Did anyone mention how the 1930 tariffs sparked a wave of retaliatory tariffs by other nations, greatly reducing international trade, pushing a natural resources poor Japan to conclude that in order to survive it needed an empire, so it invaded other countries, committing such atrocities that even Nazi Germany was like “whoa dude, chill”, which lead to their participation in WWII, Pearl Harbor and the deployment of nuclear bombs? No?
There’s a lot of oversimplification. But the US embargo on Japan in 1940 led directly to the attack on Pearl Harbor.
The US embargoed all oil to Japan. Japan calculated it had less than 2 years worth of oil before it ran out, so it needed to capture the Dutch East Indies (modern day Indonesia, more or less) because they were a major source of oil. The American puppet state of the Philippines was between Japan and the Dutch East Indies, so they had to deal with that somehow. Their decision was to preemptively attack Pearl Harbor and hope that they could consolidate their gains in the Pacific by the time the US was able to counter-attack.
A lot of Trump’s posturing seems to be about bringing back these spheres of influence. The US wants to control North America, taking over Greenland and Canada, and leave Europe to become part of the Russian sphere.
Yes, full scale. But they already occupied parts of China before 1930. It wasn’t tariffs for Japan. It was sanctions on oil to force them to stop invading. Their response was to speed up invasions to secure oil.
Which I suppose goes to the heart of why tariffs and export restrictions are bad. A country that is pushed into a corner where it will be deprived of an essential commodity is highly incentived to fight for it…
Edit: to be clear, not defending Japan at all. Just considering possible implications
It’s also wrong on every account; Japan was already doing imperialist shit for decades and it wasn’t tariffs but oil sanctions to try to stymie their fuel supply that sent them raging.
It wasn’t American tariffs, we didn’t fucking matter nearly as much to the world before WWII as after
Did anyone mention how the 1930 tariffs sparked a wave of retaliatory tariffs by other nations, greatly reducing international trade, pushing a natural resources poor Japan to conclude that in order to survive it needed an empire, so it invaded other countries, committing such atrocities that even Nazi Germany was like “whoa dude, chill”, which lead to their participation in WWII, Pearl Harbor and the deployment of nuclear bombs? No?
That’s quite the oversimplification, and I approve.
There’s a lot of oversimplification. But the US embargo on Japan in 1940 led directly to the attack on Pearl Harbor.
The US embargoed all oil to Japan. Japan calculated it had less than 2 years worth of oil before it ran out, so it needed to capture the Dutch East Indies (modern day Indonesia, more or less) because they were a major source of oil. The American puppet state of the Philippines was between Japan and the Dutch East Indies, so they had to deal with that somehow. Their decision was to preemptively attack Pearl Harbor and hope that they could consolidate their gains in the Pacific by the time the US was able to counter-attack.
Japan’s actions in WWII weren’t directly about tariffs, but they were about spheres of influence, like the Greater East-Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.
A lot of Trump’s posturing seems to be about bringing back these spheres of influence. The US wants to control North America, taking over Greenland and Canada, and leave Europe to become part of the Russian sphere.
Haha yeah, but I could do even better:
Tariffs bad because history
Japan was expanding long before 1930’s. Korea, Mongolia, and parts of China were already under Japan long before 1930.
Yeah that comment is wildly ignorant of Japan’s actions and aspirations pre1930. Fuck Trump and these tariffs, mind you.
But, the full scale invasion of China by happens around 1931, which then lead to the conflict that get China involved in WWII.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mukden_incident https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marco_Polo_Bridge_incident
Yes, full scale. But they already occupied parts of China before 1930. It wasn’t tariffs for Japan. It was sanctions on oil to force them to stop invading. Their response was to speed up invasions to secure oil.
Which I suppose goes to the heart of why tariffs and export restrictions are bad. A country that is pushed into a corner where it will be deprived of an essential commodity is highly incentived to fight for it…
Edit: to be clear, not defending Japan at all. Just considering possible implications
While that sounds good, that’s a reason to not sanction Russia for agression. The alternative to is to not do anything with aggressors.
So you’re saying that Japan threw a shit fit because it wasn’t allowed to trade with other nations. Japan.
Fucking love it.
It’s also wrong on every account; Japan was already doing imperialist shit for decades and it wasn’t tariffs but oil sanctions to try to stymie their fuel supply that sent them raging.
It wasn’t American tariffs, we didn’t fucking matter nearly as much to the world before WWII as after