Japan's Early Tasks:

The Struggle for Independence

Picture yourself living in a place where you are starving for food and have to work all day to earn some extra money to support your family. Your parents work very hard but don’t earn much. You don’t have a lot of time to go and have fun with your friends. This is what it was like during the Great Depression while Japan was trying to take over weaker countries to become bigger, stronger, and richer. What the Japanese didn’t know was that this could lead to a world war.

The Reason

Japan, Germany, and Italy believed that the United States, Belgium, France, Great Britain, and the Netherlands ruled most of the world’s people and wealth. Because of the worldwide depression, Japan was having a hard time selling its goods compared to countries like the United States, Belgium, France, Great Britain, and the Netherlands. These countries were more powerful than Japan, and their economies were better, so they could sell their products and make money. Japan thought that by conquering other countries, it could make better goods with the natural resources of the conquered countries. After it sold its goods, Japan thought that it could be just as wealthy as the United States, Belgium, France, Great Britain, and the Netherlands.

"China Operations." The Simons and Schuster Encyclopedia of World War II, 1978.

Jeff Wurst. Japanese Aggression. <www.snu.edu/syllabi/history/597projects/ww2/japanese.htm> Last Visited: January 2001.

Militarism and WW2 (1912-1945). <www.japan-guide.com/e/e2129.html> Last Visited: December 2001.

Ropp, Theodore. "War In The Modern World." World Book Encyclopedia, 1982.

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