The Asia-Pacific War

For the American and Canadian governments, World War II in Asia began only after the Imperial Japanese forces attacked Pearl Harbour on December 7, 1941. But in fact, war had already been raging in Asia for a decade.

Today, most scholars of Asian history accept that the war in Asia began on September 18, when the Imperial Japanese Army attacked and occupied Manchuria, in northern China. Japan later launched an all-out invasion of China on July 7, 1937. In the pursuit of accuracy, we have adopted the term Asia-Pacific War to embrace both the Asian phase of the war, from 1931 to 1941, and the Pacific phase of World War II, from 1942 to 1945.

As in many wars, the roots of conflict in the Asia-Pacific run deep. In order to understand these and subsequent events, we provide a historical framework of analysis covering the years 1895-1945.

Setting the Stage: Imperialism, Racism, and Autocracy (1895-1930)

Japan was a latecomer on the world stage of imperialism. In the second half of the 19th century, Japan had to give up centuries of self-imposed isolation. American warships arrived at Japan's shores in 1853 to confront the country with the West's over­whelming military and technical strength. Most of Asia had by that time been colonized by Western powers. In the end, Japan was not invaded but the Western powers imposed treaties on Japan that limited the government's ability to control its economy and granted Westerners special privileges.

Faced with this situation, Japan's leaders decided to "modern­ize" the nation by introducing a capitalist economy, and by striv­ing to obtain foreign markets and colonies. Under the autocratic Meiji constitution of 1889, the Emperor, a powerful sovereign similar to the absolute monarchs in Europe of earlier centuries, commanded the armies and made war and peace. The Japanese education system preached Confucian ethics of loyalty to a lord and obedience of children to parents-and, by extension, to all those in authority. This loyalty and obedience was extended to the Emperor, as head of the nation-family.

To advance economic and military goals, Japan attempted to colonize Korea, the nearest less-developed country. This move brought Japan into conflict with China, which had traditionally treated Korea as its tributary state. This led to the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895. Japan's military, now equipped with imported arms and ships, defeated the Chinese army in Korea and invaded parts of China. The harsh peace treaty forced on China awarded the Japanese government an indemnity worth five times the Japanese annual budget as well as possession of Taiwan. It also enhanced prestige both at home and abroad. Many Japanese concluded that war pays off.

The Japanese government was also influenced by its relation­ship with other powers. Great Britain and Japan, for example, signed the Anglo-Japanese Alliance in 1902, and US president Theodore Roosevelt supported Japan in its war with Russia in 1904-1905. After this war, Japan extended its colonial presence, gaining control over parts of the Liaotung Peninsula (Manchu­ria) and over the southern half of Sahkalin Island. The United States government agreed to Japan's domination of Korea in 1905 in return for Japan's guarantee that it would not challenge US colonial control of the Philippines. Japan gained further colo­nies during World War I.

The year 1919 was a turning point in Korean resistance to Japa­nese control. Korean patriots launched the March First Move­ment to demand self-determination for Korea. Nearly half a million people took part in actions against Japanese rule in over 600 locations across Korea. Japanese occupation forces killed thousands of protesters and arrested between 12,000 and 45,000.

The decision was made at the Paris Peace Conference, following WW I, to allow Japan to keep the German properties in China (Shantung) that were seized during the war. This sparked a massive outcry in China. Student groups, unions, and writers organized large protest demonstrations against Japan. This protest, the May Fourth Movement, among other factors, provided impetus for both the consolidation of the Chinese Nationalist Party and the formation of the Chinese Communist Party.

Japan's territorial conquests were accompanied by contempt for the conquered people. Soon racism toward Chinese and Ko­reans became a part of the fabric of everyday life.

Tragically, racism in the West further fueled Japanese expansion in Asia. Immigration policies based on racial exclusion adopted in Canada and the United States, for example, barred most Chi­nese and Japanese who wanted to leave their home countries. These barriers against immigration were then used by the Japa­nese government to convince their citizens that they needed to expand their control into places like Korea and China, to allow for emigration.

Within Japan there was opposition to Japanese expansion on the continent, but this was quickly repressed. Many felt that Japan had to emulate the Euro-American powers and build its own empire. Despite emerging liberal and democratic trends during the period 1912-1925, including the expansion of the right of most males to vote, the Emperor system, patriotism, and anti­communism prevented any serious internal resistance to Japan's territorial and economic expansion.

Japan faced serious problems both at home and abroad in the late 1920s. Chinese Nationalist Party troops began to move north, threatening Japan's con­trol in parts of Manchuria and in Ko­rea (annexed by Japan in 1910). Also, the worldwide depression that began in 1929 dealt a serious blow to Japan's economy, particularly its exports. How­ever, in spite of these factors the Japa­nese military became even more ag­gressive in pursuit of territorial acquisitions.

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Aggression and Isolation (1931-1941)

On September 18,1931, officers in Japan's Kwantung Army fab­ricated an incident by placing a bomb on the Southern Man­churian railway, which was then under Japanese control. The army, blaming Chinese soldiers for the explosion, invaded Man­churia, where Japan's government and army established a pup­pet state called Manchukuo. The League of Nations subsequently condemned Japan for its aggression. However, Japan withdrew from the League in 1933, and the Japanese army expanded its control in northern China.

In July 1937, Japan decided to launch an all-out but undeclared war against China. Despite stiff Chinese resistance, Japanese forces took Shanghai and, in early December, Nanking-Chi­na's capital at that time. There Imperial soldiers reportedly killed tens of thousands of captured soldiers and civilians. Women and young girls were raped, and children were otherwise brutally treated. The "Rape of Nanking," as it became known, is consid­ered by some among the worst atrocities in history.

At this time, the Japanese government established a system of so-called "comfort stations." Thousands of women, particularly from Korea, but also from throughout Asia, were tricked or forced into prostitution and used as sex slaves by Japanese soldiers. Some were girls as young as 12 years old. Of the approximately 200,000 victims, about 150,000 perished during or immediately after the war.

Japan's government also sponsored the development and experi­mentation of biological and chemical warfare. Under the lead­ership of Ishii Shiro, Unit 731 began to test and produce bio­logical weapons at Pingfang, Manchuria. Many POWs and ci­vilians were murdered in experiments. Bacteria-filled and chemi­cal bombs were used against Chinese civilians. It is estimated that between 600,000 and two million shells filled with poison­ous chemicals remain buried in China. Although both China's Nationalist and Communist parties continued the war of resist­ance against Japan, few countries, including Canada, came to their assistance.

In 1936 Japan allied with Germany in the Anti-Comintern Pact, and Italy joined soon after. This, along with Japan's decision in 1937 to invade the rest of China, put it on a collision course with other imperial powers, especially Great Britain and the United States. Once the war in Europe began, in 1939, Japan began to look to the rest of Asia to secure an independent supply of natu­ral resources, particularly oil from the Dutch East Indies (Indo­nesia). It rationalized its expansion by propagating the idea of liberating peoples in Asia from the domination of Western im­perialism and by creating a "Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere."

The Pacific Offensive (1941-1945)

When the Imperial Japanese forces began to move into Indochina in 1940-1941, other countries began to act. For example, the United States and Canada imposed economic sanctions against Japan. Japan decided that to win control over Asia, it would need to confront the United States. On December 7, 1941, Imperial Japanese forces attacked US bases at Pearl Harbour, Hawaii, and the Philippines. At the same time, Japanese forces also began a massive assault against Commonwealth forces in Hong Kong and Malaya. Hundreds of Canadians died defending Hong Kong, and on Christmas Day, 1,685 Canadian soldiers were captured there. Subsequently, Japan succeeded in establishing control through­out most of Southeast Asia.

However, in China and other countries, armed resistance to Japanese control continued, and as the US brought its economic and technological supremacy to bear against Japan, the tide of the war began to turn. Besides the Canadian troops sent to defend Hong Kong, many other Canadians-including Chinese and Japanese Canadians- served in the Pacific theatre. Japanese ­Canadians volunteered, in spite of the fact that the Canadian government had forcibly removed them from their homes in British Columbia in 1942, based on the racist view that Japa­nese-Canadians were enemy aliens and a menace to Canada. Through the efforts of the Allied forces, Japan was put clearly on the defensive by 1944.

Japan's treatment of prisoners of war was atrocious. The number of US and Commonwealth POWs who died in captivity under the German and Italian regimes was four percent, compared to 27 percent of those held by Japan. Many POWs were forced to toil under inhumane conditions. They were often beaten and denied medical care, and many were executed or died from diseases or malnutrition. As well, the Japanese government forced many civilians from the occupied territories to work as slave labourers for the Japanese military and for private corporations. Over 15 million people in China and other Asian countries died during the war.

In the summer of 1945, the United States, with the concurrence of Britain and Canada, decided to drop atomic bombs on Japan. The first fell on Hiroshima on August 6, the second on Nagasaki on August 9. Meanwhile the Soviet Union entered the war against Japan, moving its troops against Japan's army in northern China. Finally, on August 15, Japan surrendered. For some people, such as the POWs interned in Japan, the atomic bombs seemed like lifesavers. To many others, however, the dropping of atomic bombs against mainly civilian populations seemed like a war crime itself.