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History Chapter 7: Japan’s defeat in WW2 - Coggle Diagram
History Chapter 7: Japan’s defeat in WW2
Strengths of the USA
Economic strength
The USA was the largest industrial producer in the world at that time. Despite mostly producing consumption goods initially, it was able to quickly switch over to military equipment.
After the Great Depression, the USA had many unemployed people eager to work, who proved to be better workers than the workers who were forced into labour in the fascist states
Additionally, Japan lacked a strong industrial foundation or capability to support their war effort.
Since the Japanese were unable to protect their merchant fleet from attacks by American submarines, their economy was weakened further as the war continued.
The Japanese had less food, and its factories fewer resources due to their supplies getting crippled by Allied attacks
Since the American factories were out of range and their merchant ships better protected by military convoys, they were able to outproduce the Japanese.
As a result, the Americans had more military equipment than the Japanese, allowing them to get the edge over the Japanese in the war.
America had the largest navy in world history at 5000 ships, managed to make 300 000 planes, and 100 000 tanks
Contribution of women to the war effort
Women were encouraged to contribute to the war effort by propaganda from the Allies.
In the USA, women worked in the factories to produce weapons, vehicales, and military supplies necessary for the war effort.
In contrast, Japan and Germany emphasised the role of women as mothers and child bearers and stressed that they should stay at home.
It was only later in the war that Japan made efforts to encourage women to enter the workforce, but by then their industries and supply routes were already crippled.
Military and naval strengths
The Americans were also able to effectively use their military strengths against the Japanese despite the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour.
Three aircraft carriers of the US Pacific Fleet were not at Pearl Harbour during the attack
The US was able to show its military might through the continued aerial bombings of mainland Japan, resulting in a quarter of Tokyo to be destroyed, 250000 buildings destroyed, and 185000 civilians killed.
The loss of factories and workers brought Japan’s economy to the brink of collaspe.
As a result, Japan was unable to continue with its war effort.
Ineffective defence of overextended Japanese Empire
Key military defeats experienced by the Japanese
Iwo Jima
The Americans intended to build an airfield on Iwo Jima to launch and supply large-range bombers that could reach Japan and return safely.
The aim was to devastate Japan’s industry and economy through bombing. American battleships bombarded the island, but the 21 000 strong Japanese garrison there stayed hidden in bunkers and survived to fight the American landings.
Over 7000 American soldiers were killed and 17 000 wounded in the attack, but the island was captured.
Okinawa
Okinawa provided an ideal base for launching attacks on the main island of Japan
It had a good harbour - perfect for loading transport for any invasion of Japan by the American army.
Okinawa was defended by 77 000 Japanese soldiers and 24 000 Okinawa conscripts, and the Japanese also launched over a thousand kamikaze attacks in addition to several thousand conventional air attacks.
The USA and Britain lost 36 ships in the operation. Over 60 000 Japanese soldiers and 100 000 Okinawa civilians died or committed suicide, while 12 500 Americans died and 44 000 were wounded, but the island was also captured.
These battles inflicted heavy damage to the strength of the Japanese military, and weakened its ability to continue to effectively defend the empire.
Desire of Allies to secure a quick victory in the Asia Pacific
Liberation of Allied Prisoners-of-war
The Japanese turned to forced labour in order to solve the shortages of manpower and resources
Thousands of workers from Asia were also forced to work in factories or on construction projects such as the Thai-Burma Railway.
These forced labourers often worked in harsh conditions, were malnourished and were denied even the most basic health facilities.
Over 100 000 POWs were captured in the fall of SIngapore alone, while more than 27 000 American POWs were captured during the war.
Over half of the POWs became forced larbourers in the Japanese war effort.
In addition, the Japanese army had secret police units called the Kempeitai, which specialised in torturing prisoners.
Japanese hostility towards Allied POWs was frequently highlighted in Allied propaganda, and strengthened the determination of the Allied powers to end the war to liberate the POWs and the Japanese occupied territories.
Minimise Allied losses from kamikaze attacks
Kamikaze refers to suicide missions by Japanese air pilots against Allied ships meant to cause the most damage.
It was first used to defend Leyte in the Philippines, and increased in usage in order to attack the Allies when they try to gain control of Japanese territories.
Since the Allied leaders feared that the continued kamikaze attacks would result in a higher number of casualties, they decided to bring a quick end of the war.
Allied victory in Europe
The Japanese relied on the success of Hitler’s armies in Europe to distract the Allies, due to their limited resources, the overextension of its empire, and the strength of the USA.
However, when the USA formally entered the war, Roosevelt and Churchill agreed to focus their forces to defeat Germany first. Once Germany went down, Japan no longer could win the war.
The Japanese emperor looked for new ministers to secure a peace settlement, but none of them were willing to unconditionally surrender. They intended to continue fighting and negotiate peace terms with the Allies.
The Allies feared that if Japan was humiliated by a peace settlement, but remained in control by the militarist elite, it will try to rise again to seek revenge and threaten its neighbours.
Additionally, many of the Allies were enraged by stories of Japanese atrocities, especially against POWs, and resented the Japanese, yearning to see them totally defeated.
As far as the Allies were concerned, Japan was determined not to surrender. Their leaders could not bring themselves to show weakness to the Allies, let alone accept unconditional surrender.
Dropping of the atomic bomb
Allied scientists began working on the bomb since 1942 under the Manhattan Project.
The Americans intended on using the bomb as war in the Asia Pacific grew increasingly violent.
When Japan refused to surrender, the Allied leaders also considered using the bomb rather than send more ground troops against Japan.
The Allies also desired to impress the Soviet Union as well as defeat Japan without Soviet help. The Soviet Union was helpful in defeating Germany, and occupied half of Europe when Germany surrended.
However, the Soviet Union and the Allies had a different sense of ideaology, with Stalin wanting a communist post-war order, but the other Allies wanting to contain the spread of communism.
The USA also received reports that Soviet scientists were working on something similar to the atomic bomb, and hence the USA wanted to gain an edge over the Soviet Union by being the first to use the atomic bomb successfully.
On 6 August 1945, an American bomberflew over Hiroshima and dropped the atomic bomb in the morning as the city last sleeping. A third of the city’s population died immediately, and 70 000 more were injured, most of whom died soon after.
Firestorms incinerated everything, and radioactive rain fell over the surrounding areas, poisoning more land and people.
The USA then announced to the world the discovery of the atomic bomb, and repeated its demand for Japan to surrender. However, Japanese leadership still did not surrender immediately.
A few days later, the USA dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, killing 40 000 people and burning 25 000 in the explosion.
Thousands more were affected by the long-term effects of the atomic bomb, suffering nausea, vomiting, skin diseases, genetic mutations, hair loss and cancer.
On 15 August 1945, Hirohito announced his country’s unconditional surrender to the Allies. The formal instrument of surrender was signed on board an American battleship.