Militarism+in+Japan

Militarism in Japan After WW1, Japan's economical situation was bad. The Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 and the world wide depression of 1929 intensified the crisis. During the 1930s, the military established almost complete control over the government. Many political enemies were assassinated, and communists persectued. Teaching and censorship in education and media were further intensified. Navy and amy officers soon occupied most of the important offices, incuding the one of the prime minister. Earlier, Japan followed the example of Western nations and forced China into unequal economical and political treaties. Furthermore, Japan's influence over Manchuria had been steadily growning since the end of the Russo-Japanese war of 1904-1905. When the Chinese Nationalists began to seriousley challenge Japan's position in Manchuria in 1931 the Kwantung Army (Japanese armed forces in Manchuria) occupied Manchuria. In the following year "Manchukuo" was declared an independent state controlled by the Kwantung Army through a puppet government. In the same year the Japanese air force bombarded Shanghai in order to protect Japanese residents from anti-Japanese movements. In 1933, Japan withdrew from the League of Nations since they were heavily criticized for their actions in China. in July 1937, the 2nd Sino-Japanese War broke out. A small incident was soon made into a full scale war by the Kwantung army. The Kwantung army acted rather independently from a more moderate government. The Japanese forces succeeded in occupying almost the whole coast of China and committed severe war atrocities on the chinese population, especially during the fall of the Nunking (the capital). However, the Chinese government never surrendered completely and the war continuted on a lower scale until 1945. In 1940, Japan occupied French Vietnam upon agreement with the French Vichy government, and joined the Axis powers Germany and Italy. These actions intensified Japan's conflict with the US and Great Britain which reacted with an oil boycott. The resulting oil shortage and failures to solve the conflict diplomatically, made Japan decide to capture the oil rich Indonesia, and to start a war with the US and Great Britain. In December 1941, Japan attacked the Allied powers at Pearl Harbour and several other points throughtout the Pacific. Japan was able to expand its control over a large territory that expanded to the border of India in the West and New Guinea in the South withing the next 6 months. The turning point in the Pacific war was the battle of Midway, in June 1942. From then on, the Allied forces slowly won back the territories occupied by Japan. In 1944 intensive air raids started over Japan. In the spring of 1945, US forces invaded Okinawa in one of the war's bloodiest battles. On July, 1945 the Allied powers requested Japan in the Potsdam Declaration to surrender unconditionally or destruction would continue. However, the military didn't consider surrendering under such terms, partially even after the US military forces dropped 2 atomic bomgs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6th and 9th, and the Soviet Union entered the war against Japan on August 8th. On August 14th however Emperor Showa finally decided to surrender unconditionally.