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Oh okay, well when talking to my friend who knows more about WWII than I do, he said that if the US just lifted their embargoes on Japan, and allowed Japan to trade, that that would have ended the Pacific War with no further loss of life, and nuclear weapons were unnecessary overkill he says, when they could have just allowed trade.
It doesn't sound as though your friend knows anything at all about WWII.
Japan had no interest in trading with the Western powers from a position of weakness; they were determined to become a world military power and deal with the West as equals, from a position of strength. In the 19th Century, Western colonial powers (especially Britain and France) dominated China, India, Malaysia, and Indonesia economically - because they had the military might to force their will on the Asian countries. Japan watched this happen, and was determined that they would not allow the same thing to happen to them.
They recognized that the only way to avoid this fate and be treated as equals was to become a military and industrial power themselves, but they had almost no strategic resources in Japanese territory. So, they resolved to expand their territory. From the 1920s on, they were determined to seize China and most of the rest of the region, make it part of the Japanese Empire, and force out the Western powers. This was their strategic goal from the beginning, and loosening a few trade restrictions in the late 30s wasn't going to change the course they were on.
WWII, and specifically Japan's attack on the United States and British forces in Asia and the Pacific, wasn't something that just happened on the spur of the moment in 1941. It was the inevitable progression of almost 40 years of Japanese strategic planning, and 10 years of violent, aggressive territorial expansion by the Japanese military.
Oh okay, but I think my friend thinks that the US and Britain maybe were being hypocritical since they did so much colonizing, but didn't like having it coming back their way then maybe, or so it seems he thinks.
Oh okay, but I think my friend thinks that the US and Britain maybe were being hypocritical since they did so much colonizing, but didn't like having it coming back their way then maybe, or so it seems he thinks.
Oh, he's definitely got a point there. But by the late 30s, there really wasn't much the US or Britain could realistically had done to prevent the war. Japan had already invaded Manchuria in 1931, and the curse it was cast. The West's imperialist aggression over the previous century or so had set the stage for Japan's expansionist strategy, and I don't think the West could or realistically would have done anything to unring the bell.
Yeah I mean he says that it was not the US or British's war to get involved in, but I mean is the US and Japan suppose to respect Japan for doing so, since they did it?
No they are not. The 15,000 strong British & USA bomber force was being transferred to Okinawa. They would have razed Japan in a few weeks. This bomber force with the Soviets wiping them out within days in Manchuria and about to invade Hokkaido, they were on Sakalin, was the prime impetus driving the Japanese to the negotiating table.
The USA could only manage 2 bombing raids a week on Japan. With the whole of the 15,000 strong British & US bomber fleets transferred to Okinawa, complete with fighter escorts, they would manage 2 per day, using the incendiary naplam. The B-29 was designed to operate at 30,000 feet away from Japanese fighters dropping explosives. However bombing accuracy was poor at that height. The new not fully developed engines kept burning out, being over stressed at that height. The new unproven B-29 were risked, taken in at low level on the jet stream, preserving engines with less stress upon them. They dropped napalm when conventional incendiary ran out, wiping out wooden built Tokyo in two raids, killing 100,000-150,000 people. That was a taster for Japan, however the USAAF had already destroyed about 80% of Japanese industry.
The idea was to get the Japanese to surrender using air power without having a large ground war which would have resulted in maybe WW1 scales of casualties. The western allies did this against Germany.
Japan did not go to war because of trade. Trade was embargoed because Japan had repeatedly undertaken aggressive territorial seizures. The idea that, had the embargoes simply been lifted then the Japanese would have pulled out of Indo-China and China proper, and that the killing would have thereby stopped, is laughable.
IJ was in the category of countries that would be satisfied with nothing but ultimate victory. It might agree, from time to time, to "peace." That "peace" would amount to truces but it would never have agreed to stop at any fixed boundaries. The embargoes were an effort, similar to modern anti-war sentiments, to use "economic sanctions." The only problem is that when they are effective they're too much for anti-war types to stomach. Oil embargoes to an island nation constitute one of the rare times that sanctions can work. One or two deliveries, not enough to fuel the nation, might get through.
No they are not. The 15,000 strong British & USA bomber force was being transferred to Okinawa. They would have razed Japan in a few weeks. This bomber force with the Soviets wiping them out within days in Manchuria and about to invade Hokkaido, they were on Sakalin, was the prime impetus driving the Japanese to the negotiating table.
Is that question for me or NJGoat (who may or may not post here anymore). His thread has resurfaced, why not make a comment there?
Anyways there was no option for negotiation offered by the allies - the terms of surrender for Japan were unconditional. Period.
The Japanese gained one negotiated item; Hirohito's status as ceremonial emperor.
Correct me if I am wrong but that was not negotiated as part of the surrender, it was never part of the stated terms, but just done at MacArthur's request as part of the occupation of Japan.
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