Japanese Motives for WWII

On the morning of December 7, 1941 the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in a surprise attack and declaration of war against the United States. The attack was the culmination of growing tensions between the two countries had been developing since the early 1930s. From 1931 to that fateful day in 1941, Japan and America had been maneuvering in a political game of chess. Japan’s motives for entering the war can be summarized to two objectives. The first was Japan’s quest for expansion and the second was defense against western capitalism, which threatened Japan’s prosperity.

During World War I Japan had successfully placed itself amongst the leaders of the Allied nations. Despite this the Japanese struggled against racial discrimination, which plagued Japanese-Western relations. However, racial discrimination was not one-sided, the Japanese strongly believed that they were spiritually superiors to their western counterparts. This superiority complex combined with Japan’s growth during the war fueled imperialistic desires. Japan aspired to be a contender in the global market economy, but Japan lacked vast resources that the United States and other western Allies possessed. During the great depression Japan’s economy was collapsing as exports declined which in turn led to political upheaval. “The American Hawley-Smoot tariff in 1930, followed the next year by British imperial preference, threatened to cause permanent damage to Japanese economy.” (Gordon, p. 140)

Japan believed that political and economic control of China would provide the resources and security that Japan required to flourish. Thus in 1931 Japan invaded Manchuria in a ruthless attack led by the Kwantung Army. “ Manchuria became so important that many economic ...

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...ecause of American attitudes.” (Gillon p. 952) On December 7, 1941 the “Japanese launched their attack on Pearl Harbor, “Hawaii and America entered World War II. (Gillon p. 952) The Japanese did not expect to fight the U.S. on the mainland, they wanted control over the Asia pacific region thus in choosing Pearl Harbor they were attempting to knock out U.S. forces in the Pacific. Japanese superiority complex got the better of them, they held the belief that the U.S. would not defend territory in the Pacific but relinquish it. Japan was mistaken, the pacific war was a brutal battle waged on the islands of the Pacific. “American forces steadily retook Japan’s conquests and worked their way Japan home islands.” (Gillon p.978) The war ended in August 1945 when the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and Japan surrendered six days later.