That doesn't mean it couldn't have won World War II. The Navy put Morison in uniform, made him a lieutenant commander, then dispatched him to the North Atlantic and Pacific as their official historian. The Allies won World War I. Answer Save. Moving cautiously, while its modern navy and army were still in the infant stage, Japan took over several groups of small islands not far from its homeland without having to fight for them. Gempei War, (1180–85), final struggle in Japan between the Taira and Minamoto clans that resulted in the Minamoto’s establishment of the Kamakura shogunate, a military dictatorship that dominated Japan from 1192 to 1333. But in reality, the battle line stationed in Hawaii wasn't the core of American naval strength. Whatever took place on the Eastern Front it had nothing to do with winning the war! The rise of Nimitz and Spruance pushed the irascible King into the background, where he took on his proper role as the Navy’s key defender among the Joint Chiefs of Staff, with Halsey cast as Nimitz’s headstrong bad boy. Toll’s expertly navigated narrative includes a number of new insights (the kamikaze strategy, for example, was more controversial inside the Japanese military than is generally acknowledged), as well as a new approach that hypothesizes the struggle between “sequentialists” and “cumulativists” inside the American military that, as Toll argues, “colored every phase of Pacific strategy.” The sequentialists, Spruance and Halsey among them, emphasized step-by-step tactical triumphs that would bring American forces to Japan’s shores for an ultimate invasion, while King and the Army Air Corps commander Gen. Henry “Hap” Arnold emphasized cumulative sea and air operations — the destruction of Japan’s merchant fleet, the strategic bombing of Japanese cities — that, they believed, would make an invasion unnecessary. And they extended the empire's outer defense perimeter -- and assumed vast new waterspace to defend -- by opening a secondary theater in the Solomon Islands, in a vain effort to interrupt sea routes connecting North America with Australia. What’s more, the Army-Navy competition over strategy was driven by geography and not personality — with Nimitz hesitantly agreeing with MacArthur during a July 1944 conference in Hawaii (mediated by Franklin Roosevelt) that an American invasion of the Philippines was a military necessity. Look no further than Japanese actions in 1942. There, the inter-Allied feuding that marred the war with Germany was replaced by a fractious competition between the United States Navy and the Army over resources, strategy and public acclaim. One, you can trounce the enemy's armed forces and dictate whatever terms you please. Relevance. “History of United States Naval Operations in World War II. What if Japanese won battles of Kohima and Imphal? Tokyo stared that plight in the face following Pearl Harbor. -       Don't listen to Yamamoto. Quantity has a quality all its own. The wily Roosevelt had gotten what he wanted. World War II: The War Against Japan . But the weak sometimes win. The war between Russia and Japan was fought over control of Korea and Manchuria. The consolidation of the Communist regime, however, compelled a reluctant Japan to withdraw from those territories in 1922. But the weak sometimes win. The Second World War in China was the single most wrenching event in modern Chinese history. However, the US won a critical battle called the Battle of Midway on June 4, 1942. Every department of the national life—industry, commerce, agriculture, education, the press, even religion—is subject to their will. By 1942 Japan’s industrial capacity had peaked, whereas the American war machine was still growing. But China is a whole new ball game. On December 8, as America’s Pacific fleet lay in ruins at Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Roosevelt requests, and receives, a declaration of war against Japan. Updated 0007 GMT (0807 HKT) May 25, 2019 . The subsequent victory in the Russo-Japanese war of 1904-5 and Japan’s capture, in alliance with the British, of the German concession at Tsingtao (today Qingtao) on the Shandong Peninsula in 1914 established it as the dominant power in the region, a position confirmed by the decision at Versailles in 1919 to hand it the German holdings in China. That set off protests known, from the … Worse yet, this would not be the end of tensions, the Second Sino-Japanese War started in 1937, part of the first actions of World War II. CHAPTER 23. 795) on the Empire of Japan in response to that country's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor the prior day. According to the National World War II Museum, 40 percent of the American military personnel held in Japanese camps died, compared to 1.2 percent in Europe. This makes Toll the fitting inheritor of a tradition of writing that began with the naval historian Samuel Eliot Morison, who in 1942 suggested to Franklin Roosevelt that he be assigned to document the Navy’s World War II battles as a “seagoing historiographer.” Unlike the Army, which sponsored the 78 invaluable volumes of “U.S. The IJN, prophesied Yamamoto, could run wild for six months -- maybe a year -- before the United States mustered its full power for combat. Still, time, reflection and a growing appreciation for the sheer weight of American resources (and now Toll’s three-volume work) have once again shifted that debate. How the U.S. Won the War Against Japan. “When word came that … Or, alternatively, they could have avoided rousing American fury to wage total war in the first place. Japanese submarines were the equals of their U.S. Navy counterparts. During the subsequent Russo-Japanese War, Japan won a series of decisive victories over the Russians, who underestimated the military potential of its … How the U.S. Won World War II Without Invading Japan More people died in the March 1945 firebombing of Tokyo than at either Hiroshima or Nagasaki. Occupation of Taiwan by Japan; Battle of Ganghwa (1875) Japan: Korea: … Rather, Japanese commanders should have thought and acted less tactically and more strategically. But Halsey was not Nimitz’s Patton: Patton needed constant monitoring, but made few mistakes; Halsey was more pliable, but made mistakes galore. But in the end, the authors contend, none of this would have mattered. Japan to Send Message That They Won't Repeat War Atrocities. The War The Japanese quickly took over much of Southeast Asia and were well on their way to dominance by 1942. The general who had won the war in Europe months earlier, Dwight Eisenhower, recalled his reaction to being told by the secretary of war, Henry Stimson, that the atomic bomb would be used. Vice Adm. Roland Smoot, one of the Navy’s more acclaimed fighters, called him “a complete and utter clown,” while admitting that “if he said, ‘Let’s go to hell together,’ you’d go to hell with him.” Halsey was always on the edge of being fired, and knew it: “I am most apologetic for the present mix-up,” he wrote to Nimitz after one foul-up. When you purchase an independently reviewed book through our site, we earn an affiliate commission. Let's face it. JAPAN (W.W. II, 1941-1945) After victory, Japan expected to eradicate European and American economic and military influence in Asia quickly and establish itself as the political master of that continent. Japan After World War I . As a result, Japan did not have the negotiating power many expected. In Japan, this led to the rise of ultra-right wing and nationalist leaders, such as Fumimaro Konoe and Sadao Araki, who advocated uniting Asia under the rule of the emperor. What would the world be like today if Japan had won World War II? After all, the Japanese had offered the Czar some very good compensations about Manchuria, in exchange to their own expansion in the area. Did Japan pose a threat to Europe? "Japan could never have crushed U.S. maritime forces in the Pacific and imposed terms on Washington. The most well-known Japanese jet—and the only one that saw combat—was the Okha, a rocket-propelled and human-piloted kamikaze. Dragging out the affair so that he pays heavy costs over time is another. Needless to say he means the USA and Great Britain. Toll does this too, showing a tactile command of the subject that puts Japan’s war in its proper perspective — as an unnecessary fight that, in retrospect, looks like a suicide mission. Bottom line, no likely masterstroke -- no single stratagem or killing blow -- would have defeated the United States. From May to September 1939, the USSR and Japan fought an undeclared war involving over 100,000 troops. And granted, enacting some of these measures would have demanded preternaturally farseeing leadership. It took Russia a while to organise its response.. [CDATA[// >