HW 17

Japan's Defeat:

1. The Allied tactic of Island Hopping was a strategic plan that gradually took Japan's power away and assisting in the Allied victory. The American forces were divided under 3 different commanders who planned together and drove the Japanese slowly out of the area, towards the Phillipines and Japan. This caused the loss of land, supplies and strategic stations for the Japanese. Japan's control of the Pacific was one of their most enabling tools, and as they lost that power they became weaker and weaker.

2. Japan's severe and growing economic problems throughout the war was another major factor in its defeat. Throughout the 1930s Japan lacked food and materials to supports its exponentially growing population; "their conquests in 1941-42 gave them vast stocks of oil, rubber, metal and other materials", their capacity for making weapons did not match that of America's. America took advantage of this in their submarine raids against Japanese merchant ships.

3. The immense bravery of the Japanese in battle could be seen as either a reason they were defeated, or as a reason that they managed to keep fighting for so long. The further the Allies drove the Japanese back, the harder they fought: on Tawara Atoll only 17 of the 4700 Japanese defenders survived; on Enitwetok none of the 2000 survived; in Saipan the death toll was 2700 with men women and children committing suicide rather than surrender. Japanese soldiers saw death in battle as a way to guarantee a spot in heaven, so their fighting tactics were ruthless, as they were more than willing to die. They didn't have any limits to what they would do, but rather fought to the death. This is a reason that Japan was able to stay fighting for so long, but at the same time, the massive loss of men to kamikaze tactics, and then the suicides of survivors, greatly impacted Japan's manpower.