Figure 1.-- |
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The Japanese even before the NAZIs took power in Germany began invading and occuoyibg Asian countries. The Japanese had seized Formosa and Korea befoee World war I and after the war were awarded League of Nations Trusteeships in the Pacific. A isput arose over Shandong/Tsingtao. Japanese militrists gind controlof the Governemnt and seizd Manchuria (1931). They then invaded China prope (1937) and occupied much of the country. The Japanese carrier attack on Pearl Harbor launched the Pacific Wr (1941). Tthe Japanese in a 6 month peiod occupied most of the eastern Pacific in a series of stunning military campaigns. They were finally stopped by the American naval victory at Midway and the first Allied offensive on Gudalacanal (1942). The Japanese conducted a brutal occupation regime with variations from country to country. The approch in China was the Three Alls. Japanese policy was to convince Asians that they were liberators. They had some success, but the brutality associated with Japanese rule soon made their goals evident. Still some nationalists cooperated with them. Terrible faminens occurred throughout the Japanese occupied areas.
Axis occupation policies varied widely, especially German policies. One consistent them with the Axis was economic exoloitation and efforts to annex some areas and suppres foreign elements in those areas. Here German racial policies had a major impact. In line with Holocaust actions, Generalplan Ost, and the Hunger Plan. The goal becme to murder all Jews that came into their hands (including those working in war industries) and to substantially reduce the Baltic and Slavic population and convert the survivors to slave labor. While Germany, Italy, and Japan were the principal Axis countries, smaller countries like Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania were given their own occupation zones by the Germans. Axis policies were in one sence nesitated by the fact that they launched the War withouth the industrial or resource base needed to conduct global war. The War was launched to obtain the resources needed to wage war and thus the industry and resources of the occupied countries were an important part of the Axis war plan. For a range of reasons, this did not work as the Axis countries planned. The Germans did make considerable use of Western Europe (especially France) to support their war effort, but failed to use the coveted resources of the East when the Red Army did not collapse as anticipated. The Wehermacht was sent into the East without supplies. Barbarossa was designed on the basis of living off the nds with disaterous results for the civilian populatiion from whom food and other supplies were taken. The Japanese in the Paific did seize their Southern Resource Zone with needed resources like oil and rubber. Getting the resources back to the Home Islands, however, proved a very difficult undertaking as the U.S. Navy perfected its submarine campaign on the Japanese Marus. Axis racial policies (especially German and Japanese) proved deadly and were persued irrespective of economic concerns or impact on the war effort.
The Japanese militarists became obsessed with the idea of controlling China. It was seen as vital to the Japanese economy. How to seize and administer such a large country, however, was nevr fully worked out. Western historians have addressed the subject of German World War II occupation policies in some detail. The Japanes policie, specially in China are less well covered. The Japanese attempted to set up Quizling governments before the term had become had become nortorious. Japan after the initial 1937-38 campaign refused to recognize Chiang as the attempt to create splits in the KMT. The Japanese political strategy in China was to undermine the KMT by setting up a number of regional puppet goverments. This was the approach taken in Manchuko where the former Emperor, PuYi was installed. The Japanese planned that by controlling these regional satrapies that they could control and exploit China. The Japanese id uceed in exploiting Manchuko as they did Korea, but China proved different, in part because the Imperial Japanese army proved incapable of fighting the war to a conclusion and defeating the Nationalists. And the occupation instead of producing benefits to the Japanese economy proved very costly and a drain on the economy. The Japanese could defeat Nationalist armies, but were unable to effectively occupy the areas won. Even in occupied areas, the countryside was not secure. And the Japanse found themselves in a Catch-22. They did not have a large enough forces to occupy the areas they conquered, let along the whole country. They could strengthen a garrison to improve security, but the benefits gained were negated by the added costs of supporting the expanded garison. The Japanese formed collaborationist units, but they to had to be paid, equipped, and fed. Food proved a major problem. The Japanese had the military firce toeize food from the peasantry and they did so. More Chinese wouk die from starvation and diseases related to malnutrition than as a result of military action. But this in returned increase anti-Japanese feeling and the will to resist the invaders. The Japanese exoloitation of China provd so unpriftable that the mikitary turned to drug traficking. In the end the Japanese policy for controlling China was brutality, best exmplified by the Three Alls. And as part of this policy the Japanese resorted to Weapons of Nas Destructyion, bith chenical and bilogical weapons.
American troops landed in Japan immediately after the Imperial Government surrendered on September 3. The American occupation was completely unlike the Japanese occupation of the countries that it had conquered. Most Japanese were stunded by the final year of the War and the massive destruction. There was also widespread hunger because the American destruction of the Japanese merchant fleet as well as the domestic transportation system made it impossible to import and distribute food. Many Japanese had been led to expect a brutal American occupation. There were no Batan death marches, slave labor, or mass slaughters like the Rape of Nanking. The United States oversaw an occupation with fundamentally changed the nature of Japanese society, rooting out Japanese militarism and fomenting the development of democratic political regimes and social structures. Militarists were removed from power. The Japanese had to turn in all weapons, including Samari swords, that were often revered family treasures. The swords were not serious military weapons, but they had emense symbolic value to Japanese militarists. The sword was so valued that in the Japanese warrior tradition it had become known as the "soul of the samari. Women were enfranchized and labor unions allowed to organize. Among the major accomplishments of the American occupation was a new democratic Constitution.
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