Economy of Japan and Atomic Attack

7/31/2019 Economy of Japan and Atomic Attack

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Economy of Japan And Atomic Attack


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Group Members

M.Tayyab Ali

Shoaib Anjum

Arsalan Javeed

Mudassir

Saood Ahmad

Mehtab Hassan


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Economy of Japan and Atomic Attack

Introduction to Japan

Japan is an Island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to

the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching

from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south.

The characters that make up Japan's name mean "sun-origin", which is why Japan is

sometimes referred to as the "Land of the Rising Sun". The main cultural and religious

influences came from China.

Japan is an island group of 6,852 islands. Japan has the world's tenth-largest population,

with over 127 million people. The Greater Tokyo Area, which includes the capital

city of Tokyo and several surrounding prefectures, is the largest metropolitan area in the world,

with over 30 million residents.

Japan has the world's third-largest economy by nominal GDP ( $5.86 Trillion ). It is also

the world's fourth-largest exporter ($80.08 Trillion) and fourth-largest importer ($79.47 Trillion) .

Although Japan has officially renounced its right to declare war, it maintains a modern military

force in self-defense and peace keeping roles. According to both UN and WHO estimates, Japan

has the longest life expectancy of any country in the world. According to the UN, it has the third

lowest infant mortality rate.

The first permanent capital was founded at Nara in 710 AD, which became a center of

Buddhist art, religion and culture. The current imperial family emerged about 700 AD, but until

1868 (with few exceptions) had high prestige but little power. By 1550 or so political power was

subdivided into several hundred lo cal units, or "domains" controlled by local "daimy" (lords),

each with his own force of samurai warriors. Tokugawa Ieyasu came to power in 1600 , gave land

to his supporters, set up his "bakufu" (military government) at Edo (modern Tokyo). The

"Tokugawa period" was prosperous and peaceful, but Japan deliberately terminated the Christian

missions and cut off almost all contact with the outside world. In the 1860s the Meiji Period

began, and the new national leadership systematically ended feudalism and transformed an

isolated, underdeveloped island country into a world power that closely followed Western


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models. Democracy was problematic, because Japan's powerful military was semi-independent

and overruled or assassinated civilians in the 1920s and 1930s . The military moved into China

starting in 1931 and declared all-out war on China in 1937 . Japan controlled the coast and major

cities and set up puppet regimes, but was unable to defeat China. Its attack on Pearl Harbor in

December 1941 led to war with the United States and its allies. After a series of naval victories

by mid- 1942 , Japan's military forces were overextended and its industrial base was unable to

provide the needed ships, armaments and oil. Even with his navy sunk and his main cities

destroyed by air, the Emperor held out until August 1945 when two atomic bombs and a Soviet

invasion forced surrender. Occupied by the U.S. after the war and stripped of its entire empire,

Japan was transformed into a peaceful and democratic nation. After 1950 it enjoyed very high

economic growth rates, and became a world economic powerhouse, especially in engineering,

automobiles and electronics. Since the 1990s economic stagnation has been a major issue, withan earthquake and tsunami in 2011 causing massive economic dislocations and loss of the

nuclear power supply.

Archaeological research indicates that people lived in Japan as early as the Upper

Paleolithic period (Stone Age) . The first written mention of Japan is in Chinese history texts from

the 1st century AD. Influence from other nations followed by long periods of isolation has

characterized Japan's history. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, victory in the First Sino-

Japanese War (1 August 1894 17 April 1895) , the Russo-Japanese War (8 February 1904 5September 1905) and World War I (28 July 1914 -- 11 November 1918) allowed Japan to expand

its empire during a period of increasing militarism. The Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937

expanded into part of World War II in 1941 , which came to an end in 1945 following the atomic

bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Economy

About 80% of the people were rice farmers. Rice production increased steadily, but

population remained stable, so prosperity increased. Rice paddies grew from 1.6 million in 1600

to 3 million by 1720 . Improved technology helped farmers control the all-important flow of

irrigation to their paddies. The daimyos operated several hundred castle towns, which became

loci of domestic trade. Large-scale rice markets developed, centered on Edo and Osaka. In the

cities and towns, guilds of merchants and artisans met the growing demand for goods and


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services. The merchants, while low in status, prospered, especially those with official patronage.

Merchants invented credit instruments to transfer money, currency came into common use, and

the strengthening credit market encouraged entrepreneurship.

The samurai, forbidden to engage in farming or business but allowed to borrow money,borrowed too much. The bakufu and daimyos raised taxes on farmers, but did not tax business,

so they too fell into debt. By 1750 rising taxes incited peasant unrest and even revolt. The nation

had to deal somehow with samurai impoverishment and treasury deficits. The financial troubles

of the samurai undermined their loyalties to the system, and the empty treasury threatened the

whole system of government. One solution was reactionary with prohibitions on spending for

luxuries. Other solutions were modernizing, with the goal of increasing agrarian productivity.

The eighth Tokugawa shogun, Tokugawa Yoshimune (in office 1716 1745 ) had considerable

success, though much of his work had to be done again between 1787 and 1793 by the shogun's

chief councilor Matsudaira Sadanobu (1759 1829) . Others shoguns debased the coinage to pay

debts, which caused inflation.

By 1800 the commercialization of the economy grew rapidly, bringing more and more

remote villages into the national economy. Rich farmers appeared who switched from rice to

high-profit commercial crops and engaged in local money-lending, trade, and small-scale

manufacturing. Some wealthy merchants sought higher social status by using money to marry

into the samurai class.

A few domains, notably Chsh and Satsuma, used innovative methods to restore their

finances, but most sunk further into debt. The financial crisis provoked a reactionary solution

near the end of the "Tenp Reforms" (1830 1843) promulgated by the chief counselor Mizuno

Tadakuni. He raised taxes, denounced luxuries and tried to impede the growth of business; he

failed and it appeared too many that the continued existence of the entire Tokugawa system was

in jeopardy.


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Empire of Japan (1868 1945)

Beginning in 1868 , Japan undertook political, economic, and cultural transformations

emerging as a unified and centralized state, the Empire of Japan (also Imperial Japan or Prewar

Japan). This 77-year period, which lasted until 1945 , was a time of rapid economic growth.Japan became an imperial power, colonizing Korea and Taiwan. Starting in 1931 it began the

takeover of Manchuria and China, in defiance of the League of Nations and the United States.

Escalating tension with the U.S and western control of Japan's vital oil supplies led to World

War II. Japan launched multiple successful attacks on the U.S. as well as British and Dutch

territories in 1941 42. After a series of great naval battles, the Americans sank the Japanese fleet

and largely destroyed 50 of its largest cities through air raids, including nuclear attacks on

Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan surrendered in late summer 1945 , gave up its overseas holdings

in Korea, China, Taiwan and elsewhere, and was occupied and transformed into a demilitarized

democratic nation by the U.S.

Wars with China and Russia

It was tensions over Korea and Manchuria, respectively that led Japan to become

involved in the first Sino-Japanese War with China in 1894 1895 and the Russo-Japanese

War with Russia in 1904 1905 .

The war with China made Japan the world's first Eastern, modern imperial power, and the

war with Russia proved that a Western power could be defeated by an Eastern state. The

aftermath of these two wars left Japan the dominant power in the Far East with a sphere of

influence extending over southern Manchuria and Korea, which was formally annexed as part of

the Japanese Empire in 1910 . Japan had also gained half of Sakhalin Island from Russia. The

results of these wars established Japan's dominant interest in Korea.

Anglo-Japanese Alliance

The Anglo-Japanese Alliance treaty was signed with Britain in 1902 . It was renewed in

1905 and 1911 before its demise in 1921 and its termination in 1923 . It was a military alliance

between the two countries that threatened Russia and Germany. Due to this alliance, Japan

entered World War I on the side of Great Britain. Japan seized German bases in China and the

pacific. The Treaty facilitated cultural and technological exchange between the two countries.


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World War I

Japan entered World War I on the Allied side and declared war on the Central Powers.

Though Japan's role was limited largely to seizing German colonial outposts in East Asia and the

Pacific, it took advantage of the opportunity to expand its influence in Asia and its territorialholdings in the Pacific. Acting virtually independently of the civil government, the Japanese

navy seized Germany's Micronesian colonies. It also attacked and occupied the German coaling

port of Qingdao in the Chinese Shandong peninsula.

Japan went to the peace conference at Versailles in 1919 as one of the great military and

industrial powers of the world and received official recognition as one of the "Big Five" of the

new international order. It joined the League of Nations and received a mandate over Pacific

islands north of the Equator formerly held by Germany. Japan was also involved in the post-warAllied intervention in Russia, occupying Russian (Outer) Manchuria and also north Sakhalin

(which held Japan's limited oil reserves). It was the last Allied power to withdraw from the

interventions against Soviet Russia (doing so in 1925).

Second Sino-Japanese War

Under the pretext of the Manchurian Incident, Lieutenant Colonel Kanji Ishiwara invaded

Inner (Chinese) Manchuria in 1931 , an action the Japanese government ratified with the creation

of the puppet state of Manchukuo under the last Chinese emperor, Pu Yi. As a result of

international condemnation of the incident, Japan resigned from the League of Nations in 1933 .

After several more similar incidents fueled by an expansionist military, the second Sino-Japanese

War began in 1937 after the Marco Polo Bridge Incident.

From 1937 45, Emperor Hirohito was supreme commander of the Imperial General

Headquarters, by which the military decisions were made. This ad-hoc body consisted of the

chief and vice chief of the Army, the minister of the Army, the chief and vice chief of the Navy,

the minister of the Navy, the inspector general of military aviation, and the inspector general of

military training.

Having joined the Anti-Comintern Pact in 1936 , Japan formed the Axis Pact with

Germany and Italy on September 27, 1940 . Many Japanese politicians believed war with the

Occident to be inevitable due to inherent cultural differences and Western imperialism. Japanese


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Philippine Sea (1944) and Leyte Gulf (1945) , which put American long-range B-29 bombers in

range. A series of massive raids burned out much of Tokyo and other major industrial cities

beginning in March 1945 while Operation Starvation seriously disrupted the nation's vital

internal shipping lanes. Regardless of how the war was becoming hopeless, the circle around the

Emperor held fast and refused to open negotiations. Finally in August, two atomic bombs and the

Soviet invasion of Manchuria demonstrated the cause was futile, and Hirohito authorized a

surrender whereby he kept his throne.

Total Japanese military fatalities between 1937 and 1945 were 2.1 million ; most came in

the last year of the war. Starvation or malnutrition-related illness accounted for roughly 80

percent of Japanese military deaths in the Philippines, and 50 percent of military fatalities in

China. The aerial bombing of a total of 65 Japanese cities appears to have taken a minimum of

400,000 and possibly closer to 600,000 civilian lives (over 100,000 in Tokyo alone, over

200,000 in Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined, and 80,000 150,000 civilian deaths in the battle

of Okinawa). Civilian death among settlers who died attempting to return to Japan from

Manchuria in the winter of 1945 was probably around 100,000.

Potsdam ultimatum

On 26 July , Allied leaders issued the Potsdam Declaration outlining terms of surrender

for Japan. It was presented as an ultimatum and stated that without surrender, the Allies wouldattack Japan, resulting in "the inevitable and complete destruction of the Japanese armed forces

and just as inevitably the utter devastation of the Japanese homeland". The atomic bomb was not

mentioned in the communiqu. On 28 July Japanese papers reported that the declaration had

been rejected by the Japanese government. That afternoon, Prime Minister Kantar

Suzuki declared at a press conference that the Potsdam Declaration was no more than a rehash

( yakinaoshi ) of the Cairo Declaration and that the government intended to ignore it ( mokusatsu ,

"kill by silence"). The statement was taken by both Japanese and foreign papers as a clear

rejection of the declaration. Emperor Hirohito, who was waiting for a Soviet reply to non-

committal Japanese peace feelers, made no move to change the government position.

Under the 1943 Quebec Agreement with the United Kingdom, the United States had

agreed that nuclear weapons would not be used against another country without mutual consent.

In June 1945 the head of the British Joint Staff Mission, Field Marshal Sir Henry Maitland
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potsdam_Declarationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultimatumhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kantar%C5%8D_Suzukihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kantar%C5%8D_Suzukihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kantar%C5%8D_Suzukihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cairo_Declarationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec_Agreementhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec_Agreementhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cairo_Declarationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kantar%C5%8D_Suzukihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kantar%C5%8D_Suzukihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultimatumhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potsdam_Declaration


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Wilson, agreed that the use of nuclear weapons against Japan would be officially recorded as a

decision of the Combined Policy Committee. At Potsdam, Truman agreed to a request from

the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Winston Churchill, that Britain be represented when

the atomic bomb was dropped. William Penney and Group Captain Leonard Cheshire were sent

to Tinian, but found that Major General Lemay would not let them accompany the mission. All

they could do was send a strongly worded signal back to Wilson.

After the Hiroshima bombing, Truman issued a statement announcing the use of the new

weapon. He stated, "We may be grateful to Providence" that the German atomic bomb

project had failed, and that the United States and its allies had "spent two billion dollars on the

greatest scientific gamble in history-and won." Truman then warned Japan:

If they do not now accept our terms, they may expect a rain of ruin from the air, the like

of which has never been seen on this earth. Behind this air attack will follow sea and land forces

in such numbers and power as they have not yet seen and with the fighting skill of which they

are already well aware.

The Japanese government still did not react to the Potsdam Declaration. Emperor

Hirohito, the government, and the war council were considering four conditions for surrender:

the preservation of the kokutai (Imperial institution and national polity) , assumption by the

Imperial Headquarters of responsibility for disarmament and demobilization, no occupation of

the Japanese Home Islands, Korea, or Formosa, and delegation of the punishment of war

criminals to the Japanese government.

The Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov had informed Tokyo of the Soviet

Union's unilateral abrogation of the Soviet Japanese Neutrality Pact on 5 April . At two minutes

past midnight on 9 August , Tokyo time, Soviet infantry, armor, and air forces had launched

the Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation. Four hours later, word reached Tokyo that the

Soviet Union had declared war on Japan. The senior leadership of the Japanese Army began

preparations to impose martial law on the nation, with the support of Minister of War Korechika

Anami, in order to stop anyone attempting to make peace.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_Captainhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Cheshirehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_atomic_bomb_projecthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_atomic_bomb_projecthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potsdam_Declarationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kokutaihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kokutaihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kokutaihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_Archipelagohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formosahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchurian_Strategic_Offensive_Operationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martial_lawhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korechika_Anamihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korechika_Anamihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korechika_Anamihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korechika_Anamihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martial_lawhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchurian_Strategic_Offensive_Operationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formosahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_Archipelagohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kokutaihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potsdam_Declarationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_atomic_bomb_projecthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_atomic_bomb_projecthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Cheshirehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_Captain


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Atomic Bomb

At approximately 8.15am on 6 August 1945 a US B-29 bomber dropped an atomic bomb

on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, instantly killing around 80,000 people. Three days later, a

second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, causing the deaths of 40,000 more. The dropping of thebombs, which occurred by executive order of US President Harry Truman, remains the only

nuclear attack in history. In the months following the attack, roughly 100,000 more people died

slow, horrendous deaths as a result of radiation poisoning.

Since 1942 , more than 100,000 scientists of the Manhattan Project had been working on

the bombs development. At the time, it was the largest collective scientific effort ever

undertaken. Although voices within the US Military expressed caution regarding the use of the

new weapon against Japan, Truman was convinced that the bomb was the correct and onlyoption. Six months of intense strategic fire-bombing of 37 Japanese cities had done little to break

the Hirohito regimes resolve, and Japan continued to resolutely ignore the demand for

unconditional surrender made at Potsdam. In such circumstances, the use of the atom bomb was

seen as the best means of forcing Japan to surrender, and ending the war. The alternative, of an

Allied invasion of the Japanese home islands, was expected to cost hundreds of thousands of

casualties.

The effects of the attack were devastating. The predicted Japanese surrender, which cameon 15 August - just six days after the detonation over Nagasaki - ended World War II. Yet the

shocking human effects soon led many to cast doubts upon the use of this weapon.

Was the atomic bombing of Japan in 1945 justifiable?

In the case of Americans, reference is usually made to the atomic bombing of Japan in

August 1945 , and it is sometimes suggested that Japan was selected as a target for the atomic

bomb only because the Japanese are Asian.

On 6 August 1945 , an atomic bomb was exploded over Hiroshima. At this time,

Hiroshima was the headquarters of Japan's 2nd General Army.


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Reasons for the Atomic Bomb

The real reasons for using the atomic bomb against Japan often appear to be ignored and

this can lead to an unfair judgment being passed against the United States.

The second reason is the continuing refusal of successive governments in Japan to

disclose to Japanese children the full extent of Japan's war guilt and the appalling atrocities

committed by the Japanese military in China and during the Pacific War 1941-45. Allied with

this denial, is an increasing push in Japan (a) to claim that Japanese troops invaded China as

liberators of the Chinese from Western colonialism and (b) to blame the United States for

"forcing" Japan to bomb Pearl Harbor as a desperate response to American embargoes on raw

materials needed by Japan. Those who push this line conveniently ignore the fact that betweenfive and ten million Chinese were slaughtered by invading Japanese troops between 1937 and

1945 . They also ignore the fact that the United States imposed the embargoes on war-related raw

materials in a vain attempt to halt brutal Japanese aggression in China and elsewhere in Asia.

This bizarre revisionism appears to be increasingly reflected in letters to newspapers outside

Japan.

Conventional Bombing of Japan fails to persuade Japan to surrender

To undermine Japan's capacity to continue the war, it was necessary for America to strike

at Japan's industrial base. In doing so, the Americans faced a problem. Unlike the situation in

many Western countries, most of Japan's major cities did not have clearly defined industrial

districts in 1945 . Instead, Japanese industrial facilities were mostly dispersed in residential areas.

As precision bombing did not exist in 1945 , it was impossible for high altitude American B-29s

to destroy factories that serviced Japan's war machine without also hitting residential

neighborhoods that adjoined these factories.

As the cost in American lives soared, and Japan showed no inclination to surrender, the

Americans finally decided in early 1945 to strike at Japan's war industries even if it inevitably

cost civilian lives. For ten days in March 1945 , huge formations of B-29 bombers carried out

saturation raids on five of Japan's largest industrial cities, including Tokyo. The raids were then


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suspended. Instead of inclining Japan to surrender, the Japanese government was able to use the

air raids to whip up hatred of Americans and stiffen the will of the Japanese people to fight to the

death as a nation. This was not as difficult in Japan as it would have been in Western countries. It

has to be remembered that the Japanese people were products of a militaristic culture dating back

hundreds of years. They felt intense pride in the power of their military, and Japan's military

conquests in Asia and the Pacific. Japanese culture permitted Admiral Yamamoto to be viewed

as a national hero after he engineered the treacherous sneak attack on the United States Pacific

Fleet at Pearl Harbor.

The Japanese government plans a fanatical defense of Japan's home islands to

the last man, woman and child

In April 1945 , the Japanese Suzuki government had prepared a war policy called Ketsugo

which was a refinement of the Shosango victory plan for the defence of the home islands to the

last man . These plans would prepare the Japanese people psychologically to die as a nation in

defence of their homeland. Even children, including girls, would be trained to use makeshift

lethal weapons, and exhorted to sacrifice themselves by killing an American invader. To

implement this policy of training children to kill, soldiers attended Japanese schools and trained

even small children in the use of weapons such as bamboo spears.

The American government was aware from intelligence intercepts of the chilling

implications of these Japanese defensive plans. Intelligence reports indicated that the Japanese

would probably be able to muster two million troops and eight thousand aircraft for the defence

of the four home islands against a traditional amphibious invasion. The dispersal of these

military resources across Japan, and their careful concealment, would provide the Americans

with no opportunity to destroy them from the air. The Ketsugo policy placed heavy reliance on

suicide attacks on the American troops and their covering warships. For this purpose, severalthousand aircraft would be adapted for suicide attacks. Other methods of suicide attack being

developed included dynamite-filled "crash boats", guided human torpedoes, guided human

rocket bombs (similar to the "Baka" rocket plane used against American ships at Okinawa), and

specially trained ground suicide units carrying explosives. In addition, the invading Americans

would have to face a civilian population drilled in guerilla tactics.


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The Americans had every reason to be deeply disturbed when they learned about

Japanese plans to defend the home islands by massive suicide attacks on American amphibious

forces. The Kamikaze suicide attacks on Allied ships at Okinawa had alone produced a

horrifying toll:

34 Allied warships sunk;

368 Allied ships damaged (some fit only for scrap);

4,900 Allied sailors killed; and

4,874 Allied sailors wounded.

The Potsdam Declaration gives Japan a last opportunity to surrender

On July 26, 1945 , the Allies issued the Potsdam Declaration. Its purpose was to hasten

Japan's surrender without the need for a difficult and very costly amphibious assault. It warned

Japan that it faced "prompt and utter destruction" unless the Japanese swiftly agreed to an

unconditional surrender. On July 28 , Prime Minister Suzuki announced that Japan intended to

"ignore" the Potsdam Declaration.

We have learned that underlying Suzuki's rejection of the Potsdam Declaration was

Emperor Hirohito's stubborn resolve to continue the war until he received a guarantee from the

Allies that his status as emperor would be preserved and that he would not be tried as a war

criminal. There is no evidence that Hirohito felt any genuine concern for the suffering of

Japanese civilians as the war encroached on their lives.


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When the Japanese refuse to surrender, President Truman elects to use the

atomic bomb

By July 1945 , Japan's military and industrial resources had either been destroyed or

dispersed widely and largely concealed from air attack. The Americans were finding it very

difficult to locate sizeable military or industrial targets for their B-29 bombers to attack with

conventional bombs.

When informed that Japan intended to ignore the Potsdam Declaration, President Truman

was faced with a dilemma. There was little scope for further conventional bombing. He was left

with the choice of ordering an invasion of Japan's home islands or using the atomic bomb. Rather

than risk the predicted 1,000,000 American battle casualties in an amphibious assault on Japan,President Truman elected to use the atomic bomb.

The first target was Hiroshima, a city on Japan's Inland Sea. At this time it was the

headquarters of the 2nd General Army. On 4 August 1945, American aircraft dropped leaflets on

Hiroshima warning the citizens to expect terrible destruction to be visited upon their city because

Japan had refused to surrender. Although many civilians had already been evacuated to the

country, this warning was largely ignored. On August 6, the first atomic bomb was dropped on

this city. At Hiroshima, 60,000 Japanese died and a similar number were injured.

The emotive impact of the use of an atomic bomb on a Japanese city, and its usefulness

as a stick with which to beat the United States, has caused many people to ignore the fact that

more people died in the conventional bomb attack on Tokyo on the night of 8/9 March 1945 . At

Tokyo, on this one night, the bombs and resulting firestorm killed 80,000 people and injured

44,000.

Three days later, when the first atomic bomb had still evoked no response from Japan, asecond bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, a port with naval installations. The primary target on

this day had been the city of Kokura where a huge army arsenal was located. Thick clouds over

Kokura forced diversion of the B-29 with the second bomb to Nagasaki. At Nagasaki, 36,000

were killed and about 60,000 wounded.


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founded at the time, and Japan emerged as the most developed nation in Asia. The period of

overall real economic growth from the 1960s to the 1980s has been called the Japanese post-war

economic miracle: it averaged 7.5 percent in the 1960s and 1970s , and 3.2 percent in the 1980s

and early 1990s .

Growth slowed markedly in the 1990s during what the Japanese call the Lost Decade,

largely because of the after-effects of the Japanese asset price bubble and domestic policies

intended to wring speculative excesses from the stock and real estate markets. Government

efforts to revive economic growth met with little success and were further hampered by

the global slowdown in 2000 . The economy showed strong signs of recovery after 2005 GDP

growth for that year was 2.8 percent, surpassing the growth rates of the US and European

Union during the same period.

As of 2011 , Japan is the third largest national economy in the world, after the United

States and China, in terms of nominal GDP, and the fourth largest national economy in the

world, after the United States, China and India in terms of purchasing power parity. As of

January 2011 , Japan's public debt was more than 200 percent of its annual gross domestic

product, the largest of any nation in the world. In August 2011 , Moody's rating has cut Japan's

long-term sovereign debt rating one notch from Aa3 to Aa2 in line with the size of the country's

deficit and borrowing level. The large budget deficits and government debt since the 2009 global

recession and followed by earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 made the rating downgrade.

The service sector accounts for three quarters of the gross domestic product.

Japan has a large industrial capacity, and is home to some of the largest and most

technologically advanced producers of motor vehicles, electronics, machine tools, steel and

nonferrous metals, ships, chemical substances, textiles, and processed foods.Agricultural

businesses in Japan cultivate 13 percent of Japan's land, and Japan accounts for nearly 15 percent

of the global fish catch, second only to China. As of 2010 , Japan's labor force consisted of some

65.9 million workers. Japan has a low unemployment rate of around four percent. Almost one in

six Japanese, or 20 million people, lived in poverty in 2007 . Housing in Japan is characterized by

limited land supply in urban areas.

Japan's exports amounted to US$4,210 per capita in 2005 . Japan's main export markets

are China (18.88 percent), the United States (16.42 percent), South Korea (8.13 percent), Taiwan


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world in robotics production and use, possessing more than half (402,200 of 742,500) of the

world's industrial robots.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is Japan's space agency; it conducts

space, planetary, and aviation research, and leads development of rockets and satellites. It is aparticipant in the International Space Station: the Japanese Experiment Module (Kibo) was

added to the station during Space Shuttle assembly flights in 2008 . Japan's plans in space

exploration include: launching a space probe to Venus, Akatsuki ; developing the Mercury

Magnetospheric Orbiter to be launched in 2013 ; and building a moon base by 2030 .

On 14 September 2007 , it launched lunar explorer " SELENE " (Selenological

and Engineering Explorer) on an H-IIA (Model H2A2022) carrier rocket from Tanegashima

Space Center. SELENE is also known as Kaguya , after the lunar princess of The Tale of the

Bamboo Cutter . Kaguya is the largest lunar mission since the Apollo program. Its purpose is to

gather data on the moon's origin and evolution. It entered a lunar orbit on 4 October, flying at an

altitude of about 100 km (62 mi). The probe's mission was ended when it was deliberately

crashed by JAXA into the Moon on 11 June 2009 .

Infrastructure

As of 2008 , 46.4 percent of energy in Japan is produced from petroleum, 21.4 percent

from coal, 16.7 percent from natural gas, 9.7 percent from nuclear power, and 2.9 percentfrom hydro power. Nuclear power produced 25.1 percent of Japan's electricity, as of

2009. However, as of May 5, 2012 , all of the countrys nuclear power plants had been taken

offline due to ongoing public opposition following the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster,

though government officials have been continuing to try to sway public opinion in favor of

returning at least some of Japan's 50 nuclear reactors to service. Given its heavy dependence

on imported energy, Japan has aimed to diversify its sources and maintain high levels of energy

efficiency.

Japan's road spending has been extensive. Its 1.2 million kilometers of paved road are the

main means of transportation. A single network of high-speed, divided, limited-access toll

roads connects major cities and is operated by toll-collecting enterprises. New and used cars are

inexpensive; car ownership fees and fuel levies are used to promote energy efficiency. However,

at just 50 percent of all distance traveled, car usage is the lowest of all G8 countries.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Space_Stationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H-IIAhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H-IIAhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Space_Station


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Dozens of Japanese railway companies compete in regional and local passenger

transportation markets; major companies include seven JR enterprises, Kintetsu

Corporation, Seibu Railway and Keio Corporation. Some 250 high-speed Shinkansen trains

connect major cities and Japanese trains are known for their safety and punctuality. Proposals for

a new Maglev route between Tokyo and Osaka are at an advanced stage. There are 173 airports

in Japan; the largest domestic airport, Haneda Airport, is Asia's second-busiest airport. The

largest international gateways are Narita International Airport, Kansai International

Airport and Chbu Centrair International Airport. Nagoya Port is the country's largest and

busiest port, accounting for 10 percent of Japan's trade value.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Railways_Grouphttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JR-Maglevhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JR-Maglevhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Railways_Group

Economy of Japan and Atomic Attack

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Transcript of Economy of Japan and Atomic Attack