With Imperial Japan's military panicking over the oil embargo from the United States, the leaders of the Empire of Japan decided to respond by launching one of the most famous and deadliest surprise attacks in history.

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As Nazi Germany took the offensive against Poland and the second World War began in Europe, Japan chose to continue its path of closely aligning with fascist western powers in hopes of obtaining powerful allies whom they believed would win this latest global conflict.

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Japan's colonial possessions throughout the south Pacific proved very profitable, but the close proximity to the colonies of the United States set both nations on a path toward eventual conflict.

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As the Second Sino-Japanese War raged on, domestic matters in Japan took a turn for the worse as Prime Minister Konoe Fumimaro proposed applying colonial policies to the home provinces in the name of supporting the war effort.

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The Japanese Imperial Army managed to take Wuhan but found it difficult to keep up their previous momentum as Chinese defensive efforts and counter-insurgency begin to wear on the Japanese supply line and threaten to reverse their previous gains.

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After the Marco Polo Bridge Incident which sparked the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Japanese Imperial Army and Navy would press on to take Shanghai, Nanjing, and Xuzhou, driving Chinese defenders back and committing horrific war crimes and atrocities along the way.

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Competing ideas about the Emperor's identity and proper place in the Japanese political order would become especially heated during the tumultuous 1930s and radical adherents of the Imperial Way Faction in the military engaged in a well-organized coup which nearly toppled the civilian government.

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The Empire of Japan's decision to break with liberal democracies in favor of rising fascist powers was driven, in part, by the successes enjoyed by said fascist powers throughout the 1930s. In this episode, we discuss how their leaders managed to consolidate that power in the first place.

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After alienating the western liberal democracies with whom they had previously enjoyed friendly relations, the Empire of Japan began exploring new friendship and alliances with the growing fascist powers which were emerging in Europe as the Second Sino-Japanese war began in 1937.

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Following its investigation into the Mukden Incident and subsequent Japanese occupation of northeast China, the League of Nations demands that Japan withdraw its troops and return the territory they've seized. Japan responds by withdrawing from the League of Nations.

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