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The Empire of Japan During Ww2

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Submitted By jbryant32
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The Empire of Japan during WW2 The Empire of Japan during World War two seen great victories and expanding territories it also seen dramatic defeat. “At the height of its power in 1942, the Empire of Japan ruled over a land area spanning 2,857,000 square miles, making it one of the largest maritime empires in history (Colin, 1998).” It was the first and only nation to endure the atomic bomb twice. During this paper we will look at the rise and fall of the Japanese Empire. What kind of Government ran this nation? Was their economy a strong or weak economy at the start of the war and how did the war affect it? How did their military operate? The Empire of Japan’s government was a parliamentary constitutional monarchy. To better understand the dynamics of the Government during WW2 you have to travel back to the Meiji Restoration in 1868. “The Meiji Restoration was the political revolution that brought about the fall of the Tokugawa Shogunate (a feudal military government which existed between 1603 and 1868) and returned control of the country to direct imperial rule under the emperor Meiji (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2009).” Although, at the start of the Second World War the emperor did not have complete control of the government. The Emperor was the supreme ruler and head of state but the prime minister was the actual head of government. The Emperor was worshipped like a god similar to the Pharos of Egypt during ancient times. “Emperor Hirohito was the emperor from 1926 until his death in 1989 (Trueman, 2013).” At the start of his rule the people of Japan wanted to be more democratic but during the war national sentiment turned to ultra-nationalism and militarism. What contributed to the people wanting to be more democratic was the ruler before Hirohito which was Emperor Taisho. He was a very weak ruler so power shifted from the oligarchic clique to

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