World War 2 - War in the Pacific - Essay Example

e Imperial expansion occurred from the time that the Empire was founded in 1868 until its ultimate dissolution as a result of its defeat and the conclusion of the Second World War. After the Meiji Restoration, the Japanese Empire began what would become a very long period of territorial expansion, belligerence, and colonialism within the theater of the Pacific. As with many empires, the expansions and quests for territory and resources were not merely limited to a small region within the Pacific; rather, when taken as a whole, the Japanese conquest which lasted up until the conclusion of the Second World War was something that spanned thousands of miles, ranged across peoples, culture, religions, and languages, and sought to bring a wide area of places under Japanese Imperial rule.

Yet, as has been stated, this did not occur all at once. Instead, the territorial expansion under the Japanese Empire began as early as the First Sino-Japanese War (fought between 1894-1895). As one might expect, the origin of this war was not over Chinese or Japanese territory as such but rather over control of the buffer zone between the two powers; the Korean peninsula. Balance of power politics dictated that as soon as Chinese sent troops into Korea at the request of the Korean government as a means to quell an uprising that Japan responded by sending troops of its own.

As a result of this war, Japan came to be in command of almost the entirety of the Korean peninsula as well as the island of Taiwan; ceded to Japan as a result of the Treaty of Shimonoseki. Such marked the first true foray into territorial acquisition that the Japanese Empire experienced. Following this acquisition, Japan participated in the Boxer rebellion by way of sending troops into parts of Manchuria and other areas under the pretense of suppressing the rebellion. To the Empire’s credit, such an action was not taken alone; in total a full six European powers plus the United States also participated in