japan travel guide | history of japan part III | part of luketravels.com

Japan signed a tripartite pact with Germany and Italy in 1940 and, when diplomatic attempts to gain US neutrality failed, the Japanese launched themselves into WWII with a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. At first Japan scored rapid successes, pushing its battle fronts across to India, down to the fringes of Australia and out into the mid-Pacific. The Battle of Midway opened the US counterattack, puncturing Japanese naval superiority and turning the tide of war against Japan.

By August 1945, with Japan driven back on all fronts, a declaration of war by the Soviet Union and the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it was all over. Emperor Hirohito announced unconditional surrender. Japan was occupied until 1952 by Allied forces who aimed to demilitarize the country and dismantle the power of the emperor.

A recovery program enabled the economy to expand rapidly and Japan became the world's most successful export economy, generating massive trade surpluses and dominating such fields as electronics, robotics, computing, car production and banking.

With the arrival of the 1990s, the old certainties seemed to vanish. Japan's legendary economic growth slowed to a virtual standstill and in 1993, after 38 years at the helm, the conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) succumbed to a spate of scandals and was swept out of power. (The LDP was ushered back within the year.)