With these notes, I was able to attain a grade 7 in HL History during the 2018 November IB Exam Session. A grade 7 is the highest score attainable for this subject.
These notes will be relevant to those taking:
IBDP (International Baccalaureate) HL (Higher Level) History PP3 Asia and Oceania - Ja...
IB HL History PP3: Japan – The Reasons for their Initial Success and their Defeat
Contextual Background Knowledge prior to reading:
- By 1939, a phony war was emerging in Europe. Britain and France were focused on fghting the Nazis and Italians in Europe/Africa.
America was still trying to pursue its isolationist policy and was threatening Japan with economic sanctions. Japan has been fghting
China for 2 years in a row at this time and was looking to expand into the South.
- In 1940, France had fallen to the Germans and America was not physically involved in the war yet. This emboldened Japan and gave
them confdence that they could fght the Americans.
- By 1941, Japan had captured French Indochina along with the territories that they had gained. In retaliation, the Americans issued
an oil embargo on Japan, and Japan had to choose whether to concede to America or to continue warfare.
- Despite negotiations and the will to negotiate by the Japanese, the Hull Note was given to General Tojo, which stipulated that Japan
withdraw from China and Indochina. This was seen as a declaration of war, hence the refusal of the Americans to concede fuelled
Japanese dissent, and the surprise Pearl Harbour attack.
- This ultimately motivated the US to fght Japann
Reasons for initial Explanation:
success:
Unpreparedness of The Allies were caught of guard, as they did not forsee Japan being able to manage another naval war.
Combatants America was not only caught ‘of guardd, but also sufered devastating losses in the Pearl Harbour attack –
80% of the Arizona crew was lost, 2403 men were killed, and 1178 were wounded. Despite the fact that the
Japanese had failed to destroy American naval repair ships, America needed time to rebuild its naval feet,
especially Pearl Harbour (in Hawaii) was the only avenue in which they could attack Japan from (mainland
America was too far away). This bought Japan time to quickly take over their colonies in Asia and to carry out
the “Southern Plan.” During this time, Japan captured the Philippines, Guam, Wake Island and the Midway
Islands (all of the USds islands in Asia at the time).
The British and the Dutch were equally unprepared for such an attack as well, for their colonies did not have
well-equipped naval fghting feets. Furthermore, Britain (in particular) refused to recognise Japan as a
growing threat in Asia and hence, their colonies were not well protected. They were more focused on fghting
Hitler and Mussolini in Europe.
This allowed Japan to expand quickly into Asia and to take control of British colonies fast - they launched
simultaneous attacks in Hong Kong and Malaya when they attacked Pearl Harbour – both which were British
colonies that were caught of guard by the attacks. Their coloniesd naval feets were destroyed by unpredicted
torpedo and bomber plane attacks from Japanese ships that were disguised as fshing boats (so that they
dondt come under fre – they had signed the Washington Naval Treaties). The Japanese also went on to claim
Singapore, where the British didndt have an army to oppose the Japanese who entered Singapore from the
Malaya peninsula – Singapore was used as a trading port at the time. Within 1942 itself, Japan had conquered
the following British and Dutch colonies: Burma, Hong Kong, Malaya, Singapore, the Dutch-East Indies and
New Guinea. This is mostly due to how the war was centered around Europe at the time, and the vastness of
the British Empire and their colonies in Asia made it hard to provide immediate aid and a response to
, IB HL History PP3: Japan – The Reasons for their Initial Success and their Defeat
Japanese belligerence in the area.
Strategic Battle Attacks The Japanese had planned their attacks strategically prior to invasion and had plans as to how to successfully
gain each colony. This is characterised by two plans – the “Southern Plan” and the “Eastern Plan”.
The “Southern Plan” entailed the plans for expansion Southwards, past China and into South-east Asia. Their
objective for doing so was to seize economic resources in these areas so as to beneft the Japanese economy
and warfare in China (especially in the Dutch-East Indies where there were valuable oil, rubber and tin
resources.)
They also had specifc battle attacks and strategies to attack each colony/island.
Examples:
- Japands 25th army invaded Singapore through the Malaysian peninsula through thick forested jungles –
the British feet had expected them to attack via the navy as they had done for their other colonies
The “Eastern Plan” consisted of the attacks on the USd colonies and their islands in the Pacifc before the
Americans were involved in the war. This included the attacks on Pearl Harbour, and in Guam/Wake Islands
etc. A result of this was that the islands fell to the Japanese extremely quicklynn:
- Guam
Military By 1941, Japanese Army had 51 divisions, and various special-purpose artillery, calvary, anti-aircraft, and
Supremacy/Military armoured units with a total of 1.7 billion men. 27 divisions fought in China, 13 divisions defended the
Power Mongolian border due to concerns about a possible attack from the USSR. The following armies were sent to
the following destinations:
- Hong Kong (23rd)
- Phillippines (14th)
- Burma and Thailand (15th)
- Dutch East Indies (16th)
- Malaya (25th)
The size of the Navy was just as impressive. At the time of the Pearl Harbour attack in 1941, the Imperial
Navy had:
- 10 battleships of diferent classes
- 6 heavy and 6 light aircraft carriers
- 18 heavy cruisers
- 20 light cruisers
- 126 destroyers (big huge ass ships)
- 68 feet submarines, 50 midget submarines
- THESE NAVAL SHIPS were equipped with advanced technology that helped them gain a foothold in
battles: sumbarines often released torpedoes that would attack rival ships from underwater, and the
Navy would often cooperate with the airforce to bomb other ships and to make them sink.
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