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Several Theaters of War The Pacific War started in 1937, when Japan initiated an undeclared war against China, which did not have a central government at the time. The reasons for Japan to get involved in the conflict with China were very prosaic it simply need the access to Chinese market and wanted to insure the steady flow of raw materials from the continent, which was crucial for the effective functioning of Japanese economy. The reason why Japanese army was able to score early successes in the war is because Japanese military leaders thoroughly planned its initial attacks. Chinese society, at the time, was divided on two warring fractions Communists and Nationalists, which hated each other passionately. Japanese took the advantage of this situation and installed a few puppet regimes in China, which helped Japanese to maintain their military presence in the area, until the final stages of the war.
However, the conflict between China and Japan did not influence the outcome of Pacific War. It is only with the involvement of USA, Britain, and USSR that Pacific War received dramatic proportions. In 1941, USA, Australia, Britain, and the Dutch government in exile signed an agreement, which forbade the sale of oil to Japan. This was equal to a declaration of war against Japan, because it meant that Japanese war effort in China would come to a stall. Japan had no choice but to gain an access to oil in forceful manner. On December 7, 1941 Japanese torpedo bombers attacked a U.
S. Naval base Pearl Harbor, while succeeding in destroying 3 American battle ships and 2 destroyers. The American loses accounted for 2. 400 people. However, American carriers did not sustain any damage, because they were out in the sea, at the time of attack.
This had a major influence on the outcome of the war, because it allowed Americans to quickly reconsider their naval strategy, which proved to be a decisive factor later in war. Nevertheless, it was not until 1942 that Allies began to achieve military victories over Japanese forces. Prior to this, Japan was able to conquer Burma, the Dutch East Indies, New Guinea, and Solomon Islands. The major setback for the Allies proved to be the capture of Singapore on February 15, 1942, when Japanese took 130. 000 of British, Australian, and Indian soldiers as prisoners of war. Within a very short period, Japan also captured islands of Timor, Java, and Bali.
This had a very negative effect on Allies morale. Japanese Zero fighters proved to be superior to American and British planes of the same class in every respect. Japanese soldiers showed an unusual fieriness in the battle, while many Commonwealth troops, such as Indians, did not even know why they were being sent to fight for the British interests, in the first place. Allies desperately needed a victory. It did not make them to wait for too long.
The Battle of Midway proved to be the turning point in war against Japan. On June 4, 1942 Japanese 272 planes that were launched from 4 carriers Story, Kara, Aka and Hire headed towards U. S. naval base on the atoll of Midway, while hoping to destroy American 3 carriers that were presumably based there. However, the Americans were aware of Japanese plans this time, because Navy's code breakers were able to decipher Japanese secret code, used for communication with headquarters. In the issuing battle, 14 American dive bombers Dauntless, launched from carrier Enterprise, succeeded in sinking 3 Japanese biggest carriers, which took the wars strategic initiative away from Japan.
From this time on, Japanese generals started to get increasingly preoccupied with the matters of defense, even though that Japanese army was still capable of wining a few local battles against Allies, up until 1944. The most atrocious phase of Pacific War began with a Battle of Guadalcanal, when Americans tried to kick Japanese off this island. This did not happen until February of 1943, while resulting in enormous amount of causalities on both sides. After this battle, the Japanese main objective became holding on to already occupied territories, which was increasingly difficult to do, because Allies technological superiority was becoming more obvious. Japanese forces were being thinly spread out, with their supply lines becoming an easy prey to U.
S. planes and submarines. Slowly but surely Allied forces began to occupy island after island, while getting closer to Japan. In 1943, Australian and American expeditionary force captured the island of New Guinea, thus eliminating the threat of Japanese bombing raids on Northern Australia. British troops were also slowly advancing in Thailand and Burma. Soviet Union was still remaining neutral, but it was evident that this country also begins to sharpen its teeth on Japan.
One of the reasons while Japanese naval tactics proved to be ineffective, in the long run, is because Japanese military leaders failed to recognize the prevalent role of carriers in naval war, early enough. They were still thinking that the outcome of every major naval battle is going to depend on the caliber of battleships guns. The practice proved this point of view as being outdated. The Battle of Leyte Gulf was the last battle of WWII, where battleships would directly fire at each other. Japanese were hoping that the 450 mm guns of their battleships Yamato and Musashi would give them a major advantage, during confrontation with U. S. 5 th fleet.
However, Americans avoided getting close to these Japanese battleships, while allowing the planes from their 15 carries to deal with them. Mushashi was sunk by direct hits of 11 bombs and 8 torpedoes. Yamato managed to fire a few shots on American fleet, but it had no choice but to immediately retreat, otherwise it would share the same fate with Mushashi. Japanese naval commanders also failed to realize the fact that commercial raiding was a very effective way to undermine enemy's military effort in the war of attrition. Japanese submariners were being instructed to focus their attention on sinking military ships.
This resulted in the fact that the crew members life expectancy on Japanese submarine was one week. Allies, on the other hand, achieved a great success at sinking Japanese commercial transports, which contributed a lot to the fact that, at closing stage of war, Japanese soldiers often did not have any other means to fight the enemy than with their bayonets. The capturing of Philippines by American army in 1944 did not leave any doubt that Japanese military defeat is a matter of very short time. At the same time, British offensive in Burma in 1944 - 1945, resulted in Japanese Burma Army rapidly loosing its defensive positions.
On May 1, 1945, Japanese Burma Army was being encircled and it seized to exist as military unit. The Borneo Campaign of 1945 was the last major Allied campaign in the South West Pacific Area. Australian troops, under the leadership of General Leslie Morshead were finally able to defeat Japanese garrison on July 21. After this, there was nothing lying on the way to Japan.
After having captured a Japanese island of Okinawa, Americans built an air strip on it, which allowed them to begin a bombing campaign against mainland Japan that culminated in dropping nuclear bombs of Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japanese were resolved to fight to the bitter end, without even contemplating the possibility of capitulation. However, after Americans used nuclear weapon against them, they realized that continuing resistance, on their part, would result in their whole slaughter, when they will not even get a chance to shoot at the enemy. Soviet Union repaid Japan for remaining neutral, during the most critical days of winter of 1941, with launching a surprise attack against Japanese Kwantung Army in China on August 9, 1945.
A few days later Japanese Emperor agreed to capitulate. The most profound reason why Japan sustained a military defeat, at the end of Pacific War, is the fact that this country could not possibly match Allied industrial capabilities. Germany could not provide any real help to Japan, because of being geographically remote. These two countries could not even be referred to as allies, in traditional sense of this word, because they had nothing in common, except for their hatred towards U.
S. and Britain. Japan was doomed from very beginning. Japanese generals were well aware of it; therefore, Japanese military strategy simply did not have any other objective than postponing Japans final demise. This is why Allies were able to prevail in the end. Bibliography: Stokesbury, James.
A Short History of World War 2. New York: William Morrow and Company, 1980.
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Research essay sample on War Against Japan Japanese Military
