14. Japan’s Response to US Sanctions Brought Disaster Upon Its Head
The Japanese hoped for a short war against the US and her allies, with a few severe blows at the outset to bloody the American giant’s nose and let it know that Japan was serious. They would then seize and establish a defensive perimeter far out into the Pacific and Asia, behind which they would wage a defensive war. The Americans, merchants at heart and thus driven by rational cost-benefit calculations, would eventually conclude that the war was not worth the effort, and negotiate a settlement. Things did not turn out that way.
After going on the offensive and winning a series of stunning victories in the war’s first six months, Japan suffered her first major defeat at the Battle of Midway in June, 1942. As the US mobilized for war, its advantages in industry and manpower began to be felt. America treated the Pacific Theater and the war against Japan as secondary to the European theater and the war against Germany. Nonetheless, America’s industrial might allowed her to pour massive resources into the lower priority Pacific Theater that were still greater than anything that Japan could match.