Page 52 - All About History - Issue 29-15

What if…

Japanhad not

struck Pearl

Harbor?

Written by Calum Waddell

What would have happened if Japan had not struck quite different – for instance, the Japanese would have had to
PROFESSOR ROBERT CRIBB Pearl Harbor? maintain more control over the troops in Nanjing, and not let
Professor Cribb is History would have turned out very differently. For a start, them massacre an entire city of people, but if things had been
alectureratANU it would mean Japan was not going to expand its empire less brutal, we can imagine a possible peace treaty between
College of Asia
and the Pacific into Southeast Asia – because that is what provoked Pearl the two countries. Chiang Kai-shek’s nationalist government
in Canberra. His Harbor. Instead, they would have been concentrating their deeply feared Mao and so did the Japanese. So you would not
research interests
have covered the changing face war efforts solely in China, which was a conflict that began in have had Mao – and China would be totally changed. I think
of Asia in the wake of World 1937. Now, China proved to be more than Japan could chew Japan would also have demanded access to Chinese markets.
War II, in particular Indonesia in diplomatic and military terms. Plus, the USA had its own It would be a much more influential and powerful country
and its war of independence
with the Dutch after the fall of interests in China and that was what, ultimately, set them to after the end of the war. And, of course, you would not have
Japanese rule. The academic’s war with Japan. The USA had imposed a trade and financial had the atomic bomb.
current research projects embargo against Japan. As a result, Japanese financial assets
include the origins of massacre
in Indonesia, ‘Puppet states in the USA had been frozen and they did not have the means Do you think the USA would have eventually dropped
revisited: Empire and Sovereign to buy anything from abroad. So to avoid Pearl Harbor, an atomic bomb somewhere anyway? At the time,
Subordination in Modern Asia’
(with Li Narangoa), and ‘The Japan would need to do something to accede to American Eisenhower was eager to test it out. Churchill, let us
Trial and Release of Japanese demands – including pulling out from China. My guess is that not forget, was considering battling Stalin immediately
War Criminals, 1945-58’ (with the Chinese nationalist government, under Chiang Kai-shek, after the Nazis surrendered. Perhaps Eisenhower would
Sandra Wilson, Beatrice Trefalt
and Dean Aszkielowicz). would have come to terms with Hideki Tojo’s government in have used it against Stalin after the formation of the
Tokyo to beat the communists. History would still need to be Soviet bloc in the wake of the fall of Berlin?
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