In my project I will be writing about Japans modern military and the roles it played in different wars. I will start at a certain point in time around the beginning of World War II and work up to today. I will also tell about how Japan was suspended of its military and how they brought the United States into World War II.
The first thing I am going to be writing about is called the rape of Nanking which occurred on July 7th,1937. A fight had broke out between a Japanese patrol and Chinese troops on the Marco Polo bridge. Even though premier Konoye had many objections the Japanese military invaded Peking. Then the Japanese fought their way farther into China Seizing the chance to take over Nanking. On December 7th the outer defences of Nanking were under attack. For weeks the streets of Nanking were a horror show with blood and Mutilated bodies littering the streets. Two hundred Chinese were killed. The Japanese public were kept ignorant of these appalling events.
To start a war Japan attacked the strongest country in the world, the United States of America. The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour, a US naval base, with a variety of planes on December 7th 1941. The first wave of planes was made up of level bombers, dive bombers, torpedo planes and fighters. Also, the first wave was a hundred and eighty-three planes. The enemy guns started shooting at the Japanese planes from both water and land batteries. The attack on Pearl Harbour was a success for the Japanese that is for the Japanese only lost a mere nine fighters, fifteen dive bombers and five torpedo planes. The American losses were great against the Japanese , The US had lost eight battleships three cruisers and three destroyers were also badly hit. Japan attacked USA because the USA had Guard over southeast Asia which Japan was planning to take over. Also America was importing rubbers,plastics,etc. So by cutting off imports from Asia America did not have the pieces to build planes, battleships, and other things like that.
Ever since USA suspended Japan of its military and put American troops in Japan it has quite a small military compared to smaller countries population wise. Today Japan's military consists of about 237,700 people. It has a army of 149,900 , a navy of 43,100 and a air force of 44,700
Near the end of World War II Japanese civilian leaders knew continuing the war would mean that there would be mass destruction in Japan. But some of the military leader said they would rather have death than to surrender. The emperor listened to both sides. The emperor made the decision that Japan must surrender. On September 2nd,1945 Japanese representatives boarded the United States warship, Missouri and signed the surrender papers which were accepted by General Douglas MacArthur. Part of the agreement was to do away with Japans army and navy.
A6M8 is the newer Version of the Zero. It had two Machine guns and two twenty-mm cannons. It go up to speed of 537 km/h at a altitude of 6,000 m. It was Japans best fighter of World War II. But it did lose its superiority to fighters like the P-38 Lightning,F6F Hellcat and the F4U Corsair. It did have the lack of self sealing fuel tanks.
The A6M Zero is the older version of the Zero. Its top speed is 534 km/h. It was a effective fighter in world war II and Pearl Harbour. It was armed with two machine guns and two twenty mm cannons. It was 9.15 m in length and its wingspan was 12.1 m. It had a crew of 1. It lost its separate to such allied fighters as the P-38 Lightning, F6F Hellcat and F4U Corsair.
Fighters are most effective against air targets. They sometimes defend bombers on raids from enemy fighters. Fighters can also fire at weak ground targets.They would not do that much damage to aground target because they are usually armed with just machine guns. However some fighters may be able to carry a small amount of bombs.
Level bombers are usually armed with a large amount of bombs and more air defences than some fighters. But are not better at fighting air targets than fighters, because fighters are maneuverable than level bombers.
Dive bombers release bombs while in a dive then pull away. Dive bombersare usually a lot smaller than a level bombers. They are usually armedwith guns like the fighter and similar in size.
This brings my project to a end. Writing about Japan's military was hard because there is limited information.