Pre WWII Japan

[bigross86]

A friend of mine is writing a paper, and I suggested the topic for him and gave him a little background. Unfortunately, my knowledge on the topic is very rudimentary and doesn't have a lot of depth, so I turn to you guys for help.

The paper is about the Japanese economy pre WWII, and in particular the Japanese and US economic relations. Any information you guys can give me would be greatly appreciated, I can pass it on to him and make his life a lot easier.

[astralis]

that's an interesting time-- what type of paper is he looking at? i'd recommend focusing on how the rise of militarism drove large sections of economy (japanese business and politicians were deeply in bed at that time with the zaibatsu) and vice versa.

the japanese were interested in seizing the dutch east indies for rubber, and wanted to kick the british out of india so they could economically dominate the region. there was talk about going into siberia for the natural resources there too.

in the end they ran up against the ultimate resource limitation-- oil, most of which was supplied by the US. the US used this as an economic weapon, until the japanese decided the one solution they had was to beat the US into submission and turn the oil spigot back on.

[Bigfella]

A friend of mine is writing a paper, and I suggested the topic for him and gave him a little background. Unfortunately, my knowledge on the topic is very rudimentary and doesn't have a lot of depth, so I turn to you guys for help.

The paper is about the Japanese economy pre WWII, and in particular the Japanese and US economic relations. Any information you guys can give me would be greatly appreciated, I can pass it on to him and make his life a lot easier.

BR,

You might want to give him this link.

Axis History Forum • View forum - Japan at War 1895-1945

It is a WW2 noticeboard, but one where discussion can be of an extremely high quality. if he picks through some of the 'stickies' he will probably find some extremely good resources. Good luck.