History Essay Example on World War II and Japan

In September 1940, Japan joined World War 2. They had signed the Tripartite, a military alliance known as the “axis”, with Germany and Italy. Japan launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, so the US declared war on Japan in response. They dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Three days later, following Hiroshima, Nagasaki was bombed. Japan decided to surrender on August 14, 1945, but it was only made official on September 2, 1945. After the defeat at the end of World War II, Japan was left to recover and faced numerous challenges along the way because of the destruction of industries, transportation networks, and food shortages. Both Japan and the US were successful in the American occupation because they defended their national interests and benefitted from the agreement.

After Japan joined the war in 1940, the United States decided to impose an economic sanction on them. Economic sanctions are defined as the withdrawal of trade and any financial relations for foreign and security policy reasons. National governments and other international groups have imposed sanctions before to deter, punish, or shame, other organizations that are a threat to their interests or have violated terms (Masters). Sanctions are helpful and a form of intervention but some view them as a low-risk move between diplomacy and war. Because they were cut off, Japan faced shortages of oil, and natural resources, and it lost three-fourths of its overseas trade. Japan then invaded the US and British forces that were located in Asia to seize some resources. They became driven by the thought of displacing the US as the dominant power in the pacific.

Japan had suffered from conflict even before World War 2. They had been looking for natural resources to support the growing industries, so they invaded the Chinese province of Manchuria in 1931. They soon controlled large sections of China, and the Chinese frequently suffered from war crimes. 

Pearl Harbor is located in Hawaii, and is near the center of the Pacific ocean. No one thought that it would be a target, and American intelligence officials thought that if Japan were to attack they would do it in one of the nearby European colonies. All of their naval facilities were undefended and unprepared for an attack. Their fleet was moored and their airplanes were stationed on the airfields. Japan just could not resist the fact that Pearl Harbor was an easy target. Japan took months to plan its attack, the main goal was to destroy the Pacific fleet. The attack would prevent them from being able to fight back while Japan’s armed forces spread. 

The surprise attack, by the Japanese forces, finally came on December 7, 1941, just before eight in the morning. The Japanese had 353 aircraft that launched including 40 torpedo planes, 103 level bombers, 131 dive-bombers, and 79 fighters. About 2,403 U.S people were killed and 68 of them were civilians, and they fully destroyed or damaged nineteen U.S ships, eight of them being battleships. The battleship USS Arizona sunk at Pearl harbor with all its crew on board. The attack lasted an hour and fifteen minutes total, and by the end president, Franklin D. Roosevelt was asking congress to declare war on Japan. 

The US felt stabbed in the back, following Pearl Harbor so they launched an attack on Hiroshima. Hiroshima was one of four possible targets, but it was chosen because of its military importance. President Harry S. Turman gave the order to attack, making the US the first and only nation to use the atomic bomb in war. Enola Gay, a US B-29 bomber aircraft, dropped a nuclear bomb which they codenamed “Little Boy”, on August 6, 1945. Approximately 80,000 people died because of the initial blast, then another 70,000 due to radiation exposure caused afterward. According to the Department of Energy's history of the Manhattan Project “The five-year death total may have reached or even exceeded 200,000, as cancer and other long-term effects took hold,”. Because of the complete devastation caused by the atomic bomb, there were many critics. Former President Dwight D. Eisenhower believed that the bombs were unnecessary ad they could have gotten Japan to surrender without them.   

The United States decided to bomb Nagasaki three days later. Kokura had previously been the top choice to bomb next because it had one of the largest arsenals in Japan. They ended up choosing Nagasaki because it was a port city with many important military factories. “Fat Man” was the codename for the atomic bomb. The bomb was a plutonium implosion with more complexity than the first bomb used on Hiroshima. An estimated 40,000 people were killed. The US wanted to launch the “fat man’ just days after the “little boy” because the weather changes so quickly and in the event of a typhoon, they would have had to delay their attack for weeks. They also wanted Japan to think that they had way more atomic weapons at their disposal, which would hopefully coerce them to surrender sooner. Their naval and air force was destroyed and the intensive bombings in a row left Japan’s city economically devastated.  Japan's emperor Hirohito announced their surrender on August 15, 1945. They formally surrendered to the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union on September 2, 1945. 

After the defeat, the United States led the occupation and rehabilitation of Japan, with the other Allies, which were made up of Great Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union. The American occupation lasted from 1945 to 1952. General Douglas A. MacArthur led the US occupying forces and was in charge of military, political, economic, and social reforms. The Allied powers met at a series of conferences to discuss how to disarm Japan, deal with the colonies, and also to prevent the remilitarization of Japan in the future. 

Japan went through three stages of occupation. Stage one lasted from 1945 to 1947 and was the initial effort to reform and punish Japan. The government and society went through some of their most fundamental changes during this stage. Their army was also dismantled and any former military officers were banned from taking a position as a political leader in the new government. The second stage was the revival of the Japanese economy. The Supreme Command of Allied Powers (SCAP), designed a land reform that would benefit tenant farmers and reduce the power of the rich landowners, a majority of them had advocated for war and been supporters of Japan's expansion. The third stage was a formal peace treaty and an alliance. 

After WWII, Japan was allowed to rebuild itself, but it ran into a number of issues due to the destruction of industries, transportation networks, and food shortages. Both Japan and the United States were successful throughout the American occupation because they protected their national interests and benefitted from the partnership. Japan joined World War II in September 1940. With Germany and Italy, they had signed the Tripartite, a military alliance known as the "axis." The United States declared war on Japan after Japan launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Hiroshima was the target of an atomic bomb. Nagasaki was hit again three days later. Japan formally surrendered on September 2, 1945, after deciding to surrender on August 14, 1945.