Why it failed?: The Empire of Japan

When Japan was an Empire in the late 19th century, it had modernized and even built up its military and soon it took on the might of other, older empires that were on their own stage of decline. But, in the end it failed to achieve its ultimate goal of controlling the Pacific Ocean. But why did the Empire of Japan failed? Well, this is what this page will try to cover.

## It was strong, but not strong enough

During the late 19th century, Japan had built up its military and modernized it as well, and soon it was fighting in campaigns in the far east as it fought against its neighbor China in the first Sino-Japanese War in the 1890s, and eventually Russia in the Russo-Japanese War 10 years later.

The key to their success was modernization. Japan embraced it much better than Russia or China (which were considered backwards at the time). They had modern technology and modern battle tactics. Leadership skills also played a role in Japan's success as well, Japan had some of the more skilled commanding officers than Russia and China did.

That was all good for Japan at the time, after all they invaded and took Manchuria from a politically weakened China (which was in a civil war) and decided to invade the rest of China a few years later. The Japanese had a better army with better trained soldiers as well as pilots, and even after they attacked Pearl Harbor, they surprised the Allied Powers who were stationed in their respective colonies. But they'll soon find out that they would be no match against a serious industrial power; the United States. After suffering a crushing defeat at the Battle of Midway,, the Japanese were put into a defensive position as they lost a lot of their aircraft carriers and they couldn't replace them. This point was made clear when the Americans were beginning their island hoping campaign and the Japanese though holding their own, but the might of the US military proved too much for them, and eventually the Japanese Army would resort to suicidal methods to divert the US Forces such as Banzai Charges and the infamous Kamikaze where Japanese pilots would slam their planes into US ships, causing damage. Eventually, the Japanese Empire would surrender in September 1945, 3 weeks after the Atomic Bombs destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki respectively.

## They were untrustworthy

A lesser known fact that the Japanese joined World War 1 on the side of the Western Alliance as it wanted the German held Micronesian islands in the South Pacific, their efforts in the war would eventually led to Japan having their place in the League of Nations after the war. They even helped the Russian White Army during the Russian Civil War, but had to pull out support because of the dominant Red Army. Even after their aid in the war, Japan was always under suspicion by the west as the Japanese were still interested in taking more land, just how much was still uncertain at the time.

## The Great Depression

When the stock market crashed in 1929, it effected everything around the world including Japan, and Japan was also hard hit by the depression as it economy was in shambles, so to try to keep their economy afloat they try to expand their territory, in 1931 they invade Manchuria which was to the shock and chagrin of the League of Nations which also led Japan to withdraw in 1934. But what it only did was tarnish Japan's reputation on the world stage and did little to help its struggling economy.

## Horrible atrocities

During the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Japanese occupation of Korea and China would commit horrible atrocities against the people of Korea and China, further tarnishing Japan's reputation as well as its Emperor (Hirohito) who took responsibility for these events, and it's still debated whether or not Hirohito was really responsible for these horrible deeds.

After the Atomic Bombs destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki as well as the Soviet invasion of Japanese occupied Manchuria, Japan surrendered and what died with it was its ambitions of dominating the Pacific. Though it was successful in its hey day, Imperial Japan's experiment of controlling a Pacific Rim Empire was destroyed. Technically, Japan is still an Empire, but its days of being an ambitious empire is all but gone.

That'll do it for this page. You can also check out my Games and Movies too. Until next time, this is JohnnyOTGS signing out.