The Japanese road to involvement in WWII?

Question

Short answer please

Answer 1

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andymarkelson answered 5 years ago
Starting in the 1880s, Japan began to rapidly modernize, modeling itself off of the world's greatest nations: Austria, England, the US, etc.By the end of the century it had fought against Russia and won. In WWI it was a powerful ally of the Allied powers. However, the other major nations still treated it like a second-rate country, a minor backwater in world politics.

The Japanese youth were infuriated by this, and a few daring and impetous officers in Russia decided to invade China, against orders, in the hopes that Japan could finally prove itself to be a true empire.

The Americans, who had huge numbers of diplomats, missionaries, and industrialists in China, tried to get Japan to pull out by refusing to sell them oil, which the Japanese relied on to power their entire economy. With no choice, the Japanese, fueled by pride, attacked the US in the hopes that they could be subdued within the next few years, before they ran out of oil reserves. They attacked the US at Pearl Harbor, formally pulling the US into WWII.

Answer 2

Japan, after the Meiji era and the end of the era of isolation, started import many ideas and innovations from the west.  During and after the Russo-Japanese war, Japan was experiencing a wave of nationalism which spanned 4 decades.  Japan began invading and occupying China, Korea and several other of their neighbors.  By 1940, Japan was occupying parts of Mongolia and Russia.  A succession of trade embargoes placed by the US reduced the amount of fuel and iron going to Japan, which hampered their ability to wage war in Indochina and China. At this time, however, America and many European nations were not interested in making Japan stop by force, but rather to end the conflicts in China and stop expansion via politics.   Encouraged by German success in Europe, Japan was able to procure some resources, and start conquering more American and European colonies in the Pacific.  Their attack on Pearl Harbor forces America into the war.