1.
Empire of Japan
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The Empire of Japan was the historical Japanese nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 to the enactment of the 1947 constitution of modern Japan. Imperial Japans rapid industrialization and militarization under the slogan Fukoku Kyōhei led to its emergence as a world power, after several large-scale military successes during the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Pacific War, the Empire also gained notoriety for its war crimes against the peoples it conquered. A period of occupation by the Allies followed the surrender, Occupation and reconstruction continued well into the 1950s, eventually forming the current nation-state whose full title is the State of Japan or simply rendered Japan in English. The historical state is referred to as the Empire of Japan or the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan in English. In Japanese it is referred to as Dai Nippon Teikoku, which translates to Greater Japanese Empire and this is analogous to Großdeutsches Reich, a term that translates to Greater German Empire in English and Dai Doitsu Teikoku in Japanese. This meaning is significant in terms of geography, encompassing Japan, due to its name in kanji characters and its flag, it was also given the exonym Empire of the Sun. After two centuries, the policy, or Sakoku, under the shoguns of the Edo period came to an end when the country was forced open to trade by the Convention of Kanagawa in 1854. The following years saw increased trade and interaction, commercial treaties between the Tokugawa shogunate and Western countries were signed. In large part due to the terms of these Unequal Treaties, the Shogunate soon faced internal hostility, which materialized into a radical, xenophobic movement. In March 1863, the Emperor issued the order to expel barbarians, although the Shogunate had no intention of enforcing the order, it nevertheless inspired attacks against the Shogunate itself and against foreigners in Japan. The Namamugi Incident during 1862 led to the murder of an Englishman, Charles Lennox Richardson, the British demanded reparations but were denied. While attempting to exact payment, the Royal Navy was fired on from coastal batteries near the town of Kagoshima and they responded by bombarding the port of Kagoshima in 1863. For Richardsons death, the Tokugawa government agreed to pay an indemnity, shelling of foreign shipping in Shimonoseki and attacks against foreign property led to the Bombardment of Shimonoseki by a multinational force in 1864. The Chōshū clan also launched the coup known as the Kinmon incident. The Satsuma-Chōshū alliance was established in 1866 to combine their efforts to overthrow the Tokugawa bakufu, in early 1867, Emperor Kōmei died of smallpox and was replaced by his son, Crown Prince Mutsuhito. On November 9,1867, Tokugawa Yoshinobu resigned from his post and authorities to the Emperor, however, while Yoshinobus resignation had created a nominal void at the highest level of government, his apparatus of state continued to exist. On January 3,1868, Satsuma-Chōshū forces seized the palace in Kyoto. On January 17,1868, Yoshinobu declared that he would not be bound by the proclamation of the Restoration, on January 24, Yoshinobu decided to prepare an attack on Kyoto, occupied by Satsuma and Chōshū forces
2.
First Sino-Japanese War
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The First Sino-Japanese War was fought between the Qing Empire of China and the Empire of Japan, primarily over influence of Korea. After more than six months of unbroken successes by Japanese land and naval forces and the loss of the Chinese port of Weihaiwei, the Qing government sued for peace in February 1895. The war demonstrated the failure of the Qing Empires attempts to modernize its military and fend off threats to its sovereignty, especially when compared with Japans successful Meiji Restoration. For the first time, regional dominance in East Asia shifted from China to Japan, the humiliating loss of Korea as a tributary state sparked an unprecedented public outcry. Within China, the defeat was a catalyst for a series of political upheavals led by Sun Yat-sen and Kang Youwei, the war is commonly known in China as the War of Jiawu, referring to the year as named under the traditional sexagenary system of years. In Japan, it is called the Japan–Qing War, in Korea, where much of the war took place, it is called the Qing–Japan War. After two centuries, the Japanese policy of seclusion under the shoguns of the Edo period came to an end when the country was forced open to trade by British and American intervention in 1854. The years following the Meiji Restoration of 1868 and the fall of the Shogunate had seen Japan transform itself from a society into a modern industrial state. The Japanese had sent delegations and students around the world to learn and assimilate Western arts and sciences, Korea continued to try to exclude foreigners, refusing embassies from foreign countries and firing on ships near its shores. At the start of the war, Japan had the benefit of three decades of reform, leaving Korea outdated and vulnerable, as a newly risen power, Japan turned its attention toward its neighbor, Korea. Japan wanted to block any other power from annexing or dominating Korea, as Prussian advisor Major Klemens Meckel put it to the Japanese, Korea was a dagger pointed at the heart of Japan. On February 27,1876, after confrontations between Korean isolationists and Japanese, Japan imposed the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1876, forcing Korea open to Japanese trade. Similar treaties were signed between Korea and other nations, Korea had traditionally been a tributary state of Chinas Qing Empire, which exerted large influence over the conservative Korean officials who gathered around the royal family of the Joseon kingdom. Opinion in Korea itself was split, conservatives wanted to retain the traditional relationship under China, while reformists wanted to approach Japan and Western nations. After fighting two Opium Wars against the British in 1839 and 1856, and another war against the French in 1885, Japan saw the opportunity to take Chinas place in the strategically vital Korea. In 1882, the Korean peninsula experienced a drought which led to food shortages, causing much hardship. Korea was on the verge of bankruptcy, even falling months behind on military pay, on July 23, a military mutiny and riot broke out in Seoul in which troops, assisted by the population, sacked the rice granaries. The next morning, the crowd attacked the palace and barracks
3.
Russo-Japanese War
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The Russo-Japanese War was fought between the Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan over rival imperial ambitions in Manchuria and Korea. The major theatres of operations were the Liaodong Peninsula and Mukden in Southern Manchuria and the seas around Korea, Japan, Russia sought a warm-water port on the Pacific Ocean for their navy and for maritime trade. Vladivostok was operational only during the summer, whereas Port Arthur, since the end of the First Sino-Japanese War in 1895, Japan feared Russian encroachment on its sphere of influence. Russia had demonstrated an expansionist policy in the Siberian Far East from the reign of Ivan the Terrible in the 16th century, through threat of Russian expansion, Japan offered to recognize Russian dominance in Manchuria in exchange for recognition of Korea as being within the Japanese sphere of influence. Russia refused and demanded Korea north of the 39th parallel to be a buffer zone between Russia and Japan. The Japanese government perceived a Russian threat to its strategic interests, after negotiations broke down in 1904, the Japanese Navy opened hostilities by attacking the Russian Eastern Fleet at Port Arthur, China, in a surprise attack. The war concluded with the Treaty of Portsmouth, mediated by US President Theodore Roosevelt, the complete victory of the Japanese military surprised world observers. The consequences transformed the balance of power in East Asia, resulting in a reassessment of Japans recent entry onto the world stage and it was the first major military victory in the modern era of an Asian power over a European one. Scholars continue to debate the historical significance of the war, after the Meiji Restoration in 1868, the Meiji government endeavored to assimilate Western ideas, technological advances and ways of warfare. By the late 19th century, Japan had transformed itself into an industrial state. The Japanese wanted to be recognized as equal with the Western powers, the Meiji restoration had always been intended to make Japan a modernized state, not a Westernized one, and Japan was always an imperialist power, looking towards overseas expansionism. By the 1890s it had extended its realm across Central Asia to Afghanistan, the Russian Empire stretched from Poland in the west to the Kamchatka Peninsula in the east. With its construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway to the port of Vladivostok, in the Tsushima incident of 1861 Russia had directly assaulted Japanese territory. Between the Meiji Restoration and its participation in World War I, the first war Japan fought was the First Sino-Japanese War, fought in 1894 and 1895. The war revolved around the issue of control and influence over Korea under the rule of the Joseon dynasty, from the 1880s onward, there had been vigorous competition for influence in Korea between China and Japan. The Korean court was prone to factionalism, and was divided by a reformist faction that was pro-Japanese. In 1884, a coup attempt was put down by Chinese troops. A peasant rebellion led by the Tonghak religious movement led to a request by the Korean government for the Qing dynasty to send in troops to stabilize the country
4.
World War I
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World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, or the War to End All Wars, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history and it was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, and paved the way for major political changes, including revolutions in many of the nations involved. The war drew in all the worlds great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances, the Allies versus the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. These alliances were reorganised and expanded as more nations entered the war, Italy, Japan, the trigger for the war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. This set off a crisis when Austria-Hungary delivered an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia. Within weeks, the powers were at war and the conflict soon spread around the world. On 25 July Russia began mobilisation and on 28 July, the Austro-Hungarians declared war on Serbia, Germany presented an ultimatum to Russia to demobilise, and when this was refused, declared war on Russia on 1 August. Germany then invaded neutral Belgium and Luxembourg before moving towards France, after the German march on Paris was halted, what became known as the Western Front settled into a battle of attrition, with a trench line that changed little until 1917. On the Eastern Front, the Russian army was successful against the Austro-Hungarians, in November 1914, the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers, opening fronts in the Caucasus, Mesopotamia and the Sinai. In 1915, Italy joined the Allies and Bulgaria joined the Central Powers, Romania joined the Allies in 1916, after a stunning German offensive along the Western Front in the spring of 1918, the Allies rallied and drove back the Germans in a series of successful offensives. By the end of the war or soon after, the German Empire, Russian Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, national borders were redrawn, with several independent nations restored or created, and Germanys colonies were parceled out among the victors. During the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the Big Four imposed their terms in a series of treaties, the League of Nations was formed with the aim of preventing any repetition of such a conflict. This effort failed, and economic depression, renewed nationalism, weakened successor states, and feelings of humiliation eventually contributed to World War II. From the time of its start until the approach of World War II, at the time, it was also sometimes called the war to end war or the war to end all wars due to its then-unparalleled scale and devastation. In Canada, Macleans magazine in October 1914 wrote, Some wars name themselves, during the interwar period, the war was most often called the World War and the Great War in English-speaking countries. Will become the first world war in the sense of the word. These began in 1815, with the Holy Alliance between Prussia, Russia, and Austria, when Germany was united in 1871, Prussia became part of the new German nation. Soon after, in October 1873, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck negotiated the League of the Three Emperors between the monarchs of Austria-Hungary, Russia and Germany
5.
Mukden Incident
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The Mukden Incident, or Manchurian Incident, was a staged event engineered by Japanese military personnel as a pretext for the Japanese invasion in 1931 of northeastern China, known as Manchuria. On September 18,1931, Lt. Suemori Kawamoto detonated a small quantity of dynamite close to a line owned by Japans South Manchuria Railway near Mukden. The ruse of war was soon exposed by the Lytton Report of 1932, leading Japan to diplomatic isolation and its March 1933 withdrawal from the League of Nations. The bombing act is known as the Liutiaohu Incident, and the episode of events is known in Japan as the Manchurian Incident. Japanese economic presence and political interest in Manchuria had been growing ever since the end of the Russo-Japanese War, the Treaty of Portsmouth that ended the war had granted Japan the lease of the South Manchuria Railway branch of the China Far East Railway. This included absolute and exclusive administration within the South Manchuria Railway Zone, there were many reports of raids on local Chinese villages by bored Japanese soldiers, and all complaints from the Chinese government were ignored. In Nanjing in April 1931, a leadership conference of the Republic of China was held between Chiang Kai-shek and Zhang Xueliang. They agreed to assert Chinas sovereignty in Manchuria strongly, Itagaki and Ishiwara chose to sabotage the rail section in an area near Liutiao Lake. The alleged Japanese plan was to attract Chinese troops by an explosion, the Japanese press labeled the site Liǔtiáo Ditch or Liǔtiáo Bridge, when in reality, the site was a small railway section laid on an area of flat land. The choice to place the explosives at this site was to preclude the extensive rebuilding that would have been necessitated had the site actually been a railway bridge. Colonel Seishirō Itagaki, Lieutenant Colonel Kanji Ishiwara, Colonel Kenji Doihara, at around 10,20 PM, September 18, the explosives were detonated. However, the explosion was minor and only a 1. 5-meter section on one side of the rail was damaged, in fact, a train from Changchun passed by the site on this damaged track without difficulty and arrived at Shenyang at 10,30 PM. On the morning of the day, two artillery pieces installed at the Mukden officers club opened fire on the Chinese garrison nearby. Zhang Xueliangs small air force was destroyed, and his soldiers fled their destroyed Beidaying barracks, the Chinese troops were no match for the experienced Japanese troops. By the evening, the fighting was over, and the Japanese had occupied Mukden at the cost of five hundred Chinese lives, honjō moved the Kwantung Army headquarters to Mukden and ordered General Senjurō Hayashi of the Chosen Army of Japan in Korea to send in reinforcements. At 04,00 on 19 September, Mukden was declared secure, therefore, the Japanese soldiers proceeded to occupy and garrison the major cities of Changchun and Antung and their surrounding areas with minimal difficulty. Despite this resistance, within five months of the Mukden Incident, the Imperial Japanese Army had overrun all major towns and cities in the provinces of Liaoning, Jilin, and Heilongjiang. Chinese public opinion strongly criticized Zhang Xueliang for his non-resistance to the Japanese invasion, while the Japanese presented a legitimate threat, the Kuomintang focused their efforts mainly on eradicating the communist party
6.
Emperor Jimmu
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Emperor Jimmu, (original birth name of Shinto, Kamu-Yamato-Iware-Biko no Mikoto, was the first Emperor of Japan, according to legend. His accession is dated as 660 BC. According to Japanese mythology, he is a descendant of the sun goddess Amaterasu, through her grandson Ninigi and he launched a military expedition from Hyuga near the Inland Sea, captured Yamato, and established this as his center of power. In modern Japan, Jimmus accession is marked as National Foundation Day on February 11, Jimmu is recorded as Japans first ruler in two early chronicles, Kojiki and Nihon Shoki. Nihon Shoki gives the dates of his reign as 660–585 BC, prior to this time, these rulers had been known as sumera no mikoto/ōkimi. This practice had begun under Empress Suiko, and took root after the Taika Reforms with the ascendancy of the Nakatomi clan. According to the account in the Kojiki, Emperor Jimmu was born on February 13,711 BC. Both the Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki give Jimmus name as Kamu-yamato Iware-biko no mikoto, iware indicates a toponym whose precise purport is unclear. The Imperial House of Japan traditionally based its claim to the throne on its descent from the sun-goddess Amaterasu via Jimmus great grandfather Ninigi. In Japanese mythology, the Age of the Gods is the period before Jimmus accession, Jimmu figures as a direct descendant of the sun goddess, Amaterasu via the side of his father, Ugayafukiaezu. Amaterasu had a son called Ame no Oshihomimi no Mikoto and through him a grandson named Ninigi-no-Mikoto and she sent her grandson to the Japanese islands where he eventually married Konohana-Sakuya-hime. Among their three sons was Hikohohodemi no Mikoto, also called Yamasachi-hiko, who married Toyotama-hime and she was the daughter of Ryūjin, the Japanese sea god. They had a son called Hikonagisa Takeugaya Fukiaezu no Mikoto. The boy was abandoned by his parents at birth and consequently raised by Tamayori-hime and they eventually married and had four sons. The last of these, Kanyamato Iwarebiko, became Emperor Jimmu, according to the chronicles Kojiki and Nihon Shoki, Jimmus brothers were born in Takachiho, the southern part of Kyūshū in modern-day Miyazaki Prefecture. They moved eastward to find a more appropriate for administering the entire country. Jimmus older brother, Itsuse no Mikoto, originally led the migration, as they reached Naniwa, they encountered another local chieftain, Nagasunehiko, and Itsuse was killed in the ensuing battle. Jimmu realized that they had been defeated because they battled eastward against the sun, so he decided to land on the east side of Kii Peninsula and they reached Kumano, and, with the guidance of a three-legged crow, Yatagarasu, they moved to Yamato
7.
Occupation of Japan
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The Allied occupation of Japan at the end of World War II was led by General Douglas MacArthur, the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers, with support from the British Commonwealth. Unlike in the occupation of Germany, the Soviet Union was allowed little to no influence over Japan and this foreign presence marked the only time in Japans history that it had been occupied by a foreign power. It transformed the country into a democracy that recalled New Deal priorities of the 1930s politics by Roosevelt. Japan surrendered to the Allies on August 14,1945, when the Japanese government notified the Allies that it had accepted the Potsdam Declaration. At Yalta, Stalin made sure Roosevelt was clear on the promise he had made that urged assistance from the USSR on intervening in the war in Japan with the U. S, (On the following day, Emperor Hirohito announced Japans unconditional surrender on the radio. The announcement was the emperors first ever planned radio broadcast and the first time most citizens of Japan ever heard their sovereigns voice. This date is known as Victory over Japan, or V-J Day, and marked the end of World War II, Japanese officials left for Manila, Philippines on August 19 to meet MacArthur and to be briefed on his plans for the occupation. On August 28,1945,150 US personnel flew to Atsugi and they were followed by USS Missouri, whose accompanying vessels landed the 4th Marine Division on the southern coast of Kanagawa. MacArthur arrived in Tokyo on August 30, and immediately decreed several laws, No Allied personnel were to assault Japanese people. No Allied personnel were to eat the scarce Japanese food, flying the Hinomaru or Rising Sun flag was initially severely restricted. This restriction was lifted in 1948 and completely lifted the following year. On September 2,1945, Japan formally surrendered with the signing of the Japanese Instrument of Surrender, on September 6, US President Truman approved a document titled US Initial Post-Surrender Policy for Japan. The document set two main objectives for the occupation, eliminating Japans war potential and turning Japan into a nation with pro-United Nations orientation. At the head of the Occupation administration was General MacArthur, who was supposed to defer to an advisory council set up by the Allied powers. Looking back to his work in Japan, MacArthur described the Japanese reactions as acting similar to a boy of twelve and were at odds of putting away their troubled past. On V-J Day, US President Harry Truman appointed General Douglas MacArthur as Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, during the war, the Allied Powers had planned to divide Japan amongst themselves for the purposes of occupation, as was done for the occupation of Germany. The Soviet Union had some intentions of occupying Hokkaidō, had this occurred, there might have eventually been a communist state in the Soviet zone of occupation. However, unlike the Soviet occupations of East Germany and North Korea, even with these measures, millions of people were still on the brink of starvation for several years after the surrender
8.
Order of the Bath
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The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the medieval ceremony for appointing a knight. The knights so created were known as Knights of the Bath, George I erected the Knights of the Bath into a regular Military Order. Prior to 1815, the order had only a class, Knight Companion. Recipients of the Order are now usually senior officers or senior civil servants. Commonwealth citizens who are not subjects of the Queen and foreign nationals may be made Honorary Members, in the Middle Ages, knighthood was often conferred with elaborate ceremonies. These usually involved the taking a bath during which he was instructed in the duties of knighthood by more senior knights. He was then put to bed to dry, clothed in a special robe, he was led with music to the chapel where he spent the night in a vigil. At dawn he made confession and attended Mass, then retired to his bed to sleep until it was fully daylight, in the early medieval period the difference seems to have been that the full ceremonies were used for men from more prominent families. Knights Bachelor continued to be created with the form of ceremony. The last occasion on which Knights of the Bath were created was the coronation of Charles II in 1661. From at least 1625, and possibly from the reign of James I, Knights of the Bath were using the motto Tria iuncta in uno, and wearing as a badge three crowns within a plain gold oval. These were both adopted by the Order of the Bath, a similar design of badge is still worn by members of the Civil Division. Their symbolism however is not entirely clear, the three joined in one may be a reference to the kingdoms of England, Scotland and either France or Ireland, which were held by English and, later, British monarchs. This would correspond to the three crowns in the badge, another explanation of the motto is that it refers to the Holy Trinity. The prime mover in the establishment of the Order of the Bath was John Anstis, Garter King of Arms, the Court remained the centre of the political world. The King was limited in that he had to choose Ministers who could command a majority in Parliament, the leader of an administration still had to command the Kings personal confidence and approval. A strong following in Parliament depended on being able to supply places, pensions, the attraction of the new Order for Walpole was that it would provide a source of such favours to strengthen his political position
9.
Imperial Japanese Army
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The Imperial Japanese Army or IJA, literally Army of the Greater Japanese Empire, was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan, from 1871 to 1945. Later an Inspectorate General of Military Aviation became the agency with oversight of the army. During the Meiji Restoration, the forces loyal to Emperor Meiji were samurai drawn primarily from the loyalist daimyōs of Satsuma. This central army, the Imperial Japanese Army, became even more essential after the abolition of the han system in 1871. One of the differences between the samurai and the peasant class was the right to bear arms, this ancient privilege was suddenly extended to every male in the nation. In 1878, the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office, based on the German General Staff, was established directly under the Emperor and was given broad powers for military planning and strategy. The Japanese invasion of Taiwan under Qing rule in 1874 was an expedition by Japanese military forces in response to the Mudan Incident of December 1871. The Paiwan people, who are indigenous peoples of Taiwan, murdered 54 crewmembers of a merchant vessel from the Ryukyu Kingdom on the southwestern tip of Taiwan. 12 men were rescued by the local Chinese-speaking community and were transferred to Miyako-jima in the Ryukyu Islands and it marked the first overseas deployment of the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy. Not surprisingly, the new led to a series of riots from disgruntled samurai. One of the riots, led by Saigō Takamori, was the Satsuma Rebellion. Thenceforth, the military existed in an intimate and privileged relationship with the imperial institution, top-ranking military leaders were given direct access to the Emperor and the authority to transmit his pronouncements directly to the troops. The sympathetic relationship between conscripts and officers, particularly junior officers who were mostly from the peasantry, tended to draw the military closer to the people. In time, most people came to look more for guidance in matters more to military than to political leaders. By the 1890s, the Imperial Japanese Army had grown to become the most modern army in Asia, well-trained, well-equipped, however, it was basically an infantry force deficient in cavalry and artillery when compared with its European contemporaries. The Sino-Japanese War would come to symbolize the weakness of the military of the Qing dynasty and this was the result by Japans 120, 000-strong western-style conscript army of two armies and five divisions, which was well-equipped and well-trained when compared with their Qing counterparts. The Treaty of Shimonoseki made the Qing defeat official, with a shift in regional dominance in Asia from China to Japan. In 1899–1900, Boxer attacks against foreigners in China intensified eventually resulting in the siege of the legations in Beijing
10.
Yasukuni Shrine
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The Imperial Shrine of Yasukuni, informally known as the Yasukuni Shrine, is a Shinto shrine located in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The shrines purpose has been expanded over the years to include those who died in the wars involving Japan spanning from the entire Meiji and Taishō period, and lesser part of the Shōwa period. The shrine lists the names, origins, birthdates, and places of death of 2,466,532 men, women and children, among those are 1,068 considered war criminals,14 of whom are considered A-Class. Another memorial at the Honden building commemorates anyone who died on behalf of Japan, in addition, the Chinreisha building is a shrine built to inter the souls of all the people who died during WWII, regardless of their nationality. It is located south of the Yasukuni Honden. Various Shinto festivals are associated with the shrine, particularly in Spring, a notable image of the shrine is the Japanese Imperial Chrysanthemum featured on the gate curtains leading into the shrine. More recently, the visitation of the shrine by active Japanese diplomats, the current 11th High Priest incumbent of the shrine is Yasuhisa Tokugawa, who was appointed in 19 January 2013. The site for the Yasukuni Shrine, originally named Tōkyō Shōkonsha, was chosen by order of the Meiji Emperor, the shrine was established in 1869, in the wake of the Boshin War, in order to honor the souls of those who died fighting for the Emperor. Following the 1877 Satsuma Rebellion, the Emperor had 6,959 souls of war dead enshrined at Tōkyō Shōkonsha, in 1879, the shrine was renamed Yasukuni Jinja. The name Yasukuni, quoted from the phrase 「吾以靖国也」 in the classical-era Chinese text Zuo Zhuan, the name is formally written as 靖國神社, using obsolete kyūjitai character forms. In contrast, the shrine does not enshrine the war dead of shogunate retainers such as soldiers of the former Shogunate forces, Ouetsu-reppan alliance, Shinsengumi, and Shogitai. Although Saigō Takamori, Eto Shinpei, and Maebara Issei made a contribution to the Meiji Restoration, the enshrinement of war dead at Yasukuni was transferred to military control in 1887. As the Empire of Japan expanded, Okinawans, Ainu, in 1932, two Sophia University students, who were Catholic refused visit to Yasukuni Shrine on the grounds that it was contrary to their religious convictions. In 1936, the Society for the Propagation of the Faith of the Roman Curia issued the Instruction Pluries Instanterque and this response of the Catholic Church helped the university avoid a fateful crisis, but it meant its bowing down to the military power and control by Emperor system. By the 1930s, the government sought centralized state control over memorialization of the war dead. The shrine had a role in military and civilian morale during the war era as a symbol of dedication to the Emperor. Enshrinement at Yasukuni signified meaning and nobility to those who died for their country, during the final days of the war, it was common for soldiers sent on kamikaze suicide missions to say that they would meet again at Yasukuni following their death. Yasukuni Shrine has been funded and operated since 1946, when it was elected to become an individual religious corporation independent of the Association of Shinto Shrines
11.
Allies of World War II
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The Allies of World War II, called the United Nations from the 1 January 1942 declaration, were the countries that together opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War. The Allies promoted the alliance as seeking to stop German, Japanese, at the start of the war on 1 September 1939, the Allies consisted of France, Poland and the United Kingdom, and dependent states, such as the British India. Within days they were joined by the independent Dominions of the British Commonwealth, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Poland was a minor factor after its defeat in 1939, France was a minor factor after its defeat in 1940. China had already been into a war with Japan since the Marco Polo Bridge Incident of 1937. The alliance was formalised by the Declaration by United Nations, from 1 January 1942, however, the name United Nations was rarely used to describe the Allies during the war. The leaders of the Big Three – the UK, the Soviet Union, in 1945, the Allied nations became the basis of the United Nations. The origins of the Allied powers stem from the Allies of World War I, Germany resented signing Treaty of Versailles. The new Weimar republics legitimacy became shaken, by the early 1930s, the Nazi Party led by Adolf Hitler became the dominant revanchist movement in Germany and Hitler and the Nazis gained power in 1933. The Nazi regime demanded the cancellation of the Treaty of Versailles and made claims to German-populated Austria. The likelihood of war was high, and the question was whether it could be avoided through strategies such as appeasement, in Asia, when Japan seized Manchuria in 1931, the League of Nations condemned it for aggression against China. Japan responded by leaving the League of Nations in March 1933, after four quiet years, the Sino-Japanese War erupted in 1937 with Japanese forces invading China. The League of Nations condemned Japans actions and initiated sanctions on Japan, the United States, in particular, was angered at Japan and sought to support China. In March 1939, Germany took over Czechoslovakia, violating the Munich Agreement signed six months before, Britain and France decided that Hitler had no intention to uphold diplomatic agreements and responded by preparing for war. On 31 March 1939, Britain formed the Anglo-Polish military alliance in an effort to avert a German attack on the country, also, the French had a long-standing alliance with Poland since 1921. The Soviet Union sought an alliance with the powers. The agreement secretly divided the independent nations of eastern Europe between the two powers and assured adequate oil supplies for the German war machine, on 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland, two days later Britain and France declared war on Germany. Then, on 17 September 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east, a Polish government-in-exile was set up and it continued to be one of the Allies, a model followed by other occupied countries. After a quiet winter, Germany in April 1940 invaded and quickly defeated Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Britain and its Empire stood alone against Hitler and Mussolini
12.
Attack on Pearl Harbor
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The attack, also known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor, led to the United States entry into World War II. The Japanese military leadership referred to the attack as the Hawaii Operation and Operation AI, Japan intended the attack as a preventive action to keep the U. S. Pacific Fleet from interfering with military actions they planned in Southeast Asia against overseas territories of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and the United States. Over the next seven hours there were coordinated Japanese attacks on the U. S. -held Philippines, Guam and Wake Island and on the British Empire in Malaya, Singapore, the attack commenced at 7,48 a. m. The base was attacked by 353 Imperial Japanese fighter planes, bombers, all eight U. S. Navy battleships were damaged, with four sunk. All but the USS Arizona were later raised, and six were returned to service, the Japanese also sank or damaged three cruisers, three destroyers, an anti-aircraft training ship, and one minelayer. 188 U. S. aircraft were destroyed,2,403 Americans were killed and 1,178 others were wounded. Important base installations such as the station, shipyard, maintenance. Japanese losses were light,29 aircraft and five midget submarines lost, one Japanese sailor, Kazuo Sakamaki, was captured. The surprise attack came as a shock to the American people. The following day, December 8, the United States declared war on Japan, the U. S. responded with a declaration of war against Germany and Italy. Domestic support for non-interventionism, which had been fading since the Fall of France in 1940, Roosevelt to proclaim December 7,1941, a date which will live in infamy. Because the attack happened without a declaration of war and without explicit warning, over the next decade, Japan continued to expand into China, leading to all-out war between those countries in 1937. Japan spent considerable effort trying to isolate China and achieve sufficient resource independence to attain victory on the mainland, from December 1937, events such as the Japanese attack on USS Panay, the Allison incident, and the Nanking Massacre swung public opinion in the West sharply against Japan. Fearing Japanese expansion, the United States, the United Kingdom, in 1940, Japan invaded French Indochina in an effort to control supplies reaching China. The United States halted shipments of airplanes, parts, machine tools, and aviation gasoline to Japan, an invasion of the Philippines was also considered necessary by Japanese war planners. War Plan Orange had envisioned defending the Philippines with a 40 and this was opposed by Douglas MacArthur, who felt that he would need a force ten times that size, and was never implemented. By 1941, U. S. planners anticipated abandonment of the Philippines at the outbreak of war and orders to that effect were given in late 1941 to Admiral Thomas Hart, commander of the Asiatic Fleet
Empire of Japan
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