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The Pacific Theater- Japanese Victories
Spartan v Athens Model
• Athenian Model
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England, France, U.S.
Wealth and harmony are nurtured by international trade
Culture is vibrant as a result of openness
Proviso
• England, France, and U.S. all engaged in Imperialism, although not
Spartan in style
• Spartan Model
– Germany and Japan
– Wealth is ensured by enslavement of foreign peoples
– Citizens owe absolute allegiance to the state, which in turn
provides for their welfare through its military acumen
– Citizen’s must stay hard - sacrifice openness for security
Japanese Aggressiveness (Prior to WWII)
• Social Darwinism/Imperialism
– As a result of the Industrial Revolution, religion, and social
relativism, Europeans looked down on non-whites
– Japanese were the most technologically capable non-whites
during Industrial Revolution- thus they chafed most under
European domineering style
• Lack of Racial Equality Clause in Treaty of Versailles after WWI
• Japanese decided they must guarantee their equal treatment
by force
– Japan’s population was overrunning the island’s resources
– Must be an empire to expand resources and to stand up to
European empires
– Japanese entered the continent  Korea, Manchuria, China,
Indochina
• Formulated the idea of the Greater Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere (Asia for the Asians)
U.S. Responses to Japanese Aggression
• U.S. Saw Japanese moves as Challenging their Own
Interests
– U.S. forced Britain to drop a naval alliance with Japan
– As WWII approached, the U.S. embargoed oil to Japan to
protest Japan’s movement into Vichy ‘controlled’
Indochina
– U.S. had cracked Japanese codes and was aware of
Japanese increasing militarism
• How did the Japanese view their own actions?
Japanese foreign minister in 1937 said, in response
to American criticisms:
– “Japan is expanding and what country in its expansion
era has ever failed to be trying to its neighbors? Ask the
American Indian or the Mexican how excruciatingly
trying the young U.S. used to be. “
Japanese Spartan Ethic Evident in Treatment of
Conquered Peoples (and later POWs)
• Rape of Nanking
• ‘Gives the lie’ to Asia for the Asians
Japan’s Decision to Attack the U.S.
• U.S. Strength at Pearl and Philippines were a
direct threat to Japanese ambitions
• Desperation of the attack?
– By Japanese estimates, the U.S. had 10x the industrial
power of Japan
• Successful Nazi blitzkrieg ‘went to the Japanese
head like wine’
• The U.S. was perhaps a bit heavy-handed
diplomatically with Japan; perhaps we felt too
secure in our superiority?
Pearl and Aftermath
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So, the attacks… duh.
War declared all around
‘Europe First’ Strategy by the U.S. and Britain
Series of Defeats by the Allies in the Pacific
– Two ‘capital’ British battleships sunk
The Philippines
• Japanese Attack
• U.S., under MacArthur, retreated into the Bataan
Peninsula
– their fortress (Corregidor) controls the harbor
– Americans hold out for several months
– Brave resistance, but Japanese have total air
supremacy, so no reinforcements or resupply for
defenders
– Disease in the tropics can take as much of a toll as
fighting
Bataan Death March
• When the allies finally surrendered, they were starved
and diseased
• Japanese wanted to move Americans 70 miles to a set
of concentration camps
– The Japanese had no supplies for them
– the Japanese were also wantonly cruel as they marched
the survivors 70 miles to their internment camps
– Under Japanese warrior culture, to surrender, no matter
the conditions, was shameful thus Americans deserved
harsh treatment
– Apparently in some battles, Japanese soldiers would jump
onto barbed wire so that those following them would use
their bodies as bridges. (Really?!)
• 7k of 70 k died during march; many others died as
Japanese Victories Seal the End of the Imperial Age
(at pretty wicked cost to the Japanese in the long
run, though)
• Japanese take Singapore, Hong Kong, Dutch
East Indies (oil)
• Natives, who watch the whites paraded
humiliatingly by the Japanese, will never resubmit to white rule
Interesting Side-Note
• Many of the Japanese conquests were in the
tropics, which equals fighting in hot, wet
conditions.
• The Japanese Spartans were trained to deal
with any conditions (see pics)
Doolittle Raids
• (I will not reprise these here, but a few key points)
• Shock to Japanese and embarrassment to war
leaders
• Decision was made in Japan to extend
Japanese sphere of control much further than
previously planned to prevent future
bombings
• Many analysts think that this spread the
Japanese too thin and ultimately doomed
them