How did the Japanese try to build a pacific empire?
455791
Subjigating China, threatining Australia and it's Pacific satellities and eventually attacking the United States at Pearl Harbor in an attempt to beat down the United States Navy/Air Force to the point where we wouldn't be able to stop them from conquering all the islands in the Pacific. If we had surrendered or lost, they probably would've conquered Hawaii as well.
635807
Pearl Harbor \nPearl Harbor Raid, 7 December 1941 --\nOverview and Special Image Selection\nThe 7 December 1941 Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor was one of the great defining moments in history. A single carefully-planned and well-executed stroke removed the United States Navy's battleship force as a possible threat to the Japanese Empire's southward expansion. America, unprepared and now considerably weakened, was abruptly brought into the Second World War as a full combatant.\n\nEighteen months earlier, President Franklin D. Roosevelt had transferred the United States Fleet to Pearl Harbor as a presumed deterrent to Japanese agression. The Japanese military, deeply engaged in the seemingly endless war it had started against China in mid-1937, badly needed oil and other raw materials. Commercial access to these was gradually curtailed as the conquests continued. In July 1941 the Western powers effectively halted trade with Japan. From then on, as the desperate Japanese schemed to seize the oil and mineral-rich East Indies and Southeast Asia, a Pacific war was virtually inevitable.\n\nBy late November 1941, with peace negotiations clearly approaching an end, informed U.S. officials (and they were well-informed, they believed, through an ability to read Japan's diplomatic codes) fully expected a Japanese attack into the Indies, Malaya and probably the Philippines. Completely unanticipated was the prospect that Japan would attack east, as well.\n\nThe U.S. Fleet's Pearl Harbor base was reachable by an aircraft carrier force, and the Japanese Navy secretly sent one across the Pacific with greater aerial striking power than had ever been seen on the World's oceans. Its planes hit just before 8AM on 7 December. Within a short time five of eight battleships at Pearl Harbor were sunk or sinking, with the rest damaged. Several other ships and most Hawaii-based combat planes were also knocked out and over 2400 Americans were dead. Soon after, Japanese planes eliminated much of the American air force in the Philippines, and a Japanese Army was ashore in Malaya.\n\nThese great Japanese successes, achieved without prior diplomatic formalities, shocked and enraged the previously divided American people into a level of purposeful unity hardly seen before or since. For the next five months, until the Battle of the Coral Sea in early May, Japan's far-reaching offensives proceeded untroubled by fruitful opposition. American and Allied morale suffered accordingly. Under normal political circumstances, an accomodation might have been considered.\n\nHowever, the memory of the "sneak attack" on Pearl Harbor fueled a determination to fight on. Once the Battle of Midway in early June 1942 had eliminated much of Japan's striking power, that same memory stoked a relentless war to reverse her conquests and remove her, and her German and Italian allies, as future threats to World peace.\n\nhiroshima and nagasaki:\nSome of the most frequent queries concerning the atomic bombs are those dealing with the selection of the targets and the decision as to when the bombs would be used. \n\nThe approximate date for the first use of the bomb was set in the fall of 1942 after the Army had taken over the direction of and responsibility for the atomic bomb project. At that time, under the scientific assumptions which turned out to be correct, the summer of 1945 was named as the most likely date when sufficient production would have been achieved to make it possible actually to construct and utilize an atomic bomb. It was essential before this time to develop the technique of constructing and detonating the bomb and to make an almost infinite number of scientific and engineering developments and tests. Between the fall of 1942 and June 1945, the estimated probabilities of success had risen from about 60% to above 90%; however, not until July 16, 1945, when the first full-scale test took place in New Mexico, was it conclusively prove
603511
Why are so many stupid Americans trying to somehow bring themselves into a question that is clearly about the "structural" governments of China and Japan???\n\nBoth Japan and China were initially very similar in that they were under imperial rule although Japan did have more of a functional parliament and was definitely more advanced, progressive and shall we say, ah, "expansive". The chinese emperor feared he would not be able to challenge Japan's military superiority and thus sought to appease/ally with them but the Japs had other ideas and invaded them and pretty much ruled the place. This is where the Chinese lost all faith in their emperor. As soon as China was liberated from Japanese occupation they decided that people power was the only way, deposed the emperor and the communist party took over. After WW2 Japan's emperor was relegated to the role of mere figurehead and full political power given to a democratic parliament.
1018047
The cause for this war was imperialism. Both Russia and Japan wanted control of Manchuria and Korea this led to war which Japan Won
125886
To cripple the American Naval Fleet and gain a superiority in the Pacific Ocean, which they did for a time
456753
If Japan had not attached Pearl Harbor they would have attacked another target.  Remember Japan started the war in the Pacific not the U.S.  Pearl Harbor was a strategic target and base to the Pacific Fleet.  Our saving grace that day was the fact that our air craft carriers were out of port at the time.  \n\nJapan brought the war to our door step and we took it right back to Tokyo.
448098
1.) The Japanese Shogun, who led from Edo (now Tokyo), wanted European trade to flow through Edo. Europeans wanted to trade through Kyushu (the southernmost island). Additionally, China rejected his overtures for additional trade. The Shogun then moved to restrict trade in his favor (remember, at this point, Japan was a feudal state).\n\n2.) Christianity was starting to flourish in parts of Japan, and the Shogun began to get worried. Christianity was seen as a destabilizing factor, so the Shogun moved to purge it from Japan, by restricting the religion, massacring Christians, expelling Europeans, and forcing subjects to register at temples.\n\nThe period of no contact was between 1641 and 1854, although the Chinese and Dutch were allowed limited contact at Nagasaki.
1027378
Because the US needed to get Japan to submit before Russia could become involved with the Pacific struggle because part of the treaty made was that if Russia helped to defeat Japan they would receive a larger portion of Germany which America didn't want.
558588
the japanese invasion of Manchuria
642707
after japan had invaded and slaughterd the population of naking china, the US stopped trading oil and metal with japan.  the japan govt at the time realized to secure it wants of oil and tin and other raw materials they would need to secure the south east area like singapore etc.  the biggest threat to japan's ability to do this was the US navy, hence the attack.
180998
china's too big.  they were always having civil wars.  japan was already a much more united state.  you need strong, united states to impose the disciplines that industrialization required.
794207
During WWII, the Japs knew the US military was bigger and badder then theirs. They tried to destroy the Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor to take the US Navy out of the equation to make the playing field more even. However, many of the Jap military leaders thought bombing the Pacific fleet was a bad idea. They thought of the bombing as simply awakening a sleeping giant. Turns out, they were right.
340015
They got there the same way they got to all the other Pacific islands.  They used boats.\n\nThe ancient Polynesians were excellent navigators.  They used things like the currents, the presence of fish and seaweed, and subtle wave patterns that reflect off of nearby islands to help them find their way around.  It is really quite amazing.
408418
The Japanese military.  They were provoked, though, by Roosevelt's policies, mostly his embargo of the materials Japan needed to continue it's war in China.
391657
The correct answer is B) The promise of a Soviet occupation zone in Korea.\n\nThe USSR secretly agreed to enter the war against Japan within three months of Germany's surrender and was promised S Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands, and an occupation zone in Korea.
178976
see links.\nBasically. us cracks japanese code, we go on offensive, becomes pivitol point in war.
1156042
Pearl Harbor led to the aerial bombardment of civilians....at hiroshima and nagasaki. Toward the end of the war, the Japanese turned down the Potsdam demands for unconditional surrender, even tho they were making overtures for peace through their emmissaries in Sweden.\n\nThe kamikazi and suicidal attackes at Iwo and Okinawa led the US to believe that hundreds of thousands of lives were at stake if they assualted Japan itself, therefore, to end the war quickly it was decided to use the a-bomb to save further American lives.\n\nAnd finally, the US wanted to end the war quickly before the Soviets had a chance to attack Japan and gain hegemy in the Orient, similar to the Soviet bloc in Eastern Europe.\n\nOppeneimer and other American nuclear scientists advocated for using the bomb to end the War more quickly. Other scientists wanted a demonstration in the Pacific Ocean to show the Japanese leaders the devastation of the new weapon. Since there were not alot of A-bombs in existence, the US leaders didn't want to take a chance on the 'demonstration' failing, therefore it was decided to use it against a Japanese city.\n\nPrior to the bombing, leaflets were dropped on the cities informing the populace to flee. Anyway, ever since, the world has been staring into the dark abyss of nuclear holocaust.