- Joined
- May 20, 2019
Some real retardation regarding the origins of WW2 here. Sit down and I'll give you a history lesson. First: Japan!
A problem with history is that you can always point to earlier and earlier events as causes for later happenings. I'll start early enough, with the Battle of Sekigahara (1600). I'll leave the details aside, if you want to know more you can read up on the Sengoku Jidai (Warring States Era, 1466-1600). The Battle of Sekigahara was the last major battle of centuries of civil war, and as a result, the Tokugawa clan became shogun. To make sure nobody could rise up against them, they crippled the economic trade potential of the south western Daimyo (feudal rulers) by banning all trade, except via four tightly controlled trading posts (Two in the south west, one in the north and one in the west). In essence, Japan became a hermit kingdom. This policy was know as Sakoku. Through the peace enforced by the Tokugawa, Japan slowly recovered from centuries of civil strife and it slowly but surely prospered. The Tokugawa Bakufu remained without serious opposition during its entire reign. Of course, everything comes to an end.
In July 1853, the American commodore Matthew Perry arrives. He bombards a harbor, delivers a letter and says he will be back. The Americans desire open ports for trade. When in 1854, he returns, the Tokugawa shogun gives in. In a few years time, the country opens up. All western powers quickly make treaties with that closed off kingdom, which only released a trickle of luxury goods in the last 200 years. Driven by exoticism, trade flourishes. But the Japanese don't like it. Not from the lowly peasants who get abused by the westerners, to the samurai who feel humiliated. Even the emperor symphatizes with them. This results in the Emperor issuing an edict commanding the expulsion of all barbarians (foreigners). Some low level civil conflict happens, some people are killed, and the western powers arrive once more to bombard some ports and demand money. The Tokugawa shogunate bends the knee for them, pays massive indemnities and the westerners go away.
It might have been the right thing to do to preserve peace with the foreigners, but internally, the fuse is lit for a massive conflict. The feudal domains start to openly defy the shogun, and when the shogunate fails in enforcing its will by military means in the south, the spark has reached the powder-keg. The Boshin war (1868-1869) erupts. In a short, but relatively modern conflict, anti shogunate samurai defeat the pro shogunate samurai. They decide to abolish the Tokugawa shogunate and restore the emperor. The emperor who supported them against the outsiders.
The shogunate defeated, and the emperor restored was all good and well, but the foreigners still were a problem. But it was clear to the samurai supporting the emperor that the foreigners were stronger than them. Thus, they sent embassies all around the world, to learn from the west. Having done that, they decide to reform their state by copying the best parts of the western systems. A lot is copied from the Prussians, but also Belgium, Great Britain and France are examples. In a rapid tempo, Japan modernizes (with a lot of anglo-american capital). But they keep looking towards the Western powers and they notice that all of those powers have a colonial empire which supports the homeland. Japanese statesmen now come to the doctrine of the two lines: the line of advantage and the line of sovereignty. The line of sovereignty is the extent of the sovereign, Japanese state. The line of advantage is the extent of a colonial empire, formed as a resource base and a buffer zone for the homeland. A buffer zone, against the western powers who have demonstrated in living memory that they gladly sail up to ports and start shooting, without regards for the Japanese civilians.
And so Japan goes on, looking for opportunities to expand this line of advantage. In 1895, a war with China. The west expects the Chinese to win, but the Japanese win. They get Formosa/Taiwan and influence in Korea. 1899, Boxer Rebellion in China. The Japanese stand side by side with the west to defeat the boxers. (They are the largest contingent of the eight nation alliance actually). In 1905, the Russo-Japanese war. Japan manages to defeat the Russians, a shock for the entire world as it is the first time that a non-European nation stood up against and won from a European nation in modern war. The Japanese hope to be included in the great powers of the world, to be part of the congressional diplomacy of the long 19th century. But the other western powers disagree. They're still Japanese and not Europeans. Thus inferior.
The Western powers also don't keep quiet. America takes the Philippines in 1898. Australia gets German New Guinea at Versailles. Other states' lines of advantage come closer and closer to the Japanese line of sovereignty.
In 1914, the First World War. Japan picks the side of the Entente Cordiale, and takes over the German Colonies. An attempt to expand their influence in China (like the Western Powers did in the Middle East) is rebuffed. At Versailles 1919, the Japanese are once again humiliated. Not only can they not keep all of the German colonies in the east, an explicit demand for racial equality is thrown out. It is now clear to the Japanese that the West does not and never will see them as equals, even though they are objectively one of the great powers of the world. Post war, the Japanese intervene with the Entente in the Russian civil war. This is once more a failure and the Japanese quickly grown disillusioned with the West. The Washington naval treaty was another snub towards the Japanese.
The Japanese are still intent on expanding their line of advantage because they know they cannot stand up against the industrial might of the USA. An USA that still sees them, not as an equal, but as an inferior. As an informal protectorate, a captive market for the industry and capital of the anglo-american world. So, in 1931, the Mukden incident happens, and Japan takes control of Manchuria. In their fear of the west, they have accomplished exactly what they feared. In search of methods of securing their national sovereignty, they have decisively alienated the West. It is a crossing the Rubicon type of thing. Japan would assert its independence, with or without the approval of the western powers. For the west, mainly the USA, the Japanese were getting too big for the corner of "minor regional power" they (the USA) had relegated Japan to. Japanese expansionism shifts a gear. They sign the anti comitern pact with Germany in 1936, against the Soviet Union. In 1937, the Marco Polo bridge incident happens. The second Sino Japanese war happens. In 1941, after the fall of France, the Vichy regime signs away Indochina to Japan.
The Americans act. In 1939, Roosevelt ends a trade treaty they had with Japan since 1911. This is followed up by the export control act of 1940. Meanwhile, he signs cash and carry in 1939, and destroyers for bases in 1940. On July 26, 1941, FDR has all Japanese assets in the USA frozen, an example for the Dutch and the British who follow suit. Japan loses 3/4ths of its foreign trade and 88% of its oil imports. Their strategic oil reserves are only enough for another 18 months in wartime. The prologue nears it's climax. The Americans have picked a side and its to force Japan back on its knees. The Japanese have no chance of winning a long war of attrition with the USA, this is something they know as well. But they can hurt the Americans hard and hope that they can force the Americans to come to the negotiation table. On 7 December, 1941, Japan strikes at Pearl Harbor.
It has gone into the history books as a "sudden and unprovoked attack", but if you've followed what I've written, then it was not. It was a desperate clawing of an animal cornered and fearing for its life. If you think WW2 was in any shape or form ideological and not a geopolitical war between an alliance of upstarts and an alliance of established powers, then you are consumed by propaganda.
I've tried to write a coherent narrative on why Japan went to war. As with all history, I have generalized a lot and ignored a lot of details. This is a KF forum post, not an encyclopedia.
