SIR MAX HASTINGS: It’s hard to decide who was more deluded by the Japanese successes in early 1942, the western Allies or the Japanese. This terrific Japanese force which swept across the Pacific and South East Asia first of all persuaded the western Allies that the Japanese Army and Navy and Air Force were fantastically strong, and secondly, convinced the Japanese High …

AKIRA IRIYE: Militarily yes, Hawaii was a success story, right, but you have Midway in June 1942 which is in a way a major turning point. I said Pearl Harbour was, but in terms of military successes, Midway was a turning point. They [ie the Japanese] were more successful in South East Asia and there they invaded the East Indies, Singapore, [and] ...

White smoke rose from all Japanese missions in August 1945. With surrender near, Tokyo ordered the destruction of virtually all of their records. The diplomats dutifully carried out their orders and destroyed all their intelligence files. The IJA and IJN did the same. Very few Japanese intelligence files survived the war.

Japan had successes early on because it was not fighting anyone who was particularly well prepared and/or armed. Japan's armed forces were well-trained and had good plans.

Japanese Intelligence in WWII: Successes and Failures 5 1. Information gathering activities of the Imperial Japanese Army Historical records pertaining to the intelligence activities of the Japanese Army and Navy were mostly incinerated at the close of the Pacific War, so there are still many questions about the ways in which

The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan.The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific Theater of the Second World War.The beginning of the war is conventionally dated to the Marco Polo Bridge Incident on 7 July 1937, when a dispute between Japanese and …

Early successes The attack on Pearl Harbor (December 7 [December 8 in Japan], 1941) achieved complete surprise and success. It also unified American opinion and determination to see the war through to a successful conclusion.

The emperor-based ideology of Japan during World War II was a relatively new creation, dating from the efforts of Meiji oligarchs to unite the nation in response to the Western challenge. Before the Meiji Restoration, the emperor wielded no political power and was viewed simply as a symbol of the Japanese culture.

Answer (1 of 6): Surprise attacks against an unprepared foe gave them a momentum they were unable to maintain. They bit off more than they could chew and started the war with invalid assumptions about the US. The military led them into a massive land war against a massive nation, China, thus tyi...

The Japanese conquest of Asia and the Pacific campaign that followed was initially an overwhelming success. Repeatedly underestimated by its enemies and often outnumbered, the disciplined, highly trained Japanese forces defeated American, British, Australian and Dutch forces as well as their local allies.