Why Did Japan Enter Ww2

World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. This war is the most deadly war in recorded history with the casualties totaling upwards of 85 million, most of which were civilians in the Soviet Union and China. There were two different opposing military alliances fighting in World War II, the Axis and Allies. The Allies consisted of France, Poland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, the Soviet Union, and the United States of America. The Axis powers consisted of Nazi Germany, Italy, and Japan. Because Nazi Germany and Italy were very close geographically it made more sense for them to ally, but Japan is an outlier here, they had their own reason for entering the war

His rule was quite different though, Emperor Taisho contracted cerebral meningitis at only three weeks old, and due to this his mental growth and efficiency was very crippled. Due to this, he was kept out of the eye of the public as much as possible. Japan was also fighting in World War I at this time, though on this occasion they were fighting against Germany and were considered one of the “Big Four” at the Versailles Peace Conference. Though soon after the war ended Japan returned to their debtor status. Without proper leadership from their Emperor, Japan had no way to begin to fix their economy, so in 1926 Japan’s economy bottomed out with nearly three million citizens unemployed. Japan was a nation ready for political upheaval. A change came soon enough though, Emperor Taisho died of pneumonia in 1926, marking an end to the Taisho

Though surprisingly enough this was not enough to force Japan into a surrender, so three days later on August 9, 1945, another atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, killing another 40,000 people. At noon on August 15, 1945, Emperor Hirohito broadcasted Japan’s surrender on the radio. V-J Day celebrations broke out almost instantaneously across the globe, and Japan signed formal documents of surrender on September 2, 1945. Emperor Hirohito lost all political powers and became merely a figurehead of the nation until his death on January 7, 1989.

During the 20th century, Japan was in complete disarray. For the past 100 years leading up to World War II, the Japanese had been at war on multiple fronts, such as The Sino-Japanese War, World War I, and The Second Sino-Japanese War. Japan’s leadership was desperate for power and control, but most importantly, financial stability. Japan’s involvement in World War II can be traced back nearly a century all the way to Emperor Hirohito’s grandfather, Emperor Meiji. Meiji’s reformation, while desperately needed, plunged Japan deep into economic unrest and in the end pushed them into World War