Now that “PACIFIC THEATRE” has been adopted as a seperate catagory in this forum perhaps it might be a good time to go back to the beginning and take a look at when and how this theatre of war came about.
Of course WHEN it came about was December 7, 1941 with the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor – which plunged Japan and the United States into war.
The WHY is a bit more complicated – and might make an interesting thread on the subject of why Japan opted for a war with the more powerful United States.
Here’s a start:
In the 1930’s Japan was a small industrial-based island nation with few natural resources and limited agricultural capacity. She was dependant on foreign nations for almost all of her critical necessities both domestic and military. The United States was Japan’s principal source of supplies – scrap iron and steel from the U.S. were the basic raw materials needed to make Japanese steel. Copper and other non-ferrous metals were also imported from the U.S. Especially critical to Japan were oil imports from the U.S. for aviation gasoline. diesel fuel and other petrolium products to keep her military machine functioning. The U.S. was also a major supplier of agricultural products.
Japan’s driving ambition was to become a great power in the world community. One mark (in the 1930’s) of great power status was the possession of colonies. Another was self-sufficiency. Therefore, Japan embarked on a course of action that would achieve both goals at the same time – by conquest and/or control of new colonies – and the materials, supplies and military advantages they offered. This singular military course of action was deceptively cloaked under the organizational title : “The Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere”.
Early on Japan seized Formosa and Korea.
In 1931 Japan seized Manchuria.
In 1937 Japan undertook a large scale invasion of China proper.
In September of 1940 Japan signed the Tripartite Pact with Germany and Italy. Because this pact was primarily directed against the United States and designed to keep the U.S. neutral in any future war, it immediately put the U.S. and Japan on a collision course. The Tripartite Pact also helped Japan facilitate opportunities that could provide them the colonial asperations they desired. Germany’s earlier conquest of France and the Netherlands had left the colonial possessions of those two countries – French Indochina and the Dutch East Indies – unprotected.
At Japan’s request Germany put pressure on the French Vichy government to grant Japan military bases in French Indochina.
Germany also put pressure on the Netherlands to grant Japan access to the vast sources of oil, nickle, tin, boxite, crude rubber, corn, sugar and other agricultural products available in the Dutch East Indies. A fringe benefit of Japan’s control over the East Indies was the serious affect that it would have on the U.S. when their own imports of critical rubber from the area were cut off.
The U.S. countered Japan’s signing the Tripartite Pact by placing an embargo on the export of American oil, scrap iron and steel, and other strategic materials to Japan.
In July 1941 Japan occupied Indochina, claiming her desperate need for raw materials as justification.
The United States countered by freezing all Japanese funds and assets in the U.S. – effectively halting all trade between the two countries.
The seriousness of the U.S. embargo and the freezing assets prompted Japan to attempt negotiations for a mutual and peaceful working agreement between the two countries – at the same time protecting Japanese Asian military conquests.
Before entering into talks on an agreement the United States demanded a complete withdrawal of Japanese troops from China and Indochina and the abandonment of all territorial rights in both areas.
The demand was entirely unacceptable to the Japanese government. To give up China and Indochina would prevent Japan from acheiving her main goal of becoming a world power. Japan reasoned that a war with the U.S. in the Pacific theatre of war would be basically a naval conflict and that Japan – with one of the mightiest and best trained navies in the world – would be superior to the United States in the Pacific. However, a war with the U.S. would require the initial destruction of the United States Navy (at Pearl Harbor) followed by a massive build-up of Japanese military strength in the entire Pacific area.
Germany had already conquored France and Eastern Europe, and had invaded Russia, and was on the verge of invading Great Britain. Japan had already started building up troops in China for a possible movement against Russia in compliance with Germany’s wishes. Japan reasoned that if the U.S. entered the war Germany would keep her involved in the European theatre while Japan attacked Russis from the east in a pincers movement with Germany. The U.S. would be forced to sue for peace – on Japan’s terms.
But the loss of Japan’s position in China, Indochina and Asia proper would reduce her to a third rate power, economic stagnation and increased dependence on foreign powers. Japan considered the United States’ demands an ultimatum from which there was no deviation. The only option left to the Japanese Government was to go to war with the United States.
At 6 p.m. on November 26, 1941 a large Japanese task force sailed from Hitokappu Bay in the Kurile Islands under sealed orders. The sealed orders contained intructions for a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.
And so, the Pacific Theatre of War was born.
Wadaya think??? Did I get most of all that right?? Comments, additions, corrections welcome!!!