In 1936 Japan joined forces with Nazi Germany, and in 1937 with Fascist Italy, in the anti-Communist "Anti-Comintern Pact", pledging to aid one another in the event of war.
After an incident in July, 1937 at the Marco Polo bridge on the Chinese border, the Japanese army invaded China. In 1938 and 1939 Japanese and Soviet troops clashed along the Manchurian border. The Japanese government, by now under control of the military, began an aggressive campaign against its neighbors in South-East Asia.
The US responded by restricting steel exports and placing an embargo on oil, resources vital to Japanese expansionism. Negotiations proceeded, even after a US freeze on Japanese assets in America.
Then, on December 7, 1941, Japan launched a surprise attack on the US base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. On December 8, the US declared war on Japan; on December 11 Germany and Italy declared war on the US.
Japan suffered a major naval defeat at the Battle of Midway in June, 1942, and the US began winning back territories conquered by Japan. In November, 1944 the US began bombing raids on the Japanese home islands.
A US invasion was imminent after US marines and army troops captured the Japanese island of Okinawa in the spring of 1945, providing an airbase just 325 miles from Japan's cities.
From May through August, 1945, US aircraft crippled what remained of the Japanese navy and paralyzed Japanese industry. US battleships encountered little resistance when they closed in to shell densely populated cities.
On August 6, 1945, the US dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima, and, on August 9, a second bomb on Nagasaki, with devastating effect.
On August 14 Allied terms of surrender were accepted by the Japanese government. US occupation forces landed in Japan on August 26, and on September 2 a formal surrender was signed by Japanese civil and military leaders aboard the U.S.S. Missouri in Tokyo Bay. General Douglas MacArthur took control as the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers (SCAP).
From Tames, Richard, A Traveller's History of Japan, Japan Interlink Books, Brooklyn, NY, page 167:
"The war had cost Japan 1,855,000 dead and 678,000 wounded or missing... A third of all industrial machinery had been destroyed by bombing and a quarter of all buildings. Of the major cities only Kyoto, Nara and Kamakura had been spared devastation. When they landed at the end of August 1945 even the conquerors were stunned at the scale of the destruction."
*ALLIED
The Allies was the name given to the nations who fought the Axis in World War II. Great Britain, the Soviet Union, China, and the United States were the major Allied powers fighting the Axis, along with a total of fifty other nations by the end of the war. The major nations comprising the Axis were Germany, Italy, and Japan, with the addition of Albania, Bulgaria, Finland, Hungary, Romania, and Thailand.
*US SIGNAL CORPS
*USSC
A branch of the US Army which took photographs of Hiratsuka just after the war. These photos are now part of the National Archive in Washington, DC.
*EMPEROR HIROHITO
(b.1901-d.1989) He reigned from 1926 until his death, a total of 63 years, longer by far than any previous emperor. As a young man he visited Europe, becoming the first Japanese crown prince to travel abroad. He interested himself in marine biology and wrote over a dozen books on the subject.
Historians are divided on Hirohito's role in World War II and the expansionist policies leading up to it. Many insist that he was against going to war and Japan's alliance with Germany and Italy, that he had no real power against the militarists who ran the government.
Some say that he may have helped to plan expansionist policies of the 30's. But in 1945, when Japan's leadership was divided into those who urged surrender and the hard-liners who wanted to rouse civilians to a desperate, last ditch defense of the homeland, Hirohito broke the deadlock by moving for peace.
*BROADCAST
A Japanese friend commented that one of the biggest differences was that before the war, the Emperor was a God, but after he was not. Everyone has a Kami (a spirit), but the Emperor was a God. The Emperor as divinity was kind of a father figure for the nation. He had sacred qualities. Emperor Hirohito went on the radio to announce defeat. They had never heard the Emperor's voice before. This was demanded by General MacArthur. It was a confusing time for older people. Who would take the Emperor's place?
*SURRENDER
On August 14, 1945 Allied terms of surrender were accepted by the Japanese government. US occupation forces landed in Japan on August 26, and on September 2 a formal surrender was signed by Japanese civil and military leaders aboard the U.S.S. Missouri in Tokyo Bay. General Douglas MacArthur took control as the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers (SCAP).
*KANTO PLAIN
The largest plain on the Japanese mainland.
*ZERO FIGHTER PLANES
Mrs. Miyagawa remembers,
"In my last year of high school I worked in a factory. We were assigned to an aircraft factory that made the zero fighter. I attached flaps to the hood of the planes using an air hammer and rivets. It was very noisy work! We went to school only once a week and worked the other days. It was only old men and high school girls working in the factory. Toward the end of the war we didn't work much because we didn't have many materials."
For more information on Zero planes, see Corky's e-mail Field Notes, Site 12, page 6.
