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Japan's Relationship Between Southeast Asia

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Japan's Relationship Between Southeast Asia

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It has been around 80 years since the World War 2 ended and Japan surrendered. Japan stopped colonizing Sep 2, 1945, and ended Japan’s imperialism, after the attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

There won't be conflicts between Japan and Southeast Asia. After many years since World War 2, Japan has now emerged as a major domestic partner for the ASEAN countries and viewed Japan as a trusted external power for South East Asia. Japan is also one of the G7 and G20 countries, and as one of them, Japan has donated and funded a large amount of money to the ASEAN countries for climate initiatives, infrastructure, and development in Southeast Asia. For example, in November 2022, the Japanese and the US governments signed a Just Energy Transition Partnership with Indonesia and also raised US$20 billion to support Indonesia’s carbon reduction plan with the US government with the G7 countries, the European Union, Norway, and Denmark.

Importantly, Japan needs Southeast Asian countries' support to promote Japan's security and economic well-being. They also need Southeast Asian countries' support to constrain other global major powers, especially China.

The economic and political relationship between Japan and Southeast Asian countries shows that there will not likely be major conflicts made.

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Though the bombing of Pearl Harbor gave Japan time to conquer Southeast Asia and extract the resources they needed, it also caused the US to join the war. The US joined the allies and sent out troops to three theaters of war. One theater fought in the pacific, slowly taking over small islands with weak defenses. One theater fought the Axis powers in North Africa and Italy, and finally, a large troop of American, British, and Canadian soldiers fought in France.

D-Day: on June 6th 1944, these troops invaded. In May 1945, Germany surrendered. However, Japan continued to hold off American troops.

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In a statement called the Postdam delclaration of July 26, 1945, America and its allies held Japan to an unconditional surrender or face "prompt and utter destruction" The US troops were closing in on Japan, and though the Japan government knew they had no chance of winning the war, they thought if there were enough casualties, the US would offer a better option than unconditional surrender.

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Rice is a primary source of energy for over half of the people, especially in Japan where they eat rice regularly. Rice contains fiber, protein, vitamin B, iron, and manganese, meaning that rice is nutriously good for people. However, Japan did not have enough rice to feed the whole population.

When Japan invaded Southeast Asian countries, the rice produced there was used to supply the Japanese army and also provided daily food requirements for the Japanese soldiers. Indochina was the biggest rice exporter to Japan during the war period exporting 2.8 million tons of rice from 1940 to 1944.

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1937-1945: The Second Sino-Japanese War, seen as the start of WWII in Asia was fought between the Empire of Japan and the Republic of China. Japan wanted to conquer China to gain raw materials like fuel and oil. To mediate the war, the US sanctioned Japan and refused to sell oil to them. Losing 94% of its oil resources, Japan planned to take oil by force from countries in Southeast Asia.

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Japan planned to conquer Southeast Asia for its oil resources, a necessary resource to supply industrial systems in Japan, and to continue the war in China. The Japanese government knew if they tried to invade Europe-colonized countries in Southeast Asia like Singapore, Indochina, or the Philipines, the US would retaliate.

The attack on Pearl Harbor was an attempt to blunt the US's responses. This allows Japan to attack and conquer Southeast-Asian territories freely. On December 7, 1941, Japanese bombers attacked Pearl Harbor, killing 2,403 U.S. personnel, including 68 civilians. The US declares war on Japan, officially joining WWII.

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Rice is considered hard to farm due to it requires plenty of water and the right climate to grow in. Southeast Asia was perfect for rice to grow, thanks to its tropical climate, plentiful rains, and fertile regions. Before the war, three big rice producers in Southeast Asia were Burma, French Indochina, and Thailand. Burma produced around 4.9 million tons of rice, French Indochina produced around 6.5 million tons, and Thailand produced an average of 3 million tons.

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Oil was one of the important resources in WW2 like today. During WW2, oil was required to make synthetic rubber for tires, creating gasoline that could be used in trucks, tanks, jeeps, and airplanes. And oil was needed as a lubricant to create less friction, and reduce heat generated on guns and machinery.

Japan could not produce enough oil to run its machines, so it had to rely on imports from other oil-rich countries. While Japan had 400,000 tons of oil, only 0.1% of the global production, which made Japan face several oil shortages before. Due to the lack of natural oil produced on their land, Japan relied on the import of oil sent by other countries such as the US. Japan imported up to 80 to 90% of the oil they needed from the US, but when they stopped providing Japan oil because Japan occupied French Indochina, they thought they had to take the oil by force, which led to the attack of Pearl Harbor.

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December 8, 1941: the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japan invaded Malaya and the Philipines.

February 1942: Japan conquers Singapore. Singapore was the center of the world's natural rubber production for the Axis powers. Essentially 90% of Allied access to natural rubber was cut off.

March 1942: Japan attacked Rangoon(now Myanmar) which was under British rule at the time, and the Dutch-East-Indies surrender. Japan seized the rich oil fields of the Netherlands East Indies and Borneo quickly. These fields produced 65 million barrels of oil in 1940, a rate more than adequate for Japan's import needs.

April 1942: Japan conquers the Philipines, defeating US troops. This is the height of the Japanese Empire's power.

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Rubber is strong, can be stretched without breaking, is waterproof, and does not allow electricity, light, sound, or heat to get passed through it easily.

That is why rubber was a valuable resource during WWII because it was used to make military airplanes and battleships due to its traits. It was also used to make footwear and waterproof clothing for the 6 million soldiers that Japan had. Around 32 pounds of rubber per soldier were used for footwear, clothing, and equipment. 1,000 pounds of rubber for one military airplane, 2,000 pounds for one tank, and more than 75 tons for one battleship.

Considering Japan being isolated as an island, they needed to have a lot of military airplanes and ships to attack and invade other countries. During WW2, Japan had 6450 tanks, 611 warships, and around 12700 airplanes.

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Japan had a big industrial system that upheld the economy, however, they didn't have the necessary natural resources to sustain production. Japan had to import most of its materials.

In 1930, world powers began to isolate Japan because of its expansionist militarist ideology, this meant Japan did not have adequate access to global markets. During this time, Japan's population increases rapidly and the country is in desperate need of food for its citizens. Because of this, Japan begins colonizing countries for their resources.

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Southeast Asia has a lot of oil reserves in their land, countries like Vietnam, Indonesia, and Malaysia were on of the largest oil producers in Asia. The rich oil fields of the Netherlands East Indies and Borneo produced around 65 million barrels of oil, and Indies and Burma produced 3.4% of the world's oil production, producing 9,700,000 tons of oil.

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On August 6 and 9 1945, the US detonated two atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The bombs killed an estimated 140,000 people in Hiroshima and a further 74,000 in Nagasaki. The devastation and destruction of these weapons caused Japan to surrender.

On September 2, 1945, Emperor Hirohito officially signed the Japanese Instrument of Surrender which finally ended 5 long bloody years.

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Direct & indirect effects of nuclear weapons

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Direct & indirect effects of nuclear weapons

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The atomic bombs used to end WWII was the most powerful bomb every detonated. In Hiroshima, 70,000 people died immediately and just as many were wounded. 90 % of all structures were damaged or destroyed. When the Japanese government still didn't surrender, a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. This time killing 35,000 people and wounding 60,000. 70% of the city's industrial zone was destroyed.

In the following months, many civilians died of untreated wounds, starvation, and lack of resources like clean water, food, or shelter.

Though 80% of the emmited radiation decays within the first 24 hours, the radiation from the bombs plagued Japan for the next 10 years. Even low levels of radiation can kill or sicken those exposed over long periods, contaminate the environment, and have long-term health consequences, including cancer and genetic damage. The high level of radiation emitted was also carried by the wind to other cities, causing radiation air pollution.

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The Co-Prosperity Sphere was created in 1940 as Japan began to colonize South-East Asia. It was the concept of creating a unified and self-sufficient area in Southeast Asia under the Japanese reign. Japan could freely take raw resources from these countries to supply the industrial system. Moreover, they could exclude these countries from Europe-imperialism and Communist ideology.

The problem was, that there was only a certain demand for products within this sphere. Once the war started, Japan was cut off from the global markets, and the sphere started making less and less money each year. As Japan began losing land and finally lost the war, the colonized countries gained independence.

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Most of the people who perished from the atomic bomb weren't soldiers, they were civilians. Some people say that Japan would have surrendered without the atomic bombs, and too many innocent lives were lost, the affects too devastating. Others believe that without Hiroshima and Nagasaki, WWII would have raged for months or even years, taking hundreds of thousands more lives.

Though it is true that many lives were lost in the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the cities have been rebuilt into modern, thriving communities. And it effectively ended WWII. Already so many people had died, and the Japanese government had been planning to keep fighting to the end. The Atomic bombs, though deadly, effectively ended the most bloody way in history.

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Southeast Asian countries produce around 85% of the world's natural rubber. The climate in South East Asia was suitable for rubber trees to grow in. The United States alone used half of the world’s natural rubber supply by the late 1930s, most of which came from Southeast Asia. Rubber was in high demand due to industrial purposes and World War 2 growing.

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preventing the cold war from becoming physical

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preventing the cold war from becoming physical

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The US and the Soviet Union were allies in WWII, but after WWII ended, the US and other Western powers were afraid that the Soviet Union would try to spread communism all over the world. Meanwhile, the Soviet Union was afraid that the US would use its newfound weapon: the atomic bomb to conquer and control the world. 2 years after WWII ended in 1947, the Soviet Union developed their nuclear weapons. The arms race between the two powers caused both of them to develop more and more nuclear weapons to counter the other.

In a way, the development of nuclear weapons may have stopped this tension escalate into a war between the US and USSR. Both sides new that a nuclear war would destroy the world, and the only way to win was not to do anything.

Though the atomic bombs detonated on Hiroshima and Nagasaki had devastating effects, I would argue that these weapons not only ended WWII, but prevented a more bloodier war from occuring.

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People: as of January 2023, Japan had a population of approximately 125 million, of which 28.6% were aged 65 or older. The basic retirement age in Japan is 65, so nearly 30% of the population is not working. In addition, Japan's fertility rate is 1.374 births per woman. The changing lifestyles of Japanese generations mean the population will continue to decrease. It is estimated to fall to 61 million people by 2100. Lacking people means lacking a workforce, which can affect Japan's economy

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Due to Japan's lack of domestic resources, Japan is very reliant on foreign trade and resources. Japan is the world's fourth-largest oil buyer and imports 95% of its oil from Middle East Asia, and over 99 percent of the supply is currently covered by foreign crude oil. Also with rubber, in 2022, Japan imported US$1.4 billion in Rubber from Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Singapore, making Japan the fourth-largest rubber importer.

Thanks to Japan's improved technology, Japan has enough rice to provide to their citizens and also export their rice to other countries. The Tohoku region in northern Honshu became the main rice production region in Japan.

It is most likely that Japan will not have future conflicts in getting oil and rubber as long as they have active trading, and it is most likely that Japan will not have future conflicts in getting rice, thanks to their improved technology to grow rice.

But Japan's reliance on trading could put Japan in a lot of problems especially if natural resources such as oil and coal run out. If the natural resources slowly start to run out, countries in the Middle East Asia would not export oil as much as they used to. Then Japan will get less and less oil to make energy for their country. Though Japan tried to get a domestic energy source through nuclear power plants, due to the Fukushima Nuclear incident in March 2011, citizens in Japan tend to dislike using Nuclear energy.

This could lead to Japan having conflicts on getting resources they could make energy from and trying to make new domestic energy they could rely upon.