{mosimage}Japan was one of the countries which were involved in the World War II in the Asian reason. Japan again wanted more raw materials and resources to supports its industrialization.

Though the policies of the Japanese were close to Nazis they differed in one aspect that is fascism. Thought their policies towards the beginning of the war matched some of those of the Nazis there is very less similarity between the ideologies. Then too, Japan was a major ally of the Nazi Germany and one of the Axis power.

Japan attacked China in 1937 and thus started World War II in Asia. Japan attacked China and all the neighboring countries. Japan has tried to increase its borders in the South by attacking Australia, Russia, Philippine, USA all those who were bordering them.

Sino-Japan war was not the first time in history, in the year 1895, Japan had tried to gain control over Korea, Koreans requested help from the Chinese and the Chinese responded by sending troops. However, the outcome of this war was that Chinese lost and Japan succeeded in putting up a puppet Government in Seoul. However, due to defeat China had to handover the island of Formosa or Taiwan and parts of Manchuria to the Japanese. After this batter the Japanese became dominant in the region.

Another war was fought between Japan and Russia, this war was about gaining control over Korea and parts of Manchuria. The Japanese defeated Russians and gained respect since they became the first Asian country to defeat a super power like Russia. Japanese victory over Russia, pronounced Japanese as the most dominant in the region and thus made it easy for the Japanese to Annex Korea in 1910.

During the Second World War, Japan was involved in a series of crimes against the countries which it had invaded. Japan also started progressing in the Russian controlled region of Mongolia, and then Nanking in China. In Nanking, it carried out mass massacres of almost 3 million civilians which mainly included women and children, whose mutilated bodies spoke of the brutalities.

Japan thought only of the United States which would prove to be a danger to any of its policies of capturing the Far East. Therefore, it decided to attack America up to the effect that it should remain incapacitated, and that would give Japan time for war. So it carried out a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor and caused destruction of US Navy Pacific Fleet and the Army Air force and the Marine Air Force. This also made USA enter the World War II on the side of the Allies.

Japan during this period fought other two battles in Malaya and Singapore, Japan won both these battles which were fought against the Commonwealth forces of British, Indian, Australian and the Malays. More than 1.3 million troops were taken as prisoners of war, including both the battles.

There were other battles by Japan, one in the Philippine and another one in Burma. But the most significant attack was on Australia, by the Japanese forces, on Darwin. It is said the Japanese raids on Japan were of more intensity that they were on the Pearl Harbor. The unprepared Australian town was devastated and suffered large number of casualties.

However, Allied forces were steadily advancing towards Japan. Japan had faced two defeats, though were larger in numbers, at the Battle of Coral Sea and Battle of Midway. The Allied forces also started damaging Japanese shipping routes. This created shortage of raw materials and resulted in strangling of the Japanese economy.