Japan Preparation for World War II - Coursework Example

Japan Preparation for the World War II Introduction When studying the history of World War II, the conflict in the Pacific often is overlooked as most contemporaries seem to focus studies on the European theater. In terms of the geographic area in which fighting took place, the Pacific War was much greater in scale and the strategies employed by Japan and the United States relied more heavily on maritime forces. The area of operations was so large that the supply lines were also complex and difficult. Pre-war planning in the Pacific theater became all the more crucial in the enormous Pacific Ocean (Daugherty 106). Considering that Japan was the much smaller, weaker nation, Japan did a measurably better job than the United States in preparing to fight the Pacific War.   Resource factors/Economic Factors Modern wars require a lot of resources both financial resources, human resources among many others. Japanese government knew exactly the cost of engaging in war and hence it had been making adequate preparations there before. The country was heavily relying on imported oil back then with USA, the country they would engage in war with, being their main supplier. The country did not own reliable oil reservoirs, a major factor that was making it focus too much on conquering other nations and making their own colonies. Rapid population growth and believe in racial superiority were also major elements that was pushing the country in conquering new colonies. As a result, Japanese government started importing oil from other countries such as Mexico, Soviet Sakhalin and DEI during the peaceful period and would store it for future use (during the war). Another clear aspect that shows Japans preparation for the war in terms of resources is the country’s expansion activities to Korea and Manchuria commonly referred to as Munchako. This enabled the country to acquire more resources that sustained them during the war. The country’s top leadership thought that they would have successfully conquered adequate empires in the resource-rich South Pacific particularly DEI, which had rich oil fields, before the resources that they had acquired got finished. However, this was not the case even though their strategy was well set. Their move to expand in Korea was a prudent idea since it increased its oil production by over two million barrels. One million barrels were from Manchukuo and another one million from Famosa in Taiwan (McNaughton 48). Japan had also established a small synthetic petroleum industry that was also toping up its huge oil demand. Other nation’s trade bans and oil cut supply such as USA in attempt to persuade it from conquering China were fruitless, since it had acquired enough resources that the leaders thought would be enough for them to conquer other empires that were rich in resources. It was too late by the time USA was realizing that Japan had hidden plans of launching a major and aggressive war in the Pacific. Some researches that were carried out after the war showed that Japan had accumulated oil stockpiles that were enough to supply its normal need for two consecutive years, but only adequate to supply its needs for one year if it could engage in Pacific war (McNaughton 48). The country was in dilemma on whether to continue with its previous plans of conquering other nations like China and the South Pacific empires being their major targets or not. It was a critical moment since nobody could have any idea of the duration that the war was likely to take with only one year oil stockpiles. Japan did a better job securing resources that were needed to conduct war as they expanded in the southern resources area (Merriam 45). They drastically increased their supply of oil, rubber and other materials needed to wage war in the pre-war years. The United States had great plans to increase its production for war even though it had not taken much action to consolidate the nation’s efforts until the War Production Board was established and run by Sidney Weinberg. USA was not prepared for war even by the time Japanese navy first struck Pearl Harbor in 194. Japan military operations had started dominating the whole of South East Asia and Central Pacific. They had fleets all over these areas (Daugherty 100). All this time American Pacific Fleets were largely immobilized for a period of over six months. USA forces were also heavily attacked by Japan in Philippines, an attack which left most of its Air Corps planes completely destroyed. American forces had to surrender since they had run out of supply and it took them several months for the government to rescue them by launching fatal war. This is another prove that USA was not prepared for pacific wars unlike Japan which had laid down clear strategies though they failed miserably. The strategy that Japan had employed in the early stages is another indicator of Japans earlier preparation for Pacific Wars. However, their war strategies later started backfiring. By the time the war started, Japan forces were mainly targeting areas that were rich in resources particularly oil. The country’s leadership had laid clear strategies that would give them a competitive advantage over their enemies, one being securing oil reservoirs as fast as it could. The country was in critical need for oil in order for it to continue with its nations conquering mission. This made the country’s forces to target areas rich in oil fields and within the first few months after the war, Japan had successfully seized a number of oil reservoirs among them being the Dutch oil fields, New Guinea and Solomons oil fields. These oil fields increased Japan’s oil production and it could produce more than 65 million barrels of crude oil that was enough for the country’s domestic (for its industries) use and for meeting oil demands due to the Pacific wars. The country was also getting other raw materials from its newly acquired empires not until USA focused on cutting its supply of raw material. This was the commencement of the failure of their mission (Merriam 78). American submarines started sinking Japanese delivery vessels a major factor that led to their defeat. At this moment, Japanese navy was targeting fighting ships while on the other hand USA was working on how it could make Japan’s raw material supply low. This was a strategy that USA was assured of succeeding in stopping the war from continuing. Japan has very few resources and there was no way it could continue with the war unless it go supply from the outside empires (Merriam 45). Production for War and Military Build-Up Given Japan’s size, the Japanese assembled a remarkable amount of military power in a short period of time in the years leading up to the Pacific War (McNaughton 85). In 1941, Japan had more ships in each class than the U.S. Japan had more carriers, submarines, capital ships, destroyers and cruisers. Japan’s superiority in numbers at sea early on in the war explains their obsessions with drawing the Americans into a decisive naval battle. Japan’s massive pre-war buildup may have been focused on Alfred Mahan’s writings and the need to bring your opponent into large battles to crush the center of gravity (Daugherty 106). The U.S. Naval Expansion Act of 1940 urged for an increase in ships to hold off Japanese expansion. The plan was a 70% expansion of existing forces and called for 257 new ships. U.S. war production of ships may have been too focused on submarines. While submarine warfare did prove to be critical in disrupting key Japanese supply lines of communication, the Americans may have overlooked the importance that air warfare would play in the maritime conflict of the Pacific in the late 1930s (Daugherty 156). At the start of the war, Japan had an extensive pilot training pipeline, which took a total of three years and four months to complete, a pipeline that produced some of the best pilots in the world. In addition, the air platforms that the Japanese developed had superior technology. For example, in the vast Pacific the range of the aircraft was incredibly important (Merriam 109). The Japanese A6M2 Zero had twice the range of any U.S. aircraft and could fly 1,929 miles whereas the U.S. fighter aircraft with the longest range was the F4F-4 Wildcat, which could only travel 845 miles. This shows that Japan was adequately prepared for the war even if their navy created a loophole by focusing too much on fighting ships while on the other hand the country was running out of resources. This was as a result of the US Forces operations of sinking Japan supply vessels (McNaughton 103). The oil crisis that was in the country was very serious to a point that Japan was lacking adequate fuel for its fighting jets and warships and most crucial fuel for training new pilots and captains to replace the casualties. The country’s preparation for the war can also be traced back to the long history the country had in training its navy and pilots. In the early 1900s, Japan had focused so much on training its navy by getting the best instructors who were familiar with the western countries military science (Merriam 156). They had acquired instructors from Britain to train their navy and others from France to train their army. After German’s army superiority started spreading all over the world, Japan exchanged its army instructors and hired Germans to train them. The country could also test its military mightiness by engaging in war with countries like China in 1900 and Czarist Russia in 1904-1905. They would learn from their mistakes and would go back to the drawing board to focus on their weaknesses. They had won all these wars. Moreover, Japan took German possessions all over Asia and fortified them while still preparing for World War II immediately after the First World War. From 1930 up to the Pearl Harbor attack in 1941, they remained focused on training and practicing their military (Daugherty 108). The level of the country’s internal defense is also another clear evidence of their preparation for World War II. Japan had an extremely strong defense especially at Kyushu whereby they had deployed over 10,000 aircrafts of different sizes and types. This is an extreme figure considering that this was happening in 1940s. The figure clearly shows that Japan had well invested for the war as USA focused on nation development agendas. It had also made numerous bunkers and caves, which were being used as underground networks for storing food, ammunition, and water. Another shocking factor is the number of their military personnel back then. Controversial studies indicate that Japan had over 2,350,000 regular soldiers and over 250,000 base troops. Other studies show that Japan had over 32,000,000 paramilitaries who comprised of all males in the country aged between 15 and 60 years (Merriam 50). War Planning. War planning is an area where the United States actually might have conducted better preparations for the war. The U.S. had a number of plans on the shelf that were ready to execute and all contained sound strategy. Most notably, War plan Orange was a legitimate, realistic plan. The plan in 1938, even assumed a surprise attack by Japan would start the conflict and that Japan would probably invade and conquer the Philippines early on in the war (Merriam 92). War Plan Orange was a systematic multi-pronged approach to take the islands on the way to Japan. Despite the ‘Germany first’ attitude as defined by Plan Dog and Rainbow Plan, War Plan Orange recognized the need for strategic resources to be committed in the Pacific. The only flaw in the Americans planning was that although the strategy was sound, they had not set up the military or economy to execute the planned strategies (Daugherty 113). The Japanese on the other side had some elaborate plans on the shelf that were simply not realistic. The Japanese had one pre-war plan that forecasted worldwide colonies in Alaska, Washington, Australia, Cuba, and other places too distant to be feasible. With only 11 Divisions at the onset of World War II, their Army was not equipped to secure or operate far away colonies of this proportion and I think it illustrates the disconnect between the military and political leaders of Japan. However, it was a brilliant strategy only that it was not realistic (Daugherty 188). Conclusion As evidenced by Japanese victories early on in World War II, Japan did a superior job at preparing to fight the War in the Pacific. However, Japan’s capacity for war fighting was simply not as robust as the United States. The United States had more work force, resources, and funding at their disposal. Once the Americans resolve strengthened after the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. military became an unstoppable force for which Japan could not contend with. Japan top leadership belief for racial superiority and territorial expansion can also be termed as the major cause of the Second World War. The country needed extra territories in order to feed and clothe its population that was growing in a dramatic way. This is what had made the country’s leadership to lay down long-term strategies on how they could conquer empires in various parts of the world only to trigger what came to be known as World War II. Works Cited Daugherty, Leo. “Fighting Techniques of a Japanese Infantryman: 1941-1945: Training, Techniques, and Weapons”. St. Paul, Minn: MBI, 2002. Print. McNaughton, James. “Nisei Linguists: Japanese Americans in the Military Intelligence Service During World War II”. Washington, DC: Dept. of the Army, 2006. Print. Merriam, Ray. “World War II Journal”. Bennington, VT: Merriam Press, 1999. Print. Read More