Before the war started the U.S. and Japan had conflicts which lead to Japan's surprising attack on Pearl Harbor. After Pearl Harbor, the U.S. battled the Japanese in the unpleasant conditions of the pacific islands. When the U.S. made the decision to use a strategy that had never been used before, it produced fatal results and ended the war.
How was America involved with Japan in WW2 and why? Before the war started the U.S. and Japan had conflicts which lead to Japan's surprising attack on Pearl Harbor. After Pearl Harbor, the U.S. battled the Japanese in the unpleasant conditions of the pacific islands. When the U.S. made the decision to use a strategy that had never been used before, it produced fatal results and ended the war. This dire war between the U.S. and Japan could have been prevented.
Initially, Japan battled the U.S. for many reasons. Before Japan entered WW2 it's economy was already weak. In 1923 the Great Kanto Earthquake took 140,000 lives and destroyed Tokyo and Yokohama. The great depression of 1929 also weakened the economy . In WW1 Japan had joined the allied powers but wasn't supported by the U.S. and even was discriminated against. The Japanese attained greater malice in 1924 when the U.S. congress passed the Exclusion Act, disabling Japanese to immigrate to the U.S. Making matters worse, in 1940 Japan's main supplier, the U.S. limited the trade of scrap metal, aviation gas and machine tools to force the Japanese to end war with the U.S. ally, China. Also, in 1940 Japan joined Germany and Italy forming the Axis Powers, making them true adversaries of the U.S. Therefore the Japanese devised a plan that would neutralize the U.S. fleet with a surprise attack on pearl Harbor and planned to capture America's central pacific bases.
Subsequently, on December 7, 1941, 7:55 AM while Japanese representatives were negotiating in Washington, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on the island of Oahu and the massacre began. They succeeded at sinking and damaging 19 naval vessels, destroying 188 U.S. aircraft, killing 2,280 military personnel and wounding 1,109. On December 8 the U.S. declared war on Japan. The U.S. battled Japan on several small islands in the Pacific. The Japanese used effective strategies such as, digging underground, having reinforced bunkers and also devoting to strong loyalty, never surrendering. During these Pacific Wars the Japanese lost 1,100,110 while the U.S. lost 92,010. On July 27,1945 the Allied Powers gave the Japanese a chance to surrender, 3
without any further destruction but the Japanese refused. Truman was eager to end the war because thousands of U.S. soldiers had been killed in Germany and Japan so on August 6, 1945, Hiroshima was hit with an atomic bomb without any warning, this was the first use of atomic weapons. On August 9 another bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. After losing many civilians the Japanese Emperor surrendered on August 15, 1945 and the U.S. soldiers came home.
Consequently, the bombings were a sorrowful tragedy. Truman stated this about the atomic bomb: "The target will be a purely military one and we will issue a warning statement asking the Japs to surrender and save lives. I'm sure they will not do that, but we will have given them the chance. It is certainly a good thing for the world that Hitler's crowd or Stalin's did not discover this atomic bomb. It seems to be the most terrible thing ever discovered, but it can be made the most useful..."1 Many people are ashamed of Truman's decision to use atomic weapons on Japan, killing 300,000 Japanese. Many wonder if it was really necessary to end the war. Truman once stated, "The world will note that the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, a military base. That was because we wished in this first attack to avoid, insofar as possible, the killing of civilians."2 Contradicting statistics show that the bomb dropped on Hiroshima killed 140,000 military personnel and civilians on spot and the long term effects took the lives of 60,000 more within 5 years of the incident. The total Japanese that were killed in WW2 is 1,806,000 and 500 military officers committed suicide after they lost the war.
In brief, the U.S. could have prevented war with Japan. Starting in WW1 the U.S. gave the Japanese and unworthy impression. The U.S. battled Japan in the Pacific wars and experienced the determination and loyalty of the Japanese. Families in the U.S. wanted their loved ones to come home, so Truman ended the war with the shocking use of the atomic bombs. The U.S. and Japan fought a great battle that resulted in one of the worst tragedies.
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