On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in the United States without declaring war, and the Pacific War officially began. At the same time as the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japan also sent another force south to launch an attack on Southeast Asia, which was controlled by the old Western powers. After the war began, Japan was overwhelmed in Southeast Asia, defeating the troops of Britain and the United States and other countries. In less than a year, it swept almost the entire Southeast Asian region. So, why did the powerful Britain and the United States, coupled with the fact that they had been operating in Southeast Asian colonies for many years, make it so easy for Japan to fight?
Despite the strength of the United Kingdom and the United States, it has been operating in Southeast Asia for a long time. However, when the Pacific War broke out, the garrison of the European and American powers in Southeast Asia was very empty. At that time, there were four major powers in Southeast Asia, Britain, France, the United States and the Netherlands. Of these four countries, almost all of France and the Netherlands have already fallen, and overseas colonial powers are still struggling to survive. Britain was busy fighting Germany and Italy on the European battlefield, and almost all of their main forces had been transferred to the battlefields of Western Europe and North Africa. In the colonies of Southeast Asia, there were only a few low-fighting colonial armies. Despite their large numbers, they were poorly equipped and demoralized, which can be described as a rabble. At best, it can only maintain order on the ground.
The rest is the United States. Although the United States has more than 100,000 troops in the Philippines, like the United Kingdom, most of them are colonial troops, and the real American army is only more than 20,000 people. The more than 20,000 "regular troops" were actually reorganized from the 8,500-strong guard corps dispatched by the United States. In order to expand, a large number of Filipino soldiers were added to it, and the combat effectiveness was not strong. It is almost unrealistic to rely on such troops to deal with the "elite" of Japan.
After the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in the United States, Japan mobilized nearly half of its naval forces and more than 400,000 elite troops to attack Hong Kong, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Burma. In the Malayan Campaign alone, Japan invested about 110,000 elite troops of the 5th and 18th Guards and Guards divisions, dozens of ** ships (including three aircraft carriers), plus more than 500 aircraft, 200 tanks and a large number of artillery. And the result of this against the American and British colonial troops, which had little combat effectiveness, can be imagined. Therefore, it is not surprising that in just one year, Japan was able to sweep almost all of Southeast Asia.
It was also for this reason that after the Japanese troops reached India, Australia, Midway and other areas and encountered the main forces of the American and British troops, they were quickly beaten all over the ground. And during the Battle of Imphal, the Japanese army was also defeated by second-rate Anglo-Indian troops;In New Guinea, the Japanese army was also beaten by the well-equipped Australian army, and was chased by the Australian army from Southeast Asia to the Japanese mainland. Therefore, the Japanese army seemed invincible in the early stage, only because it did not meet a real opponent. If it were put on the European battlefield, it might not be much better than Poland. After all, compared with those powerful countries in Europe and the United States, Japan's foundation is still much thinner.