At the end of WWII the americans droped the atom bomb on Hiroshima Aug 6 1945 and Nagasaki Aug 9 1945 two Japanease cities. This was a result of japans early attempts to make an empire in south-east asia. Japan had motives for making an empire in south-east asia. one was its growing population and it needed more space to expand, also Japan had little to none raw materials and they had to import them from other countries.
After WWI Japan was disappointed because they fought along side the allied and at the end of the war Japan did not get what it expected also there militaristic government was persuaded by the generals to take the land it didn”t resive after WWI, plus a little extra. During the 1930″s and early 40″s Japan set out to make an empire. In 1931 Japan “Enginered” an attack on Manchuria so it didn”t look like they were invading it for no reason.
The Japanease government said that Chinese bandits had tryed to blow up the Japanease owned railway there, the japanease used this excuse to take control of the whole of Manchuria. Japan also “Enginered” an attack on Easten China in 1937, they said that the Chinease shot at them across the Marco Polo Bridge, Japan used this excuse to start a full scale invasion of China. In 1941 Japan went on to invade and conquer Indo-ChinaVietnam.
Japan called the area the took over “The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere” which shows that Japan thought that it was mighty and powerful. The initial international response for the USA and League Of Nations was they didn”t want more fighting and more loss of life, but due to Japans sucsses in asia the USA and UK were starting to get scaired and in 1940 they made an economic sanction and planed to starve out Japan by not sending any raw materials.
The Japanease planed an attack on Pearl Harbor an American Base in Hawaii befor they were starved out. At 8am on Sunday 7 December the Japanease pilots bombed and sunk 8 battleships, destroyed 350 planes and killed 2400 Americans. This attack brought America into the war and the bombed fleet was rebuilt. But straight after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japan attacked the islands of Sinapore, Malasya and the Dutch East Indies many other islands were also captured along with 80000 British troops, which was the worst British defeat in the whole war.
After the Japanease attacks on the islands in south-east asia the allied fought back but is was slow due to there being many small island under Japanease control. They had to fight “Sea Battles” in the Battle of the Coral Sea and the Battle of Midway. During thease two battles the USA navy sank six Japanease aircraft carriers. The allied also had to do “Island Hopping”, this was the American plan on how to take the island back that were in the Pacific.
The plan was to capture an important island, build an airfield on it and move on to the next with airsupport. America firt took over the island of Guadalcanal in August 1942 and then during 1943/44 America took back the Pacific island by island. The allied ran into trubble while taking over the islands because most of them were coverd in dence jungle, this became known as “Jungle Warfare” plus the attitude of the Japanease caused a tremendus loss of life for both sides because the Japanease would never surrender or give up, they would just fight till the end.
The USAF gained the skies over Japan and in 1944 started to bomb Japanease cities,in March 1945 the allies droped incendiary bombs which killed 80000 Japanease people in tokyo. Also the US navy blockeaded the Japanease ports to starve the Japanease people. In July 1945 in the Potsdam Conference the americans tolded the allies they had and were ready to use the atom bomb and on 26 Julythe allies issued the Potsdam Declaration, which stated that if Japan didn”t surrender the allies would be forced to use a weapon of mass destruction, but Japan refused to surrender.
On the 6 August 1945 the American bomber Enola Gay flew over the Japanease city of Hiroshima and droped the atom bomb Little Boy which killed and destroyed the whole city and the few how survived died a few days later due to radiation sickness. Three days later ,9 August 1945, the Americans droped another atom bomb Fat Man on the Japanease city of Nagasaki. On the 14 August 1945 the Japanease government surrendered and most of the generals commited suicide. The allies governed Japan untill 1952.
