashes occurred between Japanese and Soviet forces on the Mongolian plains along the border with Japanese-held Manchuria (Manchukuo) (May 1939). It was related to the Strike North Faction in the Imperial Japanese Army. Japanese Army factions were debating how to benefit from the coming war in Europe. Neither side declared war. The Japanese released photographs of captured Soviet soldiers (July 1939). The conflict was little reported in the West. It wasessentially a Japanese-Soviet Manchurian-Mongolian Border War. An offensive planned and executed by Marshall Zukov ended in a decisive victory for the Soviets at Khalkhin Gol (July 1939). The Japanese were forced to seek an armistice (September 1939). The clash was, however, of immense strategic significance, significantly affecting the strategic conduct of World War II. It was undoubtedly a factor encouraging Stalin to respond favorably to NAZI initiatives for a Non-Aggression Pact (August 1939) to ensure that the Soviet Union would not face a two-front war. Hitler ignored the Soviet performance in the Far East and instead saw the inept Red Army offensive in Finland as evidence that the Soviets could be easily defeated. The Japanese Army concluded that further attacks on the Soviets were unwise. This was an important factor in attacking south in 1941 at America rather than north at the Soviet Union. It was also a major factor in refusing pleas from Hitler in 1942 to attack the Soviet Union, freeing the Red Army from what may have been a disastrous two-front war.
Northern French Indo-China (June 1940)
The war in Europe opened new opportunities for the Japanese. The fall of France to the Germans rendered the French incapable of defending their colonial possessions. Hitler in the Franco-German Armistice (June 1940) allowed the new French Government in occupied Vichy to retain control of its colonies. This meant that the Japanese could move against Indochina. Indochina was important for a variety of reasons. Indochina had some resources, but it was geography that primarily attracted the Japanese interest. Possession of northern Indochina closed one of the last routes through which the Allies, primarily America, could aid China. The Sino-Vietnamese Railway from the port of Haiphong through Hanoi to Kunming in Yunnan was one of the few remaining routes through which the Nationalists could obtain supplies. The Japanese first moved against northern Indochina. Even before the French surrendered to the Germans, the Japanese French Ambassador in Tokyo with a series of demands (June 19). Tokyo demanded that France immediately cease shipment of all war materiel to China and to admit a Japanese Control Commission to regulate the border with China. Japanese troops massed on the Chinese border with Indochina and Imperial Navy ships sailed into the Gulf of Tonkin to demonstrate that these were no longer requests. The Japanese Government gave the French 48 hours to comply. Fighting lasted several days before the French authorities reached an agreement with the Japanese. The Japanese at the same time demanded that the British cease deliveries of war material to China over the Burma Road. An agreement was finally reached with the new Vichy Government which did not have the capability of resisting the Japanese (August 30). This allowed the Japanese to move military forces into the northern area of French Indochina (1940). A major goal of the Japanese was to cut off the flow of military supplies to China. The Japanese not only achieved that objective, but now could use French airfields to bomb Chinese targets. America in response to began to take economic sanctions against Japan.
Axis (September 27, 1940)
The Tripartite Pact was signed September 27, 1940. The agreement allied Germany and Italy (which were at war with Britain) and Japan (which was at war with China). Germany and Italy has since 1939-40 been at war with Britain. Japan since 1937 had been at war with China. The alliance did not require the partners to join these wars, but it did require them to come to each other's aid if attacked. The alliance became known as the Berlin-Rome-Tokyo Axis alliance, or commonly the Axis. The three Axis partners German hegemony over most of Europe; Italian hegemony in the Mediterranean, and Japanese hegemony in East Asia. After the Axis agreement was signed, several German allies joined the Axis, notably Vichy France and Fascist Spain refused to do so. Japan had no Asian allies, except or the puppet state of Manchukuo.
Economic Sanctions (July-August 1941)
The Japanese at first seized only northern Indochina. The declension to seize the south as well came with the the German invasion of the Soviet Union (June 1941). With the Soviets hard-pressed in Europe, the Japanese high command finally concluded that a 'Strike South' would solve Japan's resource problems, especially its dependence on the United States for oil. To prepare for an invasion of the oil-rich Dutch East Indies (DEI), some 140,000 Japanese troops invaded southern Indochina (July 28, 1941). Possession of southern Indochina put the Japanese within striking distance of the DEI oil fields and Malaya through which they could attack Singapore. Allied cracking of the Japanese Diplomatic Purple code provided Allied leaders access to Japanese strategic thinking, but not naval movements and planning. Still hoping to avoid or delay war in the Pacific, the United States and Britain responded to the Japanese actions with an oil boycott. The result was an oil shortage. The Japanese militarists were unwilling to change their policy of war in China and the oil embargo had the affect of convincing them that they needed to seize the oil rich DEI (Indonesia) to guarantee future supplies of oil. The DEI was virtually defenseless, but the small Dutch garrison there was loyal to the Dutch Government in exile. The only force standing between the DEI and the Japanese was the United States Pacific Fleet and the British garrison at Singapore.
Japanese Carrier Forces (1941)
Japan in 1941 had the largest, most advanced carrier force in the world. The commander of the Imperial Fleet, Admiral Yamamoto, was a proponent of naval aviation. The Imperial Navy had 13 carriers. It was not just that the Japanese had more carriers, but they had higher performance aircraft and more experienced pilots. The carriers had Mitsubishi Zero fighters which out performed any fighters available to either the U.S. Navy or the U.S. army Air Corps had. Japanese carrier pilots went through a rigorous training program. Many had combat experience from operations over China. The Japanese pilots were the most skilled naval aviators in the world. This was not understood at the time. The U.S. Navy Pacific fleet had two carriers, Lexington and Yorktown. Rising tensions in the Pacific caused the Navy to shift Enterprise to the Pacific to join them. The significance of this disparity in forces was not fully appreciated in 1941 because most naval planners still considered the battleship to be the capital ship. The Japanese carriers tend to be smaller than the American carriers, nut were slightly faster. The carriers themselves did not outclass the American carriers, but several factors made the Japanese carrier force the most powerful and potent naval force in the world. First was deck crew training. The Japanese carriers could launch a major strike in 5 minutes, something that would take the American carriers 30 minutes (based on Midway performance). Second was superior aircraft, especially the Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighter. The Japanese Nakajima B5N Kate was far superior to its American counterpart. The Americans has an excellent dive bomber, nut the Zero gave the Japanese a level of protection the Americans did not have although their combat control was weak. Third was the superbly trained and experienced Japanese pilots. None of this was understood before the War. Most Western military experts did not consider the Japanese to be capable of building high quality ships or planes or the Japanese to be effective fighters. The aircraft carrier was an offensive weapon. And the Japanese penchant for the offense and combat power was a perfect fit. The carrier force that got in the first strike was the one likely to prevail. But it also caused the Japanese to fail to give needed attention to damage control, both damage control devices and crew training.
Imperial Conference (July 2, 1941)
The Japanese decided on a 'southern advance' policy with the understanding that this could lead to war with the United States. Japan had earlier acted to safeguard its northern territories by signing a neutrality pact with the Soviets (April 13, 1941). The NAZI invasion of the Soviet Union (June 22) provided further assurance that there would be no danger of interference from the Soviets if Japan moved south.
National Preconceptions
Rarely in the history of war have two great nations moved toward war with such huge erroneous preconceptions about each other. The misconceptions include both individual maters as well as industrial and scientific capabilities and for the Japanese the importance of industry and science. One very important matter to understand is the importance of race. America in the 1940s was a racist country, but not out of step with the rest of the world. It was also a country that was changing and not a country that was willing to kill on a racial basis. American racism caused the United States to underestimate the Japanese, it did not push America to war. Japan on the other hand was a virulently racist country and this racism led to brutal colonial policies like in Korea and horrific atrocities like the Rape of Nanking (1937). Racist attitudes led America to view the Japanese as a people small in stature with terrible eyesight. Japanese victories in night time naval battles during the Solomon Campaign (1942) came as a shock to the Americans as did the effectiveness of Japanese aviators during the first year of the War. The Japanese for their part viewed the Americans as soft and whose women would never allow them to fight a long war. The fundamental miscalculation was Japan's failure to understand the full potential of America's industrial an scientific might. America underestimated Japan's industrial capability, but this underestimation was small in comparison of the colossal miscalculation of the Japanese militarists who launched the War.
Japanese Strategic Concept: Barrier and Javelin
Japan by 1941 had arrived at a situation in which its military leaders managed to convince themselves that war with the United States was the only way they could ensuring the long-term security of the Empire. Repulsed in the North by the Red Army and unable to complete the long, expensive conquest of China, the Japanese militarists looked South--the Southern Resource Zone (SRZ). There they saw immense resources, everything Japan needed to complete the conquest of China and feed its industry and people in perpetuity. With these resources and possession of China, the Militarists believed that Japan could build an industrial base equal to the great powers. The British, Dutch, and French who controlled the region had only minimal forces in place to protect their colonies. The only thing that stood in their way was the Americans in the Philippines and its Pacific Fleet that President Roosevelt had moved forward to Pearl Harbor. One historian describes the strategic concept conceived by the Japanese as Barrier and Javelin. [Willmott] This meant Defense and offense. The Japanese decided to seize the SRZ even though it would mean war with the United States. (Naval planners rejected the idea of seizing the SRZ and leaving Americans untouched in the Philippine Islands.) They decided that a crushing victory over the Pacific Fleet would convince America, as it had done to the Russians (1905), to make peace. They conceived of establishing barriers that would make a counter-attack across the Pacific to costly in men and material for the pleasure seeking Americans who like the Russians before them would decide to make peace. The barrier to be constructed shifted over time. Rabaul in the New Heberdies emerged as the major bastion in the south, but the Japanese came to see Australia as their ultimate objective. Truk in the Carolines was the major barrier in he Central Pacific, but as the War progressed the Japanese began to see Midway and ultimately the Hawaiian Islands as their ultimate barrier in the Central Pacific. And the Aleutian Islands became their northern bastion.
Kantai Kessen
Kantai Kessen (decisive battle) Doctrine dominated the thinking of the upper echelons of Japanese naval thinking. This was cemented by the great victory of the fledgling Japanese Imperial Navy commanded by Admiral Tōgō Heihachirō over the Russian Fleet in the Tsushima Straits (May 1905). It was Japan's Trafalgar, but unlike the British Royal Navy, the Imperial Navy was a very recent creation with few influential traditions. But as Japan embarked on the Pacific War, Tsushima and Kantai Kessen was deeply embedded in the mind of every officer who has passed through the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy located in of all places--Etajima, Hiroshima. (It had been founded in Nagasaki.) Interesting, the U.S. Navy came up with a very similar doctrine -- War Plan Orange. The U.S. Navy had a much longer history, but had never before conducted a major fleet action against a serious enemy fleet. The similar naval plan reflects the importance of naval U.S. naval officer and historian Alfred Thayer Mahan at the time. [Mahan] Plan Orange was U.S. Navy's strategy of how to wage a war with Japan. Both Kantai Kessen and Plan Orange were based on the assumption that Japan would quickly seize the Philippine Islands and neutralize the small U.S. Asiatic Fleet. And thus the decisive battle would occur when America's primary striking force (the Pacific Fleet) would sail West and engage the Imperial Fleet just as the Russian Fleet had sailed east. There were differences as to just where this engagement would take place (Japan's mandate territories, the Philippines, or the Home Islands), but it was envisioned by both the Americans and Japanese that it would be in the western Pacific. The planning in the inter-War era did not take in account the vital importance of both air power and the submarine. Both navies were thinking primarily of battleships. Which is why the Japanese constructed two super battleships (Yamato and Musachi) and planned a third. Unfortunately for the Japanese, they were so successful at Pearl Harbor that the U.S. Pacific Fleet no longer had operational battleships (December 1941). Thus the Pacific Fleet did not have the ships needed to execute Plan Orange. Admiral Nimitz had to devise a new strategy and the tactics for the ships that were left -- most importantly the carriers. Even before Pearl Harbor the U.S. Navy had begun to revise its war plans--the new Rainbow Plans. [Spector, Eagle ..., p. 59.] The U.S. Navy had revised the assumptions and plans for Rainbow 5 in the Plan Dog memo, which concluded that the United States would adhere to a Europe-first strategy in World War II. The Japanese did not revise their Kantai Kessen doctrine even after Pearl Harbor, but by the time that the United States had built up its fleet, the Imperial Fleet had been so attritted that it had no realistic possibility of winning a major fleet action. The United States also lost vessels, but had the industrial capacity to build enormous numbers of new vessels. The Japanese did not. The Japanese Kantai Kessen doctrine was flawed because it did not take into account the enormous industrial capacity of the United States as well as the unlikely prospect that America, like the Russians in 1905, would be willing to make peace after losing a major naval battle. Pearl Harbor had just the opposite of the impact intended. The American people who had wanted to avoid war were now united with a desire to wage war.
First Phase (1942)
The Pacific War began with the stunning Japanese carrier attack on Pearl Harbor which in military terms was a stunning success--the eight battle ships of the Pacific Fleet sunk at Pearl Harbor. This was seen at the time as the backbone of the American fleet--all destroyed or disabled. This was followed by 6 months of virtually un gathomvle successes by both the Imperil Fleet and Imperial Army withbtheir respective irservices, The Japanese achieved virtall all of their goals in 6 months of whirlwind offenses carved out an enormous empire in Southeast Asia and the Soutth Pacific. Modern commentators constantly say Japan was insane to go to war with the Unite States. But they forget a very imptyant matter, Japan did so thining that The Soviet Union hadbeen defated bu the Germans and Moscow was about to fall. Had this been the case, the Japanese decision woud look very differently. With the Germans victorious in Europe, the United States would have to devote all of its energy nn fighting a European War. But jist as the bombs were falling on Peal Harbor, the suposedly deeated Red Army launched a powerful winter counter offensive before Moscow, driving the Germans back and inflicting enormous damage to the Ostheer. The Japanese war plan was that after carving out its new empire, the pleasure loving Americans would not have the stomouch for combat and would seek a nreogitated settlement. But after 6 months of war and defeat after degeat--the Americans showed no sign of negotiating. Plan A had failed , but the Japanese had no Plan B nbutto continue fighting. Worst still, the victories came to sudden end swith the stunning American naval victory at Midway, in part due to code breaking (June 1942). Midway bwas critucal. The Alies had lost ground to the Japanese, butv had not lost the abiklity to make war. The loss of four friont-line carriesm seriously impacted the Japanese ability to make war. The Imperial Navy was stunned and unsure how to proceed with heart ropped out of vthe Kido nButai--thair primarystrikin force. Thev Imprial Navy kept the extemt of the defeat at Midway not only bfrom he public, but from their Army collegues as well. So the Americn offensive on Guadalcanal came as a complete suprise (August 1942). As did the fct vthat vhe Americans wold really bfight. So surprised at this was the Japanese Army told its soldies that he Amricans were emptying out is prisons and mental hospitals. If the Japanese were going to win the War it wold have to be in 1942 before American industry began to churn out the weappns of war in great numbers. Here the Jpnese failed and ships, tanks, artillerry nd aircrft begn reacing the Pacific in large numbers. The Amerians had conducted the fist year of war on a shoe tring and till stopped the Japanese. In 1943 the Jpanese began facing larger numbers of increasing well armed Allied forces. While still bigged down in China, the Imperial Army suffered reverses in New Guinea and up the Solomon Chain. Over Bouganville, the Japanese lost Admiral Yammoto to an Ameican shootdown (April 1943), still unaware that their codes had been broken.
Second Phase (1943-45)
The second phase of the Pacific War began with the U.S. Pacific Fleet launching the Central Pacific campaign and the invasion of Tarawa in the Gilberts. It was like releasing a coiled spring. The Navy unleashed its new advanced Hellcat fighters and Essex-lass carriers on the Japanese. The Japanese who had already suffered serious defeats in the South Pacific now faced a whole new front and was unprepared for it. American forces were no longer operating on a shoe-string. They were armed and equipped like no other fighting force in history with the full support of the American Arsenal of Democracy. At he sane time, he American submarine force was finally overcoming its torpedo and command problems and began to destroy the Japanese merchant fleet--the Marus. The Japanese still held possessions with vital raw materials including oil, but were rapidly losing the ability to transport those resources to the war factories on the Home Islands. The Army had prepared for a fight with the Soviet Red Army, bow fond itself primarily fighting the Americans. The generals saw the Pacific War as a naval war, but now came to see the U.S. Army and Marines as their major enemy now that the new B-29 Bombers could reach Japan. The Japanese when they launched the Pacific War assumed that Japan could not be bombed because of the limited range of existing bombers. But the B-29s changed this calculation. Because of this, the Imperial Navy after a year of inactivity, finally came out and their carrier force was destroyed in the Battle of the Philippines Sea (June 1944). Then there surface units were largely destroyed in the Battle of Leyte Gulf (October 1944). The new advanced American aircraft now dominated the skies. The Japanese had to turn to Kamikaze suicide tactics. The Japanese finally developed Plan B. They cold no longer defeat the Americas, but they would make the island hopping campaign so bloody that the Americans would finally agree to a negotiated peace to end the War. And the final campaigns were indeed bloody--Iwo Jima (February and March 1945) and Okinawa April-July 1945). America had been bombing Japan's industrial cities relentlessly. The fire bombing of Tokyo was the deadliest air raid of the War. The Japanese showed o sign of surrendering. After the first atomic bomb test was successful (July 1945), President Truman approved the use of the atom bombs to force the Japanese to surrender. His primary reason was the huge American casualties expected from an invasion of the Home Islands. The bombs were doped (August 1945). A shocked Emperor Hirohito broke the deadlock in the War Cabinet. Japan formally signed the surrender document under the big guns of the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay (September 1945).
Surrender (August 14-September 2, 1945)
Most Americans believe that the Japanese surrendered because of the American development and use of the atomic bomb. The bomb was certainly a factor, but not the only factor. The decision to surrender is far more complex and impossible to know with any certainty. The American Pacific Island invasions, naval power, and in particular the Soviet declaration of war and startling success of the their invasion of Manchuria all played major roles. The success of the Soviet Army convinced even Imperial Army officers and the Ministry of war that defeat was inevitable. Emperor Hirohito on August 14 decided to surrender unconditionally. Even after the atomic bombs and the debacle in Manchuria, there were hardliners that were opposed to surrender. A group calling themselves the Young Tigers seized the Imperial Palace grounds and tried to prevent the Emperor's surrender broadcast. The attempted coup almost succeeded. On what has become called "Japan's Longest Day" the attempted coup, bombing raid blackout, intrigues, killings, and seppukus determined fate of millions of Japanese people. It was a complicated series of events involving both great heroism and treason by officers convinced that they were behaving honorably. The Commander of the Eastern Army, however, remained loyal to the Emperor, dooming the coup. [PWRS] The formal surrender was held underneath the guns of the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay (September 3). Not knowing just what the Japanese were planning, the American carriers were standing at sea off Japan.
Occupation and Aftermath
American troops landed in Japan immediately after the Imperial Government surrendered on September 3. The American occupation was completely unlike the Japanese occupation of the countries that it had conquered. Most Japanese were stunned by the final year of the War and the massive destruction. There was also widespread hunger. Many Japanese had been led to expect a brutal American occupation. The United States oversaw an occupation with fundamentally changed the nature of Japanese society, rooting out Japanese militarism and fomenting the development of democratic political regimes and social structures. Women were enfranchised and labor unions allowed to organize.
Liberation/Reoccupation
The situation in Asia and the Pacific was different after the Japanese surrender than after the German surrender in Europe. There was not much left of the NAZI empire (only Norway, Denmark, parts of Bohemia, and pats of Austria). Large areas of the Pacific and Southeast Asia, however, were still in Japanese hands and occupied military forces quite capable and willing to fight. The Japanese still occupied the Dutch West Indies, parts of Burma, Malaya, Singapore, and Indochina as well as Taiwan and large areas of mainland China. Moving into these areas to accept the surrender of the Japanese and reestablish civil order wee complicated by the large areas involved, the distances, and limitations of transport. The Dutch and Pacific had no substantial forces in place to do this. The problems meant that it would take some time for the Allies to move forces into these areas. A complicating factor was there were now local military forces, both resistance forces and national forces the Japanese had armed to assist them. Asia was different than Europe. Most of the territory conquered by the Japanese were colonies. Thus the local population was generally not overjoyed with the prospect of the old colonial powers (British, Dutch, and French) coming back. Only in the Philippines were the Allies (Americans) generally regarded as liberators, and even in the Philippines the resistance movement included a Communist force that was anti-American. The Allies thus in some areas used Japanese troops to keep order until they could reoccupy the areas that the Japanese had conquered. And in all of the places except Burma where the British pulled out, colonial wars resulted.
Modern Asia
The Pacific War was in many regards the birth of modern Asia. One work describes the War as the beginning of the evolution of the Asian colonies to modern independent countries. [Bayly and Harper] Almost all the Asian countries before the War were either European colonies. Much of China was occupied by Japan and its major seaports under the control of European countries. At the time war broke out in Europe, the only country scheduled for independence was the American Commonwealth of the Philippine Islands. German victories in Europe (1940) undercut the Dutch and French colonies. With Pearl Harbor the Japanese launched an offensive that brought them to the borders of India. While the Japanese were defeated and the colonial regimes restored, with only a few years, virtually every colony in Asia achieved its independence. Much of it was accomplished by negotiations, most notably the independence of India and Pakistan. In other countries there were wars for independence, most notably the French struggle in Indochina/Vietnam. The War had both stimulate nationalist feelings as well as exposed the limitations of European military power.
Sources
Bayly, Christopher and Tim Harper. Forgotten Armies: The Fall of British Asia, 1941-1945 (Belknap/Harvard, 2005).
Camp, Dick. Last Man Standing: The 1st Marine Regiment on Peleiu.
Gibert, Martin. A History of the 20th Century.
Hasegawa, Tsuyoshi. Racing the Enemy Stalin, Truman, and the Surrender of Japan (Belknap Press: 2006), 432p.
Holt, Thaddeus. The Deceivers: Allied Military Deception in the Second World War (Scribner, 2004).
Mahan, Alfred Thayer. The Influence of Sea Power Upon History: 1660–1783 (1890).
Pacific War Research Society (PWRS). Compiler Kazutoshi Hando. Japan's Longest Day.
Pellegrino, Charles. The Last Train from Hiroshima: The Survivors Look Back (Henry Holt, 2010). 367p.
Rms, Alan. South Pacific Cauldron: World War II: Great Forgotten Battlegrounds (2014), 312p.
Russell, Richard A. "Project Hula: Secret Soviet-American Cooperation in the War Against Japan" (Washington, D.C.: Naval Historical Center, 1997).
Sloan, Bill.
Brotherhood of Heroes: The Marines at Peleliu, 1944--The Bloodiest Battle of the Pacific War (Simon & Schuster, 2005). Spector, Ronald H. At War at Sea: Sailors and Naval Combat in the Twentieth Century (Viking, 2001), 463p.
Spector, Ronald H. Eagle Against the Sun (1985).
United States Strategic Bombing Survey -- Pacific (USSBS-P). Naval Analysis Division. Gordon Daniels (ed.) Campaigns of the Pacific War (GPO: Washington, D.C., 1946). The United States Strategic Bombing Survey was created in 1944 to assess the impact of strategic bombing in Europe. It was extended in 1945 to assess the strategic bombing of Japan. It includes, however, a great deal of information about the Pacific War in general.
Willmott, H.P. The Barrier and the Javelin: Japanese and Allied Strategies, February to June 1942.
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Created: November 13, 2002
Spell checked: 6:23 PM 8/8/2022
Last updated: 10:45 AM 12/13/2025
