The Long Road to Pearl Harbour

China
- 19th century in decline
- Other powers turned up to fill the blank space
- In East Asia, you project power by arriving on ship, influencing the market etc
- The British didn’t have anything to sell, that would be valuable, they tried selling forks and knifes
- Finally, they forced China to open its markets to opium
- Japan was noticing, they didn’t want to experience the same thing
Japan
- Rapid modernisation by the example of western world
- Navy – modernized by the model of British navy, new models of ships
- 1902 - Anglo-Japanese Alliance
- Alliance showing the same power of both countries, for the first time in Asia
- Japan was worried about Russia – railway system that reaches the pacific
- The railway reaches the pacific in 1904, that would make Russia even more important
- Japan started studying British history, trying to find a similar situation with solution
- Nelson at Battle of Copenhagen – 1807
o British declared war after the attack on the Danish, after they didn’t have any fleet or port
o Turning a blind yes – Nelson, ‘I see no signal’ – he put it to his blind eye lol
o → Japan attacks Russian base at Port Arthur
- Suez Canal. owned by the British
- Russia wants to sail to Pacific, have to go the long way round, stopped only in French colonies
- Battle of Tsushima Straits, 27.5.1905 – end of Russian fleet power
- Battle of Manila Bay – 1.5.1898 – beginning of American naval power
Britain
- navy of the island of Britain
- Britain had a very small army (1000 vs
Germany’s 3 mil)
- 1914 – the biggest fleet that has ever existed in
the entire world belong to the British, King’s
Review
- W. Wilson asks Congress to authorize Navy –
1916
- People want to save money after the war
- Washington Naval conference 1921-22
- WW2 – aircraft battles, not naval
- Britain ended alliance with Japan, they need to
make ally with America
- Japan had no allies at that point
Japan
- 1923 – earthquake in Japan (Kanto)
- 1929 – Wall Street stock market crash
- Japan had a market in silk – after ‘29 a luxury good, no one buys it
- Japan invades Manchuria, part of China and creates a puppet state
- Natural sources of iron and coal
- Stimston doctrine – 1932 – we will not recognize territorial annexations made by force
- Japan continues its politics
- They build monster battleships – Yamato class, they decided to become the no. 1 naval power
FDR president 1933-45
- Mentor Woodrow Wilson – lead the American navy
- Was a navalist
- Two Ocean Navy Bill – vast building programme for the navy, nothing secret, was in the papers
Who are you building it against? Only Japan?
→ Japan feels threatened
- Japan is thinking of addressing Russia – Strike North or Strike South (Japanese cabinet debates - July
1940)
- Roosevelt is preparing to run for 2nd re-election
- Japan Joins Axis – decide to strike south, they are seen as Anti-U.S.: Bloc – Germany, Italy, Japan
→ September 1940, the Axis powers are formed with the signing of the Tripartite Pact in Berlin
- Roosevelt is re-elected
- He begins to put economic pressure on Japan, sanctions
- Germany lied to Japan; Germans had no plans to strike against Russia
→ Japan turns to Russia, Soviet-Japan Non-Aggression Treaty
- The week Japan achieves equal power with the Us in the pacific, Japan enters war with eyes closed
- Attack on Pearl Harbour on 7.12.1941, devastating attack, 3000 killed, several battleships sank
- USA declares war against Japan
- Japan attacks the Britain and the Dutch on the same day as well
- Japan wanted to control the pacific assets, hoping that the attack
would freeze USA for long enough for them to negotiate afterwards
- Japan’s Greatest Extent in 1942 – Japan was successful
- 2. Sep. 1945 – Japanese representatives has to sign thee surrender on
the board of a battleship, symbol
- Vietnam war – USA didn’t want the Soviet to have a fleet in the pacific
Today
- Rising naval power in the pacific is China
- PLAN -Peoples Liberation Army Navy
- AUKUS – 2021 – Australia, UK, US – concerns about China
Japan’s Greatest Extent in 1942