Which major events/factors do you think led to Japan's defeat in WW2?

Question

Besides the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the attack on Pearl Harbor of course. :D

Answer 1

The most major factors:
A. Battle of Coral Sea - The first time during the war that Japan was stopped from their objective, capture of Port Moresby.

B. Battle of Midway - aside from the Japanese Navy losing four fleet carriers they lost a major portion of their pilots. The Japanese navy couldn't replace their pilots as quickly as the US could, or build ships as quickly.

C. Production - the one factor that really limited Japan. They couldn't match the industrial strength of the United States.

D. Submarine operations - the US operated the submarine forces much like Germany did, sinking supply ships. Japanese doctrine was different, they were to go after enemy warships, not supply ships. This had a devastating effect on production and supply later on during the war.

Answer 2

Smaller population than USA, smaller industrial capacity, inferior weapons, less efficient economy, a military dictatorship government which was not conducive to innovative military strategy and efficient production of war materiel. While the general population of Japan may have anticipated an overwhelming victory over the United States, many of the war planners aimed no higher than forcing an armistice after a few years so that Japan would be free to continue building the Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Zone (Japanese Empire).

Answer 3

1) The attack on Pearl Harbor failed to catch the carriers in port. This would come back to haunt the Japanese at Midway.

2)Naval thought at the time favored the fast battleship. In thew event, it was naval air power that determined the the winner in naval battles.

3)Us submarines sank most of the Japanese merchant fleet, denying them all of the materiel necessary to fight the war.

The major event that influenced the war in the Pacific was the battle of Midway, The Japanese lost four carriers and a cruiser, as well as 200 naval aviators. They were never able to recover from the loss.

Answer 4

After the Soviet Army got through with raping and pillaging Berlin, Josef Stalin threatened to invade Japan with a million Soviet mongolian troops. Japan capitulated.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Army_atrocities

More people died in the conventional fire bombings of Tokyo and other major Japanese cities than in both Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined, yet the Japanese did not surrender. But soon after Stalin finished with Berlin and stated he would invade Japan with a million Soviet troops, the Japanese surrended.

Answer 5

The ABC (American, British, Holland) embargo witch left them short on oil. In fact before they attacked pearl arbour they only had a few months of fuel left.

Furthermore, they were facing China, America and the Soviet Union... No single empire can stand against 3 super power (China was not so powerful back then but there still was so many of them).

And there were more signs that were less important.

Answer 6

The main factor leading to Japan's defeat was a lack of local resources. It ran out of items like steel, oil, and money at a time when the US had a virtual unlimited supply. To this day, Japan, imports more resources than it naturally possesses.

Answer 7

The atom bomb of course, but the U.S. Submarine fleet deserves a lot of the credit too. The Japanese Islands were, and are, very resource-poor. The sub fleet did a great job of blockading the supply routes to the islands, and in cutting off or at least curtailing supplies to the Japanese army units throughout the Pacific Theater.

Answer 8

Lack of petroleum supplies, steel, other raw material hampered the Japanese war effort. A stretched military trying to defend far flung islands, as opposed to a U.S very strong manufacturing system, free access to raw materials, superior equipment.

The threat of Stalin's invasion may have been the straw that broke the camel's back.

Answer 9

NOPE... It was the Blood/Sweat/Tears/Lives of many Marine/Army Grunts and Many Many enlisted Troops of all the Armed Services... Eisenhower/MacArthur/Marshall never served a Day in Combat during their whole Careers...EVER !!!! If MacArthur had followed Presidential orders the Chinese would not have came into the Korean War... So we are left with that Legacy we have to this day...

Answer 10

Loss of their carriers at Midway, strategic bombing of Japanese infrastructure, and industrial might could not match the output of the americans..