Japan's Road to War:
In 1920, Japan's wartime economic boom collapsed, and the country suffered a series of recessions. Bad economic conditions were aggravated by the great Kanto earthquake of 1923, which devastated the Tokyo-Yokohama region. Agricultural prices plunged, and the rural economy stagnated. A major bank panic in 1927 set off alarm bells, but conditions grew much worse with the onset of the Great Depression, the global economic slump that began at the end of 1929. Japan's manufacturing production fell, workers were laid off, a new wave of strikes began, and the rural economy went into a tailspin.
These deteriorating economic conditions undercut the fragile growth of Japan's democracy. Public opinion laid blame for the country's economic troubles at the door of the political party leaders, who reacted slowly and conservatively to the economic crisis. Public distrust of the parties was heightened by revelations of political scandals involving the bribery of Diet members, cabinet members, and other leading politicians. Tight links between political parties and big business firms, known as zaibatsu, also deepened public suspicions.
By the early 1930s radical right-wing groups had formed, seeking to end party rule through terrorism. Extreme nationalists, these radicals sought to preserve traditional Japanese values and culture and eradicate what they saw as Western influences: party government, big business, and recent cultural imports. Many junior military officers, often from conservative rural backgrounds, shared these ultra-nationalist views. To achieve their aims, the radicals, with their sympathizers in the military, plotted to assassinate leading business and political figures. In May 1932 the era of party cabinets ended when a terrorist group assassinated Prime Minister Inukai Tsuyoshi. From 1932 until 1945, Japan was governed by military and bureaucratic cabinets whose members claimed to stand above partisan politics.
Until December 1941 the Japanese leadership pursued two courses: They tried to get the oil embargo lifted on terms that would still let them take the territory they wanted, and they prepared for war. The U.S. demanded that Japan withdraw from China and Indochina, but would very likely have settled for a token withdrawal and a promise not to take more territory. After he became Japan's premier in mid-October, General Tojo Hideki set November 29 as the last day on which Japan would accept a settlement without war. Tojo's deadline, which was kept secret, meant that war was practically certain.
The Japanese army and navy had, in fact, devised a war plan in which they had great confidence. They proposed to make fast sweeps into Burma, Malaya, the East Indies, and the Philippines and, at the same time, set up a defensive perimeter in the central and southwest Pacific. They expected the United States to declare war but not to be willing to fight long or hard enough to win. Their greatest concern was the U.S. Pacific Fleet, based at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. If it reacted quickly, it could scramble their very tight timetable. As insurance, the Japanese navy undertook to cripple the Pacific Fleet by a surprise air attack.
The Axis were riding a high tide in midsummer 1942. Stalingrad and the Caucasus oil were seemingly within Hitler's grasp, and Rommel was within striking distance of the Suez Canal. The Japanese had occupied Guadalcanal at the southern end of the Solomon's chain and were marching on Port Moresby. Within the next six months, however, the Axis had been stopped and turned back in the Soviet Union, North Africa, and the southwest Pacific. Here is an account by Mr. Homer Watts of his experiences in dealing with Japanese forces:
"At Guam, kamikazi pilots hit an aircraft carrier there. We were in dock and the carrier was in dock too about a quarter mile from us. This kamikazi plane came in and hit that carrier and they pulled it back to Pearl Harbor to repair it."
A few minutes before 8 AM on Sunday, December 7, 1941, Japanese carrier-based airplanes struck Pearl Harbor. In a raid lasting less than two hours, they sank or seriously damaged eight battleships and 13 other naval vessels. The U.S. authorities had broken the Japanese diplomatic code and knew an attack was imminent. A warning had been sent from Washington, but, owing to delays in transmission, it arrived after the raid had begun. In one stroke, the Japanese navy scored a brilliant success-and assured the Axis defeat in World War II. The Japanese attack brought the U.S. into the war on December 8-and brought it in determined to fight to the finish. Germany and Italy declared war on the United States on December 11.
Above:
Guadalcanal Veteran Ernest Snowden
Click here to view the US Dept film "My Japan"
To many veterans of World War II, Japan to this day symbolizes the supreme evil of mankind. From the moment of Pearl Harbor until the defeat of Japan in August of 1945, the United States waged a war in the Pacific that severely tested their mettle and determination to win. War requires sacrifice, and in order to foster public support for the war effort, the U.S. Government mounted a huge public information campaign. In movies, posters, newspapers, and in the broadcast media, Americans were warned of the perfidious nature of the Japanese. In keeping with In keeping with the historical attitudes of the time period, we present a look at Japan through the eyes of World War II veterans.
World War II and Kentuckians: Voices of a Generation
Introduction
Campaigns
The Warriors
Women in War
The Homefront
The Enemy
Click hear to hear an interview with a Japanese woman who experienced WW2 firsthand.
Above
Guam and Iwo Jima Veteran Homer "Pops" Watts
American servicemen resented Japanese treatment of prisoners of war and many harbor ill feelings to this day. Homer Watts found it hard to forgive the atrocities against US soldiers at Bataan:
"We picked up several guys and they had been in that [Bataan Death] march and had been treated very bad. They beat them and everything else. Right to this day, I know I shouldn't be that way I reckon, but I've got animosity against the Japs. I can't help it. Its a bad thing to have that but when you see how they treated people and what they done, you just have that feeling."
Marine Corps veteran Ernest Snowden remembers the Japanese on Guadalcanal as brutal warriors who killed their enemies - even when they had been captured and were defenseless:
"We weren't trained how to hate the enemy, we learned that. They killed 'em by the hundreds but it wasn't that hard after a while. Japs, they were mean, one thing about 'em was they treated everybody like they were going to kill them all. They killed 5 Catholics on the island, they killed everybody, nobody but a Jap. They didn't mess around with anybody else but another Jap, cause they killed everyone else."
He also recalls an episode in which the Japanese pretended to capitulate, only to ambush the squad of 25 Marines sent to accept their surrender:
"That was Colonel Geki. It happened on August the 12th. I would have went that night if the whole jap army was gonna surrender but it was 9 o'clock at night. I went down there at daytime. They went down there at night time and they killed Col. Geki [the Japanese], they killed 22 out of the 25, and three got away. The official history is that they never found the patrol but I saw them with my own two eyes. They were all hacked up, they weren't even covered up, just sand blowing over them.
'Another thing about them japs, they wouldn't bother you in daytime. You could do whatever you wanted to, sleep or whatever. I don't know why they never bothered us in daytime. They thought there eye color, or something, they could see at night and we couldn't. They were of the opinion they could see and we couldn't. They paid for it later."
