7. Japan’s Defeat In The Second World War: The Cultural Dimension

Abstract

Japan's defeat in the Second World War has been given many explanations. American historians have long held that there was no way that the Japanese could have defeated America and certainly could not have imposed the drastic demands, in fact, imposed on defeated Japan: the abject surrender of the enemy, the abolition of his armed forces and the extended occupation of his homeland. This chapter shows that at the outset of the Pacific War, Japan's military preparedness was weakened by a fundamental cultural impairment, less obvious at the time than it is nearly seventy years later. It refers to the dominant and baleful influence of the military over national affairs and national decision-making. Since Japanese military tradition dismissed surrender as unacceptable for Japanese forces, it held an enemy who resorted to it as beneath contempt and thus deserving of the harshest punishment upon entering Japanese captivity. Keywords: American historians; Japanese military tradition; Pacific War; Second World War