Military Leaders in Japan: Early World War II
The military leaders of Japan helped to lead the world towards war in a few ways. During this time power in Japan was consolidated primarily in the military. Expansionism on the part of military leaders was one variable. Russia lost territory to Japan in the Russo-Japanese war, Japan had expansionist desires in Asia due to the territories it had gained during World War One but was forced to give up afterwards. The Japanese and the other major Axis powers kept an aggressive militaristic policy after World War One despite the Treaty of Versailles. Japan implemented these policies in the Second Sino-Japanese war, Japan aimed to dominate China politically, and economically. They bombed cities and committed brutal atrocities in what was then Manchuria, now northern China. The Soviet Union kept troops at their frontier with Japan after Japan attacked west from Manchuria aiming to expand their borders and were defeated. Hideki Tojo was a very powerful military leader in Japan. In the 1930's he helped lead Japan towards war, in 1940 he pushed Japan into the Axis alliance, and by 1941 he was in control of the entire military and became the Prime Minister, and therefore had virtually unlimited power in Japan. On December 7th, 1941 The Japanese Imperial Navy, under command of Tojo, attacked Pearl Harbor, which brought the United States officially into the war. Tojo attempted suicide after the war, however he survived and was brought back to health. He was then charged for various crimes against humanity as well as being responsible for the death of about four million Chinese, and executed on the 23rd of December, 1948.