Empire of Japan and Related Topics

Constitution of Japan

Constitution of Japan and the supreme law in the state.

The constitution of Japan was largely drafted by US lawyers in the occupation authority. This image is of a secret memo written by members of the authority on the subject of the new constitution.

The Imperial Signature (upper right) and Seal

The Constitution of Japan signed by Emperor Showa and Ministers of State

Politics under the Post-war Constitution

The Meiji Constitution was the fundamental law of the Empire of Japan, propagated during the reign of Emperor Meiji ((r.

Japanese militarism (日本軍国主義) refers to the ideology in the Empire of Japan which advocates the belief that militarism should dominate the political and social life of the nation, and the belief that the strength of the military is equal to the strength of a nation.

(clockwise from top left)Imperial Japanese Navy landing force in military gas masks in the Battle of Shanghai

Japanese Type 92 heavy machine gunners during Operation Ichi-Go

Victims of the Nanjing Massacre on the shore of the Qinhuai River

Chinese machine gun nest in the Battle of Wuhan

Japanese aircraft during the bombing of Chongqing

Chinese Expeditionary Force marching in India

Second Sino-Japanese War

Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, Allied Commander-in-Chief in the China theatre from 1942 to 1945

Japanese troops entering Shenyang during the Mukden Incident

A baby sits in the remains of a Shanghai train station on 'Bloody Saturday', 1937

Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek announced the Kuomintang policy of resistance against Japan at Lushan on 10 July 1937, three days after the Marco Polo Bridge Incident.

Japanese landing near Shanghai, November 1937

Japanese troops in the ruins of Shanghai

Soviet embassy in Nanjing is being burned down by arson on 1 January 1938.

A Chinese POW about to be beheaded by a Japanese officer with a shin gunto

National Revolutionary Army soldiers during the 1938 Yellow River flood

Map showing the extent of Japanese occupation in 1941 (in red)

Theaters (military operational regions) of the Chinese National Revolutionary Army from late 1938 to early 1940

Wang Jingwei and officers of the Collaborationist Chinese Army

Chinese soldiers in house-to-house fighting in the Battle of Taierzhuang, March–April 1938

National Revolutionary Army soldiers march to the front in 1939.

Eighth Route Army Commander Zhu De with a KMT "Blue Sky, White Sun" emblem cap

115th Division of the Eighth Route Army Lieutenant General (NRA rank) Lin Biao in NRA uniform

War declaration against Japan by the Chongqing Nationalist Government on 9 December 1941

Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek and his wife Madame Chiang with Lieutenant General Joseph Stilwell in 1942, Burma

A United States poster from the United China Relief organization advocating aid to China.

Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill met at the Cairo Conference in 1943 during World War II.

I-16 with Chinese insignia. The I-16 was the main fighter plane used by the Chinese Air Force and Soviet volunteers.

Flying Tigers Commander Claire Lee Chennault

A "blood chit" issued to American Volunteer Group pilots requesting all Chinese to offer rescue and protection

Free Thai, American and Chinese military officers in China during the war

The India–China airlift delivered approximately 650,000 tons of materiel to China at a cost of 1,659 men and 594 aircraft.

French colonial troops retreating to the Chinese border after the Japanese coup d'état in March 1945

WWII victory parade at Chongqing on 3 September 1945

Japanese troops surrendering to the Chinese

The Chinese return to Liuzhou in July 1945.

China War of Resistance Against Japan Memorial Museum on the site where the Marco Polo Bridge Incident took place

The Taiwan Strait and the island of Taiwan

Casualties of a mass panic during a June 1941 Japanese bombing of Chongqing. More than 5,000 civilians died during the first two days of air raids in 1939.

Japanese war crime against a Chinese POW

Japanese Special Naval Landing Forces with gas masks and rubber gloves during a chemical attack near Chapei in the Battle of Shanghai

Chinese suicide bomber putting on an explosive vest made out of Model 24 hand grenades to use in an attack on Japanese tanks at the Battle of Taierzhuang

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.

Axis powers

Military coalition that initiated World War II and fought against the Allies.

Flags of Germany, Japan, and Italy draping the facade of the Embassy of Japan on the Tiergartenstraße in Berlin (September 1940)

Germany's Führer Adolf Hitler (right) beside Italy's Duce Benito Mussolini (left)

Japan's Prime Minister Hideki Tojo (center) with fellow government representatives of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. To the left of Tojo, from left to right: Ba Maw from Burma, Zhang Jinghui, Wang Jingwei from China. To the right of Tojo, from left to right, Wan Waithayakon from Thailand, José P. Laurel from the Philippines, and Subhas Chandra Bose from India

The signing of the Tripartite Pact by Germany, Japan, and Italy on 27 September 1940 in Berlin. Seated from left to right are the Japanese ambassador to Germany Saburō Kurusu, Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs Galeazzo Ciano, and Adolf Hitler.

Adolf Hitler, Führer and Reich Chancellor of the German People, 1933–1945

Engelbert Dollfuss, Chancellor of Austria, 1932–1934

Hideo Kodama, a wartime cabinet minister in the Empire of Japan

Japanese writer Shūmei Ōkawa, a key exponent of Japanese nationalism

Lt.Gen Hiroshi Ōshima, Japanese ambassador to Germany before and during World War II

German Führer Adolf Hitler along with General Walther von Brauchitsch, during the victory parade in Warsaw after the defeat of Poland, October 1939

German Heinkel He 111 bomber aircraft during the Battle of Britain

German vehicles advancing during the Second Battle of El Alamein in the North African campaign

German soldiers during the Battle of Stalingrad in the Eastern Front campaign

German submarine U-118 under air attack in June 1943

The Duce Benito Mussolini in an official portrait

Italian soldiers in the North African Campaign in 1941

Italian Fiat M13/40 tanks in the North African Campaign in 1941

Italian battleships Vittorio Veneto and Littorio during the war

Italian Macchi C.200 fighter aircraft during the war

Every territory ever controlled by the Italian Empire at some point in time during World War II

IJN super-dreadnought battleships Yamashiro, Fusō, and battlecruiser Haruna, Tokyo Bay, 1930s

IJN Special Naval Landing Forces armed with the Type 11 Light Machine Gun during the Battle of Shanghai

Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighter aircraft and other aircraft preparing for takeoff on the aircraft carrier Shōkaku on 7 December 1941, for the attack on Pearl Harbor

The Empire of Japan (darker red) and territories controlled by Japanese puppet states during the war (lighter red). Thailand (darkest red) cooperated with Japan. All are members of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.

IJA paratroopers are landing during the Battle of Palembang, February 13, 1942.

IJN Yamato-class Battleships Yamato and Musashi moored in Truk Lagoon, in 1943

Japanese Military Attaché, Makoto Onodera, visiting Fjell Fortress in Norway, 1943. Behind him is Lieutenant Colonel Eberhard Freiherr von Zedlitz und Neukrich (C-in-C Luftwaffe Feldregiment 502.), and to the right is Fregattenkapitän doktor Robert Morath (Seekommandant in Bergen). Behind Onoderas hand (raised in salute) is General Nikolaus von Falkenhorst (C-in-C German military forces in Norway).

Japanese officers training young Indonesian recruits, circa 1945

Bulgarian soldiers in Vardar Macedonia during the Balkans campaign

Hungarian Toldi I tank as used during the 1941 Axis invasion of the Soviet Union

Hungarian soldiers in the Carpathian mountains in 1944

MÁVAG Héja fighter aircraft, derived from the Reggiane Re.2000, an Italian fighter design

Adolf Hitler meeting with NDH leader Ante Pavelić

Ion Antonescu and Adolf Hitler at the Führerbau in Munich (June 1941)

A formation of Romanian IAR 80 fighter aircraft

The Romanian Mareșal tank destroyer's design was likely used by the Germans to develop the Hetzer

Romanian soldiers on the outskirts of Stalingrad during the Battle of Stalingrad in 1942

Finnish troops passing by the remains of a destroyed Soviet T-34 at the battle of Tali-Ihantala

Manchurian soldiers training in a military exercise

Manchurian pilots of the Manchukuo Air Force

Front row in order from left to right: Karl Wolff, Heinrich Himmler, Francisco Franco and Spain's Foreign Minister Serrano Súñer in Madrid, October 1940

Francisco Franco (centre) and Serrano Súñer (left) meeting with Mussolini (right) in Bordighera, Italy in 1941. At Bordighera, Franco and Mussolini discussed the creation of a Latin Bloc.

Phraya Phahon (far left), Thawan Thamrong (left), and Direk Jayanama (right) with Hideki Tōjō (center) in Tokyo 1942

German and Soviet soldiers during the official transfer of Brest to Soviet control in front of picture of Stalin, in the aftermath of the invasion and partition of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in 1939

France during the war; Occupied and annexed zones by Germany in shades of red, Italian occupation zones in shades of yellow and striped blue, "Free zone" in blue.

Philippe Pétain (left) meeting with Hitler in October 1940

Personal flag of Philippe Pétain, Chief of State of Vichy France

An RAF officer investigates wrecked Iraqi artillery near Habbaniya.

RSI (Repubblica Sociale Italiana) soldiers, March 1944

Hitler declaring war on the United States on 11 December 1941

Italian pilots of a Savoia-Marchetti SM.75 long-range cargo aircraft meeting with Japanese officials upon arriving in East Asia in 1942.

German and Japanese direct spheres of influence at their greatest extents in Autumn 1942. Arrows show planned movements to an agreed demarcation line at 70° E, which was, however, never approximated.

Its principal members were Nazi Germany, the Kingdom of Italy, and the Empire of Japan.

Guadalcanal campaign

Military campaign fought between 7 August 1942 and 9 February 1943 on and around the island of Guadalcanal in the Pacific theater of World War II.

Japanese control of the western Pacific area between May and August 1942. Guadalcanal is located in the lower right center of the map.

The airfield at Lunga Point on Guadalcanal under construction by Japanese and conscripted Korean laborers in July 1942

Routes of Allied amphibious forces for landings on Guadalcanal and Tulagi, 7 August 1942

U.S. Marines debark from LCP(L)s onto Guadalcanal on 7 August 1942.

Initial U.S. Marine defenses around the airstrip at Lunga Point, Guadalcanal, 12 August 1942

Map showing the U.S. Marine attacks west of the Matanikau River on 19 August

Dead Japanese soldiers on the sandbar at the mouth of Alligator Creek, Guadalcanal after the Battle of the Tenaru

The carrier USS Enterprise (CV-6) under aerial attack during the Battle of the Eastern Solomons

U.S. Marine Grumman F4F Wildcats from Henderson Field preparing to attack incoming Japanese aircraft in late August or early September 1942

Japanese troops loading onto a destroyer for a Tokyo Express run to Guadalcanal

U.S. Marine Lieutenant Colonel Merritt A. Edson (here photographed as a major general) who led Marine forces in the Battle of Edson's Ridge

Map of the Lunga perimeter on Guadalcanal showing the approach routes of the Japanese forces and the locations of the Japanese attacks during the battle. Oka's attacks were in the west (left), the Kuma Battalion attacked from the east (right) and the Center Body attacked "Edson's Ridge" (Lunga Ridge) in the lower center of the map.

The U.S. carrier USS Wasp (CV-7) burns after being hit by Japanese submarine torpedoes on 15 September.

A U.S. Marine patrol crosses the Matanikau River in September 1942.

U.S. cruiser USS Helena (CL-50), part of Task Force 64 under Norman Scott

Japanese cargo ship destroyed at Tassafaronga by CAF aircraft on 15 October.

From left to right: Lieutenant Colonel Leonard B. Cresswell (1st Battalion), Lieutenant Colonel Edwin A. Pollock (Executive Officer 1st Marines), Colonel Clifton B. Cates (Commanding Officer 1st Marines), Lieutenant Colonel William N. McKelvy (3rd Battalion) and Lieutenant Colonel William W. Stickney (2nd Battalion) on Guadalcanal, October 1942

Map of the battle, 23–26 October. Sumiyoshi's forces attack in the west at the Matanikau (left) while Maruyama's 2nd division attacks the Lunga perimeter from the south (right).

A U.S. 11th Marines 75mm pack howitzer and crew

USS Hornet (CV-8) is torpedoed and fatally damaged by a Japanese carrier aircraft on 26 October.

U.S. Marines drag the corpses of Japanese soldiers from their bunker in the Point Cruz area after the battle in early November.

Carlson's raiders coming ashore at Aola Bay on 4 November

U.S. Rear Admiral Daniel J. Callaghan (pictured here as a Captain)

Transport Kinugawa Maru beached at Guadalcanal in November 1942.

Left to right, unnamed soldier, Colonel Richard H. Jeschke, Commander of the 8th Marines, U.S. Army Major General Alexander Patch, who succeeded Vandegrift on 9 December 1942

USS Chicago (CA-29) sinking on 30 January during the Battle of Rennell Island

Allied commanders assemble on Guadalcanal in August 1943 to plan the next Allied offensive against the Japanese in the Solomons as part of Operation Cartwheel.

It was the first major land offensive by Allied forces against the Empire of Japan.

Pacific War

The theater of World War II that was fought in Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and Oceania.

Political map of the Asia-Pacific region, 1939

Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, Allied Commander-in-Chief in the China theater from 1942 to 1945

A mass grave of Chinese prisoners killed by the Imperial Japanese Army in the 1937 Nanjing Massacre

Chinese casualties of a mass panic during a June 1941 Japanese aerial bombing of Chongqing

USS Arizona (BB-39) burned for two days after being hit by a Japanese bomb in the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Japanese aerial photo of battleship HMS Prince of Wales (top) and battlecruiser HMS Repulse under attack.

British forces surrender Singapore to the Japanese, February 1942

The Bombing of Darwin, Australia, 19 February 1942

Surrender of US forces at Corregidor, Philippines, May 1942

Dutch and Australian PoWs at Tarsau, in Thailand in 1943. 22,000 Australians were captured by the Japanese; 8,000 died as prisoners of war.

US General Douglas MacArthur, Commander of Allied forces in the South-West Pacific Area, with Australian Prime Minister John Curtin

A B-25 bomber takes off from USS Hornet (CV-8) as part of the Doolittle Raid.

The aircraft carrier USS Lexington (CV-2) explodes on 8 May 1942, several hours after being damaged by a Japanese carrier air attack.

under attack by B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bombers

US Marines rest in the field during the Guadalcanal campaign in November 1942.

Chinese troops during the Battle of Changde in November 1943

Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek and General Joseph Stilwell, Allied Commander-in-Chief in the China theatre from 1942 to 1945

Allied attack routes against the Empire of Japan

American forces landing at Rendova Island, June, 1943

The Allied leaders of the Asian and Pacific Theaters: Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill meeting at the Cairo Conference in 1943

The torpedoed, as seen through the periscope of an American submarine, USS Nautilus (SS-168), in June 1942

The, the largest non-nuclear submarines ever constructed

Chinese forces on M3A3 Stuart tanks on the Ledo Road

British Indian troops during the Battle of Imphal

Marines fire captured mountain gun during the attack on Garapan, Saipan, 21 June 1944.

US Marines during mopping up operations on Peleliu, September 1944

The Japanese aircraft carrier Zuikaku and two destroyers under attack in the Battle of the Philippine Sea

The four engagements in the Battle of Leyte Gulf

General Douglas MacArthur wading ashore at Leyte

US troops approaching Japanese positions near Baguio, Luzon, 23 March 1945

British soldiers patrolling the ruins of a Burmese town during the advance on Mandalay, January 1945

Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima, an iconic photograph taken by Joe Rosenthal on February 23, 1945, depicts six United States Marines raising a US flag atop Mount Suribachi.

USS Bunker Hill (CV-17) burns after being hit by two kamikazes. At Okinawa, the kamikazes caused 4,900 American deaths.

US Marines pass a dead Japanese soldier in a destroyed village on Okinawa, April 1945

US LVTs land Australian soldiers at Balikpapan on 7 July 1945.

American B-29 Superfortresses drop incendiary bombs over the port city of Kobe, June 1945

The mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 60,000 feet (18 km) into the air on the morning of 9 August 1945

Pacific Fleet marines of the Soviet Navy hoist the Soviet naval ensign in Port Arthur, on 1 October 1945.

Douglas MacArthur signs the formal Japanese Instrument of Surrender on USS Missouri (BB-63), 2 September 1945.

American corpses sprawled on the beach of Tarawa, November 1943

Indian prisoners of war shot and bayoneted by Japanese soldiers

IJA soldiers after a suicide charge on US Marine positions in Guadalcanal

Charred remains of civilians killed in the 10 March firebombing of Tokyo, codenamed Operation Meetinghouse, which killed an estimated 100,000 people, March 1945

Australian POW Sergeant Leonard G. Siffleet of M Special Unit being beheaded by a Japanese officer, Yasuno Chikao, on 24 October 1943. AWM photo.

A Filipino woman and child killed by Japanese forces in the Manila massacre

A young Chinese girl from a Japanese 'comfort battalion' being interviewed by a British officer. Rangoon, Burma, 1945

American stretcher party carrying a wounded soldier through a devastated Manila street, 23 February 1945

The Second Sino-Japanese War between the Empire of Japan and the Republic of China had been in progress since 7 July 1937, with hostilities dating back as far as 19 September 1931 with the Japanese invasion of Manchuria.

Occupation of Japan

Map of Japan under Allied occupation

# Japanese archipelago, placed under the authority of the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers (de facto United States), effective 1945–1952 (Note: Part of Japanese territories were put under US' administration after 1952 in accordance with Article 3 of San Francisco Peace Treaty: Iwo Jima (till 1968) and Okinawa (till 1972), such arrangement was treaty based, not part of the Allied Occupation)
# Japanese Taiwan and the Spratly Islands, placed under the authority of China
# Karafuto Prefecture and the Kuril Islands, placed under the authority of the Soviet Union
# Japanese Korea south of the 38th parallel north, placed under the authority of the United States Army Military Government in Korea, granted independence in 1948 as South Korea
# Japanese Korea north of the 38th parallel north, placed under the authority of the Soviet Civil Administration, granted independence in 1948 as North Korea
# Kwantung Leased Territory, occupied by the Soviet Union 1945–1955, returned to China in 1955
# South Pacific Mandate, occupied by the United States 1945–1947, converted into the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands in 1947

May 1946: The Indian Army 2nd Battalion 5th Royal Gurkha Rifles march through Kure, Hiroshima soon after their arrival in Japan.

Gaetano Faillace's famous photo of Douglas MacArthur and Emperor Hirohito

The Japanese government releases members of the Japanese Communist Party on October 10, 1945.

Hideki Tōjō takes the stand at the Tokyo war crimes tribunal.

Joseph Dodge meets Finance Minister Hayato Ikeda in 1949

Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida signs the Treaty of San Francisco, which brought an end to the Allied Occupation of Japan.

Allied servicemen visit the Special Comfort Facility Association.

The Occupation of Japan (連合国占領下の日本) was a military occupation of Japan in the years immediately following Japan's defeat in World War II.

Imperial Japanese Army

Ukiyo-E, depicting the retreat of shogunate forces in front of the Imperial Army (Kangun). Yodo Castle is shown in the background.

The Koishikawa Arsenal in Tokyo, inaugurated in 1871, soon after the Meiji restoration.

Prince Aritomo Yamagata, a field marshal in the Imperial Japanese Army and twice Prime Minister of Japan. He was one of the main architects of the military foundations of early modern Japan. Yamagata Aritomo can be seen as the father of Japanese militarism.

Barrack of the Imperial Guard, circa 1940

Marquis Nozu Michitsura, a field marshal in the early Imperial Japanese Army. He was appointed as chief of staff of the Imperial Guard (Japan) in 1874.

Marquis Jutoku Saigo, a general in the early Imperial Japanese Army. He is the nephew of Saigō Takamori, the leader of Satsuma Rebellion of 1877. Many of the rebels were incorporated into the Imperial Army after the failure of the armed uprising.

Commander-in-chief Saigō Tsugumichi (sitting at the center) pictured with leaders of the Seqalu tribe.

Count Nogi Maresuke, a general in the Imperial Japanese Army and the third governor of Taiwan

Type 13(Top) & Type 22(bottom) Murata rifle. Murata rifle was the first indigenously produced Japanese service rifle adopted in 1880.

Japanese troops during the Sino-Japanese War

Count Akiyama Yoshifuru, served as a cavalry regimental commander in the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895. In the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, he led his troops against the Cossack cavalry divisions of the Imperial Russian Army.

Prince Katsura Tarō, three times Prime Minister of Japan. Katsura was the Vice-Minister of War during the period. He commanded the IJA 3rd Division under his mentor, Field Marshal Yamagata Aritomo, during the First Sino-Japanese War.

Type 30 rifle was the standard infantry rifle of the Imperial Japanese Army from 1897 to 1905.

Ōshima Ken'ichi, Minister of War during the period

Japanese riflemen during the Russo-Japanese War

The Type 38 rifle was adopted by the Imperial Japanese Army in 1905

Commanding Officers and Chiefs of Staff of the Allied Military Mission to Siberia, Vladivostok during the Allied Intervention

IJA amphibious assault ship Shinshū Maru, the world's first landing craft carrier ship to be designed as such.

Army uniforms between 1941 and 1945 (US Army poster)

Type 97 Chi-Ha, the most widely produced Japanese medium tank of World War II

Indonesian child recruits being trained by Japanese officers as human shield, 1945

Many thousands of Indonesian were taken away as forced labourers (romusha) for Japanese military projects, including the Burma-Siam and Saketi-Bayah railways, and suffered or died as a result of ill-treatment and starvation. Pictured is an internment camp in Jakarta, c. 1945

Disposition of the Imperial Japanese Army in Japan at the time of its capitulation, 18 August 1945

IJA Taiwanese soldier in Philippines during World War II

The Imperial Japanese Army (大日本帝国陸軍) was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945.

Soviet gains in North East Asia, August 1945

Soviet invasion of Manchuria

The Soviet invasion of Manchuria, formally known as the Manchurian strategic offensive operation (Манчжурская стратегическая наступательная операция) or simply the Manchurian operation (Маньчжурская операция), began on 9 August 1945 with the Soviet invasion of the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo.

Basic map showing the Soviet invasion plan for Manchuria

An IJA Type 95 Ha-Go of the Manchuria Tank School

Soviet troops crossing into Manchuria, 9 August 1945

Soviet troops enter the city of Harbin following its liberation on 21 August 1945

Soviet Red Army Martyrs Cemetery built in Manzhouli after the war

It was the largest campaign of the 1945 Soviet–Japanese War, which resumed hostilities between the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the Empire of Japan after almost six years of peace.

Allied island-hopping campaign 1943–1945:
Blue – Japanese-held territory Aug. 1945
Dark red – Allied territory
Red – Occupied Nov. 1943
Dark pink – Occupied Apr. 1944
Pink – Occupied Oct. 1944
Light pink – Occupied Aug. 1945

Leapfrogging (strategy)

Leapfrogging, also known as island hopping, was a military strategy employed by the Allies in the Pacific War against the Empire of Japan during World War II.