Japan (Imperial)

The Empire of Japan, led by a militarist government under the nominal authority of Emperor Hirohito, waged aggressive expansion across Asia and the Pacific from 1931 (Manchuria) through its Pacific offensive after Pearl Harbor (December 1941). Japan's Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere was marketed as Asian liberation from Western colonialism but in practice involved brutal occupation, forced labour, and systematic atrocities — notably the Nanjing Massacre (1937) and the treatment of Allied prisoners of war. Japan's strategic error was in underestimating American industrial capacity and will; after Midway (June 1942) it was forced onto strategic defence and gradually driven back island by island. The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (August 1945) and the Soviet declaration of war precipitated surrender on 15 August 1945. A new constitution under American occupation renounced war and stripped the Emperor of political power.

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