The Pacific War - week by week

- 1 - Pacific War - Attack on Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941

As we’ve seen in the previous episodes, the Japanese Empire had decided on war with the West since the embargo enacted by the US in July, 1941. The plans to simultaneously execute invasions on the Dutch East Indies, the Philippines and Malaya, as well as a preemptive attack on Pearl Harbor to destroy the American Pacific Fleet, had all been drafted back in September, with preparations carried out successfully by late November.

- 0.7 - The Pacific War - Tensions in the Pacific

With war raging both in Europe and in China, prying eyes around the world eagerly followed the events that were unfolding in front of them. In the US in particular, many still advocated for anti-war sentiment, but President Franklin Delano Roosevelt had decided that he was not going to tolerate anymore the aggressions of the Japanese or the Germans. In 1941, he would finally draw a line to stop Japan that would surely risk war. And although FDR didn’t want to fight against the Japanese, or at least not yet, this was a risk worth taking for the preservation of democracy around the world; a risk that would inevitably ignite war in the Pacific. Welcome to our final prelude of the Pacific War, as the growing tensions between the US and Japan eventually ended in another act of aggression

- 0.6 - The Pacific War - Hitler‘s war in Europe

For four long years, Europe had been devastated during the First World War, leaving almost 30 million casualties along with many more dying of famines and disease. As such, the world had suffered enough, so another major conflict like that one was strictly avoided by the main Western powers. But in the 30s, all of this would change with the rise of fascism and nazism in Italy and Germany. While the war between Japan and China intensifies and reaches a stalemate in 1939, a new conflict is brewing in Europe; a conflict that is destined to change the course of history. Join us as we take a look at the start of the Second World War and the effects it had on the Japanese Empire and the United States.

- 0.5 - The Pacific War - The Second Sino Japanese War

China is a huge country, full of important resources and extensive farmlands, a huge population, and an important strategic and commercial position. This made it a desirable objective for expansion to European colonial powers, but also, to the rising Japanese Empire. Within China itself, revolutions, civil wars and warlordism plagued the nation as different factions fought to become the ultimate ruler of the country. So today, we return to East Asia to cover the divided state of the Chinese people and the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War.

- 0.4 - The Pacific War - US in the Pacific

So far in this series we’ve been mainly covering the history of the Japanese Empire prior to the start of the Pacific War; but what about the other major player of the war? What was the position of the United States after the end of World War One? What were their interests and strategies in the Pacific? And how did they feel about their future rival and its rise as a great power? Today, we are going to answer all these questions and more as we cover the history of the United States and its role in the Pacific theater

- 0.3 - The Pacific war - The rise of the Japanese Empire

By the start of the 20^th Century, Japan had turned from a pre-industrialized isolationist state into a modernized regional power, defeating both the Chinese and Russian Empires, annexing Korea and Taiwan, and expanding their sphere of influence across East Asia. But after the death of Emperor Meiji, new problems would arise, opportunities would be taken and Japan would continue to expand and develop itself as a rising great power. Today, we’re going to continue analyzing the evolution of the Japanese Empire during the Taishō and Early Shōwa eras, covering its role in the Great War, subsequent expansionist developments, and the start of its trajectory towards fascism and the Pacific War.

- 0.2 - The Pacific War - The Meiji Restoration

In the first half of the 19th century, Japan was an agrarian country of tens of millions of rice farmers, a small minority of merchants, who benefited from their hard work, and the elite class of samurai, who, as peace continued, exchanged their swords for calligraphy brushes, working in a variety of administrative positions. Both the farmers and the samurai were indebted to the merchants and this, coupled with increasing peasant unrest and foreign interventions, threatened to destroy the status quo of the Tokugawa Shogunate. And yet, almost four decades later, the Japanese Empire established itself as a regional power in the Far East, going so far as to defeat the Russian behemoth. How did Japan achieve this? How did it undergo such a transformation from a poor isolationist state into a modern military powerhouse? Today, we are going to answer all these questions and talk about the Meiji restoration and the Russo-Japanese War.

- 0.1 - The Pacific War - Imperialism in the East

Once a land of ancient empires and legendary rulers, Asia saw itself turn into a colony of the expanding European powers in the Early Modern period. Drawn to the Asian silk and spice trade, their colonization efforts were initially directed to harness the continent’s economic power. Eventually, the European states started to use more and more force, and by the start of the 20^th Century, the Eastern world would be almost entirely in the hands of Colonial Empires. Welcome to our quick rundown on the European expansion in Asia and the Pacific. This is a prelude video to our series on the Pacific War - we’ll release weekly episodes with events that started 80 years prior, don’t forget to subscribe to never miss them!