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Katanas of the Rising Sun: Difference between revisions
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Japan, running out of options, believed it had to take and hold new sources of oil and strategic minerals. It also believed (quite possibly wrongly) that it would have to fight America if it tried to take the Dutch and British possessions that had the things it needed. Thus, Japan launched a surprise assault on Pearl Harbor, home of the US Pacific Fleet, to buy themselves enough time to take and fortify the areas they thought they needed. But America understandably took this ''very'' [[It's Personal|personally]], being attacked without receiving a formal declaration of war quickly enough<ref>A declaration ''was'' issued, but was marred by typical Japanese indirectness -- "it appears that negotiations are no longer necessary", rather than "we are now at war" -- and strategic blundering that resulted in it being presented ''after'' the attack</ref>. Following this were a series of invasions of British, Dutch, Australian and American territories throughout the Pacific. But Japan had, by Pearl Harbor, bought itself a long war that its industry and economy could not sustain. Outfought and outproduced, they were pushed back across the Pacific over the course of the next two years by a resurgent USA, with assistance from Australia and New Zealand. The Imperial Navy, after performing well in the opening battles, was shattered by several major defeats. Japan's island garrisons were either left to rot on the vine or were subjected to overwhelming assault and suffered hideous losses. Finally Japan was [[There Is No Kill Like Overkill|bombed, burned, and flattened]] by the rather grisly [[General Ripper|General Curtis LeMay]]. Still unwilling to surrender, Japan was subjected to the [[Death From Above|atomic bomb]]; while its necessity is debated to this day, the belief at the time was that this would prevent the need for a repeat of the grisly battles in Iwo Jima and Saipan, where Japanese forces had fought nearly to the last man, most Japanese civilians had committed suicide rather than accept an Allied occupation, and the Allies, despite winning the battle, lost many men. An invasion of the Japanese mainland, it was thought, would result in the deaths of millions, making the loss of [[A Million Is a Statistic|a few hundred thousand]] a small price to pay.
In the aftermath of the first atomic bombing (on Hiroshima), the government continued its refusal to surrender unconditionally, while in private, the emperor prepared for the inevitable. One A-bomb later, and Japan declared its surrender on 15 August, 1945 (mostly at the behest of the emperor, over the heads of military brass who ''still'' wanted to keep fighting). This was fortunate for the US, because they had no more atomic bombs left. The military complex of Imperial Japan was forcibly dismantled, governmental power was effectively handed over to the US military (with General
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** This had a political purpose as well. It represented an anchor in [[Good Old Ways|the past]] during the Meji Reformation.
** Post-War [[M Acarthur]] forced the Emperor to deny he was divine in a speech but it was not the best phrased and was ambiguous, apparently.
* [[Government Conspiracy]]: Elements in the Imperial Japanese Army. It is hard, even in retrospect, to be sure who [[The Man Behind the Man|really ruled]] Japan at the time. General
** Hideki Tojo was officially the Prime Minister of course, but he was so unassertive in personality compared to Mussolini and Hitler that one might almost think he was chosen to be a puppet.
*** Tojo might have seemed unassertive, but he was a high level military guy, with a reputation for being charismatic and sharp minded, it's doubtful he was a puppet, but he couldn't effectively control the Japanese war machine, and it's worth noting that he started facing stiff opposition from the military once they started losing.
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