Where did Japan get most of their goods from before WWII? Was it mostly from the Allies or Axis powers?

Answer 1

They got rubber from the Phillipines and that was cut off at the beginning of the war. That's why they fought so hard to conquer the islands.

Answer 2

Ironically Japan imported most of the raw industrial material from the United States. Particularly oil, iron ore and coal. This was an agreement that was agreed between Japan and US because Japan sided with the Allies during World War I.
However when the great depression struck the world in the 30's, the US could not supply all of the material that Japan wanted. At this time Japan perceived Russia as a grave threat especially when the Russians lost the Russo-Japanese war and expected a reprisal.
This fear among others Japanese military power took over the government and Emperor Hirohito was ascended as the supreme commander of the Japaneses empire.
The Japanese military calculated that in order to defend against Russia and possibly China, a major buildup of military hardware was necessary. The oil, coal and iron were concentrated in Manchuria. Rubber and other chemicals needed for ammo was located in southeast asia.
So in the early 30's, Japan waged two war fronts: Manchuria via Korea and south pacific via Philipines.
To Japan's surprise, all of these military compains were won relatively easily. If it was this easy,the Japanese military became very overconfident and GREEDY. So the military was told to keep going. Take China and perhaps all of eastern asia, Australia and New Zealand. At this time the US did not pay much attention to the Pacific theater. They were much more focused on Hitler's march through Europe and North Africa. What caught US attention was the Rape of Nanking where this entire city in China was brutally slaughtered. Not only did they kill men, they raped and killed females and children. This brought a world outcry for the Japanese brutality. This outrage put US in total embargp of goods to Japan.
The Japanese military took this as a hostile action by the US and could not be trusted. The ambitious Japanese Naval forces rejoiced at the vast pacific ocean as giant moat to keep US military at bay provided they destroy all military facilities in Hawaii.The calculated if they desimated the US military capability in Hawaii, it will take them a decade to recover. In the mean time the Japanese generals and admirals dreamed of Japanese empire spanning all pacific islands from the international date line to siberial to north, china to the west, all of middle asia including India, Pakistan, perhaps Iran if they got that far and found oil.

lightpulse

Answer 3

The Japan's trading pattern is "exporting products processed from imported materials".
Materials were from all over the world.
Even before Japan occupied Singapore (South East Asia), tons of ships from Japan had got to the shore for unloading goods.
It is written in the Singapore book.

You should ask "Where did Japan get most of their materials to produce products? ".
The style today is still the same.
"exporting products processed from imported materials".

Answer 4

before everything was made in china...it was made in japan. they only import raw materials,the bombs they dropped on pearl harbor were made from scrap metal they bought from either ford or general motors..which prompted stalin to say that capitalist will sell you the rope that you hand them with..they were a big time isolationist country.