Resons Why Japan Lost the War

The Pacific War, as it is commonly referred to in Japan, and otherwise known as WWII here in the Western world, was a trying time for the Japanese. Although the Japanese went into the war with mixed expectations, patriotism and pride in the country and government led the Japanese people and government to maintain the highest expectations for success in their military ventures. Additionally, past successes such as those as the victory over Western giant Russia years before, and the more current 1930s battle successes in China had the Japanese overly confident in their military capability. They were, after all, the one Asian country that had broken the Western chains that once held them. They had, after all, created a modern economy is a short amount of time; and the Japanese economy, government, and military power had gotten the recognition of the West even if it wasn't the complete recognition and equality that Japan had hoped for with such successes. In contrast, Japanese ministers also knew the war wasn't going to be easy. Some military big-shots, such as Ishiwara (a military hero in China) noted that it would be nearly impossible to overcome a giant like the U.S. Whatever the case, Japan's vision of WWII wasn't going to become reality. Although Japan enjoy initial successes, such as the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and advances into IndoChina, Burma, Thailand, and the like, the Japanese also felt the hardships of war early on.

Even before the Japanese pulled the West into the Pacific War they were faced with political and economic odds. Going into the Pacific War resources were scarce, and Tojo (Japan's Prime Minister) sought to deal with this same, and growing problem, during the war years. Associations had been created in order to maintain production, availability, and economic stability; however, Tojo argued that the competition among each association (iron, coal, aviation, ect...) only led to a cut in production, and thus a cut in what Japan was able to use (McClain, 2002, pg 486). Additionally, workers became in short supply. Young women, youth, and men from a wide range of ages began to not only see draft notices flying about their communities, but also summons to factory or mine work. These summons were meant to fill the need for workers in the fields that would supply Japan's wartime needs. Even with these summons workers in Japan were still hard to come by. Japan began using foreign POWs and individuals brought over from Korea and China, especially for physically demanding or dangerous work, such as coal mining. According to McClain (2002), "Between 1941 and 1945 as many as 600,000 to 1 million Koreans were brought to Japan" (pg 489).

Odds on the political front were also against Japan as the government lacked the kind of unity it needed. Prime Minister Tojo had little say in military endeavors. In fact, Tojo often heard of military plans or attacks later than other political figures. In the Japanese government the ministers of the army and navy reported to the Emperor, and not the Prime Minister, so Tojo could not control his military effectively in order to unite government with military. Each ministry and section of government wanted to maintain their own power, and this took the unity Tojo so desperately needed, from him. However, this also prevented Japan from ever becoming a Nazi-like state since soul power was never given to any one party or individual. Likewise, the Japanese Diet continued to meet during the war years.

The Pacific War began with the satisfied Japanese ministers. They were able to obtain the resources they needed from their Southeastern colonies (which Japan seized in the guise of liberation from the West). This well of resources spurned on the Japanese to stretch further still, to obtain more territory and gain strategic positions further into the Pacific. However, this move was Japan's first huge mistake, and the first strategic reason why the Japanese lost the war. In April of 1942 the Americans began bombing Japanese soil, the war finally hit home. The Japanese came to realize that they had made serious errors in judgment when dealing with the U.S. As McClain (2002) puts it, "...American industry was not hamstrung by its capitalist ethic, and it responded with surprising agility to the challenge of fighting a world war..." (pg 499). The U.S had risen to the challenge that the Japanese hadn't counted on. The U.S produced more resources, had more man power, and was thus able to output more wartime necessities such as airplanes, submarines, carriers, and the like.

The early months of 1945 saw the Japanese loss of the Philippines, as General MacArthur marched his troops into Manila and took the country as well as the flow of precious resources to Japan. The defeat in the Philippines signaled a severe loss for the Japanese; they could no longer obtain the resources they so desperately needed to maintain military action. Before the war Japan had been in a similar situation, but after bombing Pearl Harbor and moving into Southeast Asia will initial welcome, the Japanese had remedied their need for resources. Now, again, the Japanese found themselves strapped. The Japanese could no longer afford to fight the same kind of war they had before. With huge losses of manpower, aviation materials, and oil, iron, petroleum, and the like, the Japanese turned to suicide missions in order to fight. Their goal, to cripple U.S carriers and other naval fleets that were reeking havoc on Japanese soil and surrounding territories. The American use of flammable material on Japanese cities had devastated not only life, but also communications, production, transportation, and shipping (McClain, 2002, pg 506-507).

In the end, millions of lives had been lost, cities had been flattened, resources lost, morale devastated. The Japanese were up against the wall, and they had very little to push them forward. Even small victories in China were not enough to pull wartime morale back to its former highpoint. The U.S outnumbered and outfought the Japanese on virtually every front. Britain didn't fall to the Germans, and the Russians joined in the war, both areas the Japanese hadn't anticipated. As history reports is, the Japanese surrendered after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; however, Japan was utterly devastated before that point, and even some of the noble kamikaze were feeling the impact of biting hopelessness from within.

Lu, D. J. (1997). Japan: A Documentary History. M.E. Sharp. Armonk, NY.

McClain, J. (2002). Japan: A Modern History. Norton and Company, Inc. New York, NY.