The Pacific Theater- Japanese Victories

1
The Pacific Theater- Japanese Victories
2
Spartan v Athens Model

• Athenian Model
• England, France, U.S.
• Wealth and harmony are nurtured by international
  trade
• Culture is vibrant as a result of openness
• Proviso
• England, France, and U.S. all engaged in
  Imperialism, although not Spartan in style
• Spartan Model
• Germany and Japan
• Wealth is ensured by enslavement of foreign
  peoples
• Citizens owe absolute allegiance to the state,
  which in turn provides for their welfare through
  its military acumen
• Citizens must stay hard - sacrifice openness
  for security

3
Japanese Aggressiveness (Prior to WWII)

• Social Darwinism/Imperialism
• As a result of the Industrial Revolution,
  religion, and social relativism, Europeans looked
  down on non-whites
• Japanese were the most technologically capable
  non-whites during Industrial Revolution- thus
  they chafed most under European domineering style
  
• Lack of Racial Equality Clause in Treaty of
  Versailles after WWI
• Japanese decided they must guarantee their equal
  treatment by force
• Japans population was overrunning the islands
  resources
• Must be an empire to expand resources and to
  stand up to European empires
• Japanese entered the continent ? Korea,
  Manchuria, China, Indochina
• Formulated the idea of the Greater Asian
  Co-Prosperity Sphere (Asia for the Asians)

4
U.S. Responses to Japanese Aggression

• U.S. Saw Japanese moves as Challenging their Own
  Interests
• U.S. forced Britain to drop a naval alliance with
  Japan
• As WWII approached, the U.S. embargoed oil to
  Japan to protest Japans movement into Vichy
  controlled Indochina
• U.S. had cracked Japanese codes and was aware of
  Japanese increasing militarism
• How did the Japanese view their own actions?
  Japanese foreign minister in 1937 said, in
  response to American criticisms
• Japan is expanding and what country in its
  expansion era has ever failed to be trying to its
  neighbors? Ask the American Indian or the Mexican
  how excruciatingly trying the young U.S. used to
  be.

5
Japanese Spartan Ethic Evident in Treatment of
Conquered Peoples (and later POWs)

• Rape of Nanking
• Gives the lie to Asia for the Asians

6
Japans Decision to Attack the U.S.

• U.S. Strength at Pearl and Philippines were a
  direct threat to Japanese ambitions
• Desperation of the attack?
• By Japanese estimates, the U.S. had 10x the
  industrial power of Japan
• Successful Nazi blitzkrieg went to the Japanese
  head like wine
• The U.S. was perhaps a bit heavy-handed
  diplomatically with Japan perhaps we felt too
  secure in our superiority?

7
Pearl and Aftermath

• So, the attacks duh.
• War declared all around
• Europe First Strategy by the U.S. and Britain
• Series of Defeats by the Allies in the Pacific
• Two capital British battleships sunk

8
The Philippines

• Japanese Attack
• U.S., under MacArthur, retreated into the Bataan
  Peninsula
• their fortress (Corregidor) controls the harbor
• Americans hold out for several months
• Brave resistance, but Japanese have total air
  supremacy, so no reinforcements or resupply for
  defenders
• Disease in the tropics can take as much of a toll
  as fighting

9
Bataan Death March

• When the allies finally surrendered, they were
  starved and diseased
• Japanese wanted to move Americans 70 miles to a
  set of concentration camps
• The Japanese had no supplies for them
• the Japanese were also wantonly cruel as they
  marched the survivors 70 miles to their
  internment camps
• Under Japanese warrior culture, to surrender, no
  matter the conditions, was shameful? thus
  Americans deserved harsh treatment
• Apparently in some battles, Japanese soldiers
  would jump onto barbed wire so that those
  following them would use their bodies as bridges.
  (Really?!)
• 7k of 70 k died during march many others died as
  internees

10
Japanese Victories Seal the End of the Imperial
Age (at pretty wicked cost to the Japanese in the
long run, though)

• Japanese take Singapore, Hong Kong, Dutch East
  Indies (oil)
• Natives, who watch the whites paraded
  humiliatingly by the Japanese, will never
  re-submit to white rule

11
Interesting Side-Note

• Many of the Japanese conquests were in the
  tropics, which equals fighting in hot, wet
  conditions.
• The Japanese Spartans were trained to deal with
  any conditions (see pics)

12
Doolittle Raids

• (I will not reprise these here, but a few key
  points)
• Shock to Japanese and embarrassment to war
  leaders
• Decision was made in Japan to extend Japanese
  sphere of control much further than previously
  planned to prevent future bombings
• Many analysts think that this spread the Japanese
  too thin and ultimately doomed them