Imperial Japan and the Second World War

The Japanese Empire began the Second World War already at war with an unlikely alliance between Communist and Nationalist Chinese forces. After provoking an incident with Chinese soldiers along the border of Manchuria (Then called Manchukuo by the occupying Japanese as part of their “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere”), Japanese forces engaged in brutal land war against an unexpectedly stubborn enemy. During the course of the conflict, Japanese forces became increasingly frustrated with the amount of aid Chinese forces were receiving from foreign powers such as Great Britian and America. This growing tension would reach a boiling point after an American Oil embargo in 1940 put Japan’s war machine on a fixed timetable. Either it would lose the war in China due to international pressure, or it could expand, and risk open war across the Pacific and Aisa. On December 7th, 1941, The Empire of the Rising Sun made its fateful decision. Within this folder are artifacts from both the Shino-Japanese War, and the Second World War. These include an original Japanese Prayer Flag with translated Kanji, a Japanese officer’s Tanto, and a Japanese Manchuria Incident Medal.