August 2025 marks the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan at the end of WWII of 1945. Our memory goes back to a time of Hell on Earth when the whole world was on war fire. Thanks God since then humanity has become wiser in preventing such large scale war. The United Nation also signed into a Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) which went into force in 2021. But the underneath factors that caused the tension and instability still prevail. Just look at Russia-Ukraine War and Gaza. So it is worthwhile to look back with the benefit of distant objectivity, the historical background and developments of human affairs that led to the eventual tragedy. Since the two world wars are closely related, so we are going to discuss them together.
According to Wikipedia, Japan entered World War II primarily due to its imperial ambitions and the need to secure resources for its growing economy and military. On September 27,1940, Japan signed the Tripartite Pact with Germany and Italy, aligning itself with the Axis powers. This alliance was driven by strategic considerations to deter American intervention in the Pacific while pursuing its expansionist goals. The culmination of these factors led to Japan’s attack on the United States at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, which prompted the United States to formally enter the war. Now that we review Japan’s national evolution into the two world wars and its eventual collapse into ashes, there is a clear thread that can be traced all the way back to the 19th century Samurai Revolution of the Meiji period. The seed sowed at that time unfortunately turned into bitter fruit of 1945 – something completely contrary to what the Japanese had hoped for, which is to make the country better in the eye of the world. So as the saying goes, be careful what you wish for.
The Meiji period had started with a strong desire to learn from Euro-American technology and ideas. Foreign interests came to challenge the Japan sovereignty starting the final years of 1700 and into early 1800 with advanced battleship and gun power, Japanese elite classes were painfully aware of the need for self preservation. But the country at that time were divided into some two hundred segments under the feudalistic rule of dysfunctional Tokugawa bakufu. The crisis lingered on for several decades and eventual led to the Samurai Revolution which overthrew Tokugawa control and “restore” the young Emperor Meiji in 1867-1868.
There came a sweep drastic reform of the political, economics and social political orders.