Colonial Breakdown: Japan's Imperial Era

Japanese historian Saburo Ienaga claims that the Pacific War began with the Manchurian Incident in 1931. That event, whereby Japanese forces used a planted explosive on the South Manchurian Railway as a pretext to establish Manchukuo, received little international attention at the time for various reasons.

The Japanese recognized their power and hoped to not get overrun by it. For such reasons did Japan begin its own aggressive quest for colonies starting with Okinawa in 1879 and its annexation of Korea in 1910. One primary goal of Japan's imperialism included, of course, exploiting territories, but a common heritage linked the colonizers and the colonized. Furthermore, Japan did not leave Asia to look for unconquered lands.

At the start of the nation's imperial age, its colonies posed little in the way of problems. Up until around 1942, during the China quagmire and after Pearl Harbor, Japan's colonies hurt the war effort more than they helped. The colonies ended up hurting the home islands more than it helped them in political, economic, military, and cultural terms. They were one of the primary causes that the Pacific War turned against the Japanese. The negative influences after 1941 are striking, as are the positive ones prior to the outbreak of total war with the United States and Britain. It is important to note, however, that there is no one definitive event that can be called the "turning point" when Japan's colonies started hurting the home islands. Rather, it's more progressive. That progression intensified by 1941-42. However, to better understand how this happened, we must first turn to why Japan was able to reach its pinnacle of conquest.

Colonial Breakdown:Reasons behind Success