Seeds of Conflict: The Buildup to the Pacific War

The war between the United States and Japan officially began with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. But the seeds of conflict were being sown much earlier than that, beginning with Japan’s meteoric rise to power at the end of the 19^th century. Chinese civil wars created an opportunity for Japanese expansion. Westernization gave them the tools to make Japan’s dream of empire a reality. Russian revolution made it necessary to move fast to prevent the spread of Communism in eastern Asia. The conflicts in eastern Asia radically altered an entire region through decades of tension and political changes. The Pacific War officially began with a surprise attack, but the road to Pearl Harbor was being paved for more than ten years before the United States and Japan declared war.

Japan’s rise to power began with a period called the Meiji Restoration which started in 1868. The Japanese nation had a very weak military, fractured feudal states, and little power on the world stage. Under the rule of the Meiji emperors, the feudal states were united, and a central government was established. Japan had been a largely agrarian society, but during the Meiji period, the country made significant efforts to reform the educational system and join the industrial revolution that had been sweeping across Europe. Men travelled to Western countries to study the latest technologies and innovations to bring home to Japan, with a particular focus on industry and military technology. Transportation and communications systems were established to connect the various regions of Japan. The individual armies of the feudal lords were abolished, and all men were required to serve for at least three years in the centralized national military.

Institutional changes came with ideological changes as well. The educational reforms instituted “moral training” as part of the national curriculum, which instilled a sense of obligation and duty to family, country, and, above all, the emperor. The emperor was a central figure of the Shinto religion, which replaced Buddhism as the national religion of Japan. Shinto beliefs held that the emperor was descended from the sun gods, and Japanese citizens were raised from birth to revere him as divine.

At the same time, nationalism was promoted across Japan as part of the unification process. As a growing nation, Japan looked at the great Western powers with their string of colonies across the globe and hoped to build its own empire in Asia. China, historically the great Asian power, had fallen behind in the industrial movement and was beset by corrupt governance and civil unrest. Japan’s leaders predicted the weakening of the former powerhouse and turned their eyes toward the Chinese vassal state of Korea. With its robust and modernized military, Japan prepared to make their first moves towards creating an Asian empire.

The resulting conflict with China, the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894, ended in a Japanese victory. Many Western nations held interests in China at the time, and despite the Chinese treaty with Japan ceding the Liaotung Peninsula, the foreign powers pressured Japan to return its new territories. The Japanese were infuriated. They were determined to build up their military to avoid being bullied by foreign powers in the future. They refused to give up their ideas of taking Korea, which led to another war just a decade later, this time with the one foreign power that threatened Japan’s aspirations of becoming the next Asian power: Russia.

Russia was already a major power in Europe and was poised to take advantage of China’s weakened state to become the dominant Eastern power. Japanese leaders believed that Russia’s ascendance to power would mean the end of their empire. Therefore, Russia had to be defeated quickly, before the completion of their Trans-Siberian Railway gave them unprecedented mobility and access to the Far East. After the Anglo-Japanese Treaty of 1902, which curbed European interference in a conflict against Japan, the Japanese attacked the Russian navy at Port Arthur in 1904. They gave no prior warning, a pattern in Japanese warfare that would repeat itself often in the decades to come.

The Russians and Japanese fought over their mutual interests in Korea as well as Manchuria, which Russia controlled but Japan saw as vital for the future survival of the nation. The fighting took place mostly in China or the waters around it, where the Japanese had fought the First Sino-Japanese War a decade before. The Japanese learned from their prior experience and planned their strategy accordingly. The Russians, however, made no note of their enemy’s last engagement and made many similar mistakes that the Chinese had. It cost them the war, ending with the overwhelming Japanese victory at the Battle of Tsushima Strait in May 1905. As a result, Japan proved itself as a dominant Asian power, gained control of southern Korea and access to Manchuria, and drew the attention of the European powers as a nation that was fast becoming their equal.

Japan, like the rest of the world, suffered a depression in the aftermath of World War I. They also felt slighted by the lack of recognition from other world powers during the negotiations for the Treaty of Versailles. As the population continued to grow and the economy continued to decline, Japan looked for ways to expand its territory and obtain more resources and power. Propaganda emerged that denounced Western ways as slovenly and degenerate, while promoting Japan’s idyllic rural life and “spiritual prowess” as superior to anything the rest of the world had to offer. Young boys inundated with these messages grew up to be soldiers and sailors in the Japanese military who would take matters into their own hands and begin a conflict that would eventually erupt into global warfare.

In 1931, Japan had the right to station soldiers in Manchuria to “protect their interests,” particularly the railways, which they primarily built and maintained. Although Japanese leaders did not want to make any aggressive moves that would invite sanctions from other world leaders, the lower ranks of the Japanese military were itching for war. Two Japanese colonels of the Kwantung Army in Manchuria plotted to spark a war in the region and orchestrated the bombing of a Japanese railway station in the Manchurian town of Mukden. The Chinese were blamed, and fighting broke out between the Japanese and Chinese in the area. Japan poured soldiers into the region, who marched their way across China, quickly outpacing their excuse of defending themselves against the Chinese. Although the authorities did not order the operation, Japanese leaders gave their approval and support for the invasion and established the Japanese-led state of Manchukuo in Manchuria.

The United States and the League of Nations issued statements refusing to acknowledge the Japanese claims in Chinese territory, but the Japanese didn’t care. They maintained their control of Manchuria, using its resources and encouraging the Japanese people to colonize the region. When the League of Nations investigated the Mukden Incident and condemned Japan for its part, the Japanese left the League. The triumph over the Chinese was seen in Japan as more evidence of their superiority over other nations and their duty to spread peace under Japanese rule throughout Asia.

In 1937, another incident erupted which sparked the Second Sino-Japanese War and eventually devolved into World War II. The Marco Polo Bridge Incident took place on 7 July 1937 when Japanese night maneuvers devolved into a clash between Army troops and the local Chinese garrison. The conflict spread like a wildfire, with Japanese imperial approval to move troops into China once again. This time, however, the Chinese Nationalist leader, Chiang Kai-Shek, was determined to put up more of a fight than they had at Mukden. He hoped to wage a decisive battle in the port city of Shanghai, which had a substantial international district. The two armies clashed in Shanghai, but the Japanese quickly overwhelmed the Chinese and began a grotesque killing spree across the city. Citizens of Western powers such as Britain, France, and the United States who were living in the city witnessed and reported the atrocities committed against the Chinese by Japanese soldiers. While Chiang lost the city, he gained the international attention he hoped for. Now the other major powers could not ignore what was happening in Asia. The United States, in particular, took notice and watched the events unfold with concern.

Although American leaders, including President Franklin Roosevelt, were sympathetic to the plight of the Chinese, American sentiment at the time was primarily isolationist and vehemently against involvement in a foreign war. The president also hesitated to place heavy sanctions on Japan for fear of damaging the still-healing American economy. Trade with Japan comprised a significant portion of U.S. overseas exports, and for a nation just pulling itself out of the depths of the Great Depression, the United States could hardly afford to lose a major trading partner. Yet the more people learned about the situation in China, the more they felt that their trade was essentially supporting the war in Asia. Isolationist sentiments were slowly eroding as the atrocities in China mounted. Limited restrictions were placed on Japan as America shut down the trade of resources such as scrap metal and aviation gas to Japan. This was a blow to the Japanese war machine, but their conquest of Asia was just beginning.

After the fall of France to Germany, Japan turned its attention to French Indochina. With the German Vichy government in France occupied in Europe, the Japanese believed that the French would have little interest or strength in their colony in Asia. They moved into Indochina in September 1940. This turned the war from a conflict between the two nations of China and Japan to a multinational war, which President Roosevelt could not ignore. Although concerned about the effects it would have, he authorized a full embargo of oil trade with Japan and froze Japanese assets in the United States. Japan’s response was to turn to the Dutch East Indies as a new source of oil, and quickly mobilized troops to turn south for another invasion. Rather than slowing the Japanese Army, the American response served to spread the war to other nations and paint a target on their own territories.

Japan’s leaders had long since identified the United States as a potential obstacle to their aspirations of empire in Asia. Any major power had the ability to intervene, but the United States was just across the Pacific Ocean, and Congress passed several Naval Acts during the 1930s that poured money into American shipbuilding programs. Japanese military planners began plotting an attack against the United States that would keep the Americans out of the war in Asia. Even as Japanese diplomats negotiated with the Americans for the release of oil and other materials to Japan, plans were drawn up and men and materiel allocated to this attack. Japan continued to demand immediate oil and supplies for its war machine without any promise of withdrawing its troops, which the Americans found unacceptable. Negotiations deteriorated in America as plans were authorized and carried out in Japan. By November 1941, the Japanese naval attack force sailed from Japan to carry out the attack that would officially bring war to the United States in the Pacific.

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