The Imperial Japanese Navy, 1937–1942

Summary

ABSTRACT.From 1937 Japan fought a war of conquest in China. In support of that war Japanese leaders allowed themselves to be drawn into war with Britain and the Netherlands, and hence the United States – though they knew they were not likely to win it. In the initial phase the tactics and equipment of the Naval Air Force, developed in the war in China, yielded stunning success. There was a possibility of linking up with Germany and driving China and Russia out of the war, but the leadership instead chose to fight the U.S. Navy, and at Midway it lost.

RÉSUMÉ.En 1937, le Japon lança la conquête de la Chine, suite à laquelle les dirigeants japonais se laissèrent entraîner dans une guerre contre la Grande-Bretagne et les Pays-Bas, puis les États-Unis – et ce alors qu'il était peu probable qu'il la gagne. Les tactiques et équipements de la Marine impériale japonaise, développés pendant la guerre en Chine, lui permirent tout d'abord de connaître d'incroyables succès. Bien qu'il lui eût été possible de s'allier avec l'Allemagne et de sortir la Chine et la Russie de la guerre, le gouvernement préféra combattre l'US Navy et perdit finalement à mi-parcours.

INTRODUCTION

The Imperial Navy(Kaigun) entered 1937 planning war with the U.S.; it ended the year making war in China. While the massive clashes in China held center stage, the far less conspicuous role of the Imperial Navy produced a very malign echo. Japan immediately installed a blockade of the China coast, enhanced by the capture of major ports and inland waterways. For months the Chinese still managed to obtain large quantities of supplies, particularly through the port of Guangdong(then Canton) until it fell to the Japanese in November 1938. Japanese seizure of Northern Indochina in 1940 severed another important link via Haiphong in French Indochina and hence by rail to southern China.

Some supplies and weapons still leaked past the blockade through British Hong Kong, from the Soviet Union, or across the Burma Road, but the long-term consequence of the blockade played an outsized role in China's history. After the war's first two years the blockade starved Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist-led coalition of supplies and munitions. But the evisceration of China's foreign trade administered a further and perhaps even more devastating blow.