Canadians in South East Asia
Learning Resources
Handout 1 - “Japan’s Road to War”
Japan’s Road to War
Japan's economy had faltered after the First World War. The Kanto Earthquake of 1923
and the great depression of 1929 worsened Japan’s economic situation. Japan had few natural
resources like oil, iron ore and rubber. Its main export was silk, and during the depression
the demand for silk, which was considered a luxury commodity, almost dropped to zero.
During the 1930s, the Japanese military became more powerful within the government,
and naval and army officers soon occupied most of the important offices, including the position
of prime minister.
After consolidating its power
within government, the military looked
towards expanding Japan’s influence
and territories, to gain the much
needed natural resources it lacked.
China was forced into unfavourable
economic and political treaties, while
Manchuria had gradually come under
Japanese influence. When the Chinese
Nationalists began to seriously
challenge Japan's position in Manchuria
in 1931, Japan’s armed forces occupied
the region.
In 1937 Japanese forces occupied
most of coastal China and committed
severe war atrocities on the Chinese
Japanese troops enter Beijing, China, Aug 13, 1937. Photo courtesy Wikipedia.
population. In 1940, Japan occupied
French Indochina (now known as Vietnam) and joined the Axis powers, with Germany and
Italy. These actions strained Japanese relations with the United States and Great Britain, which
reacted by stopping oil shipments to Japan. As 80% of Japan's oil supplies came from the
United States, the Japanese government was furious with this decision and other trade actions
by the Americans against Japan. The resulting oil shortage and failure to solve the conflict
diplomatically made Japan decide to capture the oil rich Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) and to
start a war against the United States and Great Britain.
On December 7, 1941, Japan launched a surprise attack against the United States naval
fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The next day Japan bombed the British Colony of Singapore,
a small island off the southern tip of Malaya (Malaysia), and attacked the Malay peninsula
(Burma, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore). At the same time, other elements of the Japanese
Armed Forces attacked the British Crown Colony of Hong Kong. Over the following six months
Japan was able to expand her control over a large territory that extended to the border of
India in the west and New Guinea in the south.