Not only were they expected to defend an enormous region with inadequate weapons and equipment, they knew very little about the enemy they would have to face. Few people in the Western world did.Only a few decades earlier, the island nation of Japan had been a feudal state, developmentally backward compared to the world’s industrialized countries, and almost completely closed to foreigners. In a remarkably brief period, however, a central government radically overhauled the empire. By the conclusion of World War I, Japan had emerged as one of the five most powerful nations on Earth. Her people, believing they were linked by common mythical and spiritual origins going back almost 2,600 years, had never been defeated by outside invaders. Brimming with nationalistic fervor, the Japanese believed themselves superior in virtually every way to other races, especially those of the Eastern hemisphere.The Japanese were determined to rule a much larger empire, but their own tiny islands lacked sufficient natural resources.
