Why was Japan so Evil in World War II?

[March 14, 2025]  Imperial Japan’s military forces during World War II were notorious for evil acts of heinous war crimes. Why this occurred was studied by historian and British filmmaker Henry Stewart. You can find his video here.  We must ask why Japan was so evil on World War II?

He believes the beginnings of this began sometime around the time Western powers began arriving on Japan’s shores and pushing them to open up. This was a time of great humiliation for the divided country. It resulted in a deep political crisis in Japan, which would transform the country.

This precipitated the Meiji Restoration, where the power of the regional warlords declined, and Japan became more unified around one central figure, the Emperor. A constitutional system was drawn up, modeled on the British. There were radical economic reforms that caused rapid industrialization, and in just a few decades, Japan went from a backward feudal state to an economic powerhouse.

Japan also modernized its military, adopting Western tactics and weaponry. By the end of the 1800s, Japan was unrecognizable. It had become a modern nation and a major power on the international stage. With its astonishing progress came a newfound confidence and arrogance.

Japan now believed it was superior to every other nation in Asia. To prove its worth, it wanted to humble the greatest power of the region, China. China was huge and had enormous control, including the strategically located country of Korea. Korea was a bridge to mainland China, and it had to take it.

In 1894, war broke out and to the surprise of everyone, Japan won. The modernized Japanese military totally outclassed the Chinese. Over the next few years, Japan would continue expanding into Asia and bringing it into conflict with another major power, Russia.

Russia was also expanding into Asia and looking to take Korea and Manchuria. Japan was not going to accept that but opted for an agreement where Russia could get Manchuria and Japan would get Korea. Over several years, Japan attempted to get a deal with the Russian Czar, but they were treated with contempt.

After years of diplomacy, Japan gave up and chose war with Russia. In 1904, Japan launched a surprise attack on Russia and, again, everyone expected Japan to lose because Russia was one of the most powerful nations on earth. After two years, Japan outclassed Russia on land and sea. Russia was forced to accept a humiliating peace deal.

Now, Japan was clearly the dominant power in East Asia and had a free hand to do what it wanted. In 1910, Japan annexed Korea. The world took notice, and the British would ally with Japan. This would lead to an important role as Japan seized German colonies in Asia. Their reward was territory, but it was too small for their liking.

Over the years, Japanese resentment over the West continued to grow. Due to political instability in Japan, their government grew more extremist and militarist, wanting expansion in Asia. In 1931, they got their wish as Japan invaded Manchuria, a resource-rich territory. By this time, it was becoming obvious that their military was in charge, not the politicians.

Due to its highly aggressive nature, it faced international condemnation. In response, Japan embraced isolation and withdrew from the League of Nations. In 1936, it allied with Nazi Germany and launched a full-scale invasion of China.

“This invasion of China was the point of no return. For Japan, it cemented their descent into evil.” — Henry Stewart

The Japanese military was truly evil and absolutely comparable to the Nazis. In 1941, the turning point was their attempt to dominate all of Asia and the Pacific. They launched a surprise attack on the American Navy at Pearl Harbor, making an enemy of the United States.

Then, they invaded much of the rest of Asia, including Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Indonesia. Japan quickly became a giant empire with about 400 million people. However, Japan slowly began to lose the war against the Americans, who employed a strategy of Island hopping, getting closer and closer to Japan by capturing key islands.

By 1945, America had all but won the war, but it wasn’t clear how to get Japan to surrender. In lieu of a costly land invasion, atomic bombs were dropped. This forced Japan to surrender and give up its empire and withdraw from its colonies. These wars cost the lives of about 30 million people. That is what happened in the rise and fall of Imperial Japan.

There is little need to go through the many infamous examples of their cruelty. We now know of the horrible human experimentation; the most infamous was Unit 731. Another was the policy of the Three Alls: kill all, burn all, and loot all. They committed many massacres; the most well-known was at Nanking.

The question is, why was Japan so astonishingly evil?  We can determine how far back this kind of terror behavior goes in their history. Was this a short-term problem?

Long-term, we can surmise that long-standing beliefs and values that go back centuries glorify the warrior, particularly the Samurai. They possessed a strict moral code known as Bushido, which encouraged self-sacrifice for the Emperor. During the interwar period, Japan reverted to its traditions with false notions of greatness and the glorification of violence.

Another important traditional Japanese idea was that the emperor was more than just a human; he was a divine figure. That notion was deeply rooted in Japan’s traditional religion of Shinto. The emperor’s divine lineage gave him tremendous symbolic power. His divine status became a cornerstone of the national ideology, which was used to justify military aggression.

The annexation of Korea and Manchuria and the invasion of China were all framed as fulfilling a sacred mission. They were, in a sense, holy wars, almost a crusade. And all means were allowed.

But Japan had not behaved so badly during other times of war. In fact, three decades earlier, during the 1904-1905 Russo-Japanese War, they didn’t behave with anything like the same brutality. Similarly, during the First World War, German prisoners of war were treated very well.

The contrast between the civilized Japanese Army and the one from World War II is astonishing. What caused such an enormous difference in behavior?

This is what Henry Stewart believes to be the answer:

1. There was a huge anti-Western resentment caused by Japan getting repeatedly humiliated. Their resentment destabilized politics which in turn allowed the military to get far too much power.
2. This led to a dark stain of insular nationalism, which also drove Japan’s determination to industrialize and modernize quickly to show that it was not inferior.
3. During post-WWI1, when the League of Nations was created, Japan reasonably requested that a clause stating all nations would be treated equally based on race be included. That was rejected, another humiliating blow politically.
4. In 1922, the Washington Naval Treaty was an agreement between the five major naval powers to determine the size of their navies. It was unfair to Japan.
5. A few years later, America passed an immigration act that restricted immigration from Asia and Japan. Japan took this as a message they weren’t welcome in the West.
6. Throughout the 1920s, Japanese politics experienced an unstable transition from the old political order to a more modern democratic system. But this happened quickly, and the old order was fearful of a left-wing movement’s development. Laws were passed to exclude the leftists.
7. This led to a swing toward an authoritarian state, which was made worse by economic problems. Poverty began to soar, made worse by the global financial crash of 1929. Mainstream political parties were discredited, and politics became more extreme.
8. By the mid-1930s, Japan had been essentially taken over by the military creating a military dictatorship. The Generals ceased to pay attention to the civilian government. With that, the military did as it wished.
9. A war in Manchuria, initiated by the Japanese army, precipitated a chain of events that further weakened the Japanese government and strengthened the army. But eventually in the struggle, the military won out over their government.

The atrocities committed during WW2 were a direct result of that military takeover. Japan’s army in Manchuria developed an especially brutal and evil culture. Leaders of this army oversaw many atrocities like the Nan King Massacre and non-military atrocities like human experiments

Japan came to be controlled by the most brutal, psychopathic subsection of its society. The men running the shoe weren’t just ordinary members of the military. They turned Japan into something totally alien to what it had been just a few decades earlier.

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1. “55 Rules for a Good Life,” on Amazon (link here).
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