Who won the Battle of Sekigahara?

Tokugawa Ieyasu. On 21 October 1600 his Eastern Army defeated the Western Army of Toyotomi loyalists led by Ishida Mitsunari, helped when Kobayakawa Hideaki attacked Mitsunari's men. Ieyasu was named shogun in 1603, and the Tokugawa shogunate he founded ruled Japan in peace until 1868.

Who won the Russo-Japanese War?

Japan. It opened the war in 1904 with a surprise attack on Port Arthur and won the major battles, including Mukden and Tsushima in 1905. Under the Treaty of Portsmouth Russia recognized Japan's dominance in Korea and gave up Port Arthur and southern Sakhalin, though Japan received no indemnity.

When did Japan surrender in World War II?

Japan accepted the Allied terms on 14 August 1945, after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Soviet declaration of war. Emperor Hirohito announced the surrender by radio on 15 August, and Japan signed the formal instrument of surrender aboard USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on 2 September 1945.

Military History of Japan: Wars, Battles and Commanders

Q: Who were the samurai?

The samurai, or bushi, were Japan's warrior class. They appear in records of the 10th century as mounted archers and swordsmen, took power after the Gempei War of 1180 to 1185 and dominated Japanese politics until the 19th century. The class lost its privileges when the Meiji government abolished feudalism in 1871.

Q: Why did Japan invade Korea in 1592?

Toyotomi Hideyoshi saw Korea as the road to conquering China. His armies landed in 1592 and again in 1597, but Admiral Yi Sun-sin's fleet cut their supply lines and a Ming Chinese army came to Korea's aid. After Hideyoshi died in 1598, the Japanese withdrew from the peninsula.

Q: Why did Japan attack Pearl Harbor?

Japan's war in China depended on American oil and steel. After Japanese troops entered French Indochina in 1941, the United States froze Japanese assets and cut off its oil. Japan's leaders chose war rather than retreat and struck Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 while attacking across Southeast Asia.

Q: Does Japan have an army today?

Not in name. Article 9 of the 1947 constitution renounces war and armed forces, but in 1954 Japan created the Ground, Maritime and Air Self-Defense Forces. Japanese governments read Article 9 as allowing the minimum force needed for self-defense, and whether to amend it is still debated.

The samurai Takezaki Suenaga charges the Mongol and Korean invaders in 1274, from a copy of the Mōko Shūrai Ekotoba (Illustrated Account of the Mongol Invasions), a handscroll whose original was made about 1293 (National Diet Library, Tokyo), via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

Quick answer

What is the military history of Japan?

It is the history of Japan's wars from the rise of the samurai in the 12th century through the Mongol invasions, the Sengoku civil wars, the invasions of Korea and Sekigahara in 1600, to the Meiji army, victory over Russia in 1905, defeat in World War II and today's Self-Defense Forces.¹

Japan's soldiers have fought as the retainers of rival warrior clans, as the armies of a unified shogunate and as the conscript forces of an empire that ruled much of East Asia before its total defeat in 1945. This page follows those wars era by era, names the state that fought each of them and tells the wars with Korea, China, Russia and the United States from both sides. Among the best-known battles on this site are the Battle of Sekigahara (1600), the Battle of Tsushima (1905), the attack on Pearl Harbor (1941), the Battle of Midway (1942) and the Battle of Okinawa (1945).²

What counts as Japan in military history

For most of its history Japan was ruled in the emperor's name by warrior governments. The first, the Kamakura shogunate, was founded after the Gempei War of 1180 to 1185, and warrior rule lasted some seven centuries. In the Sengoku period, roughly 1467 to 1600, the Ashikaga shogunate lost its authority and the country was divided among warring daimyo, the feudal lords who fought for supremacy.³

Oda Nobunaga began the unification of Japan and Toyotomi Hideyoshi completed it in 1590; Tokugawa Ieyasu, the victor of Sekigahara, founded the shogunate that governed Japan until 1868. The Meiji Restoration of that year overthrew the shogunate and restored direct imperial rule, and the Empire of Japan that it created ended when the postwar constitution came into force in 1947.⁴

On this site Japan counts for every battle fought by the Japanese warrior clans, shogunates and the Toyotomi regime, and by the Empire of Japan, including civil wars such as Sekigahara in which both armies were Japanese.

Hand-colored 1855 map of the Japanese islands with provinces in pink, yellow, green and blue, a decorative scroll border, an inset of Hokkaido and the Kuril Islands at top left and an inset of Nagasaki at bottom right. — Joseph Hutchins Colton's map Japan: Nippon, Kiusiu, Sikok, Yesso and the Japanese Kuriles (New York, 1855), drawn from Siebold's maps and the surveys of Perry's expedition: the provinces of Tokugawa Japan at the moment the country was opened to the West. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Who were the samurai?

The samurai, or bushi, first appear in records of the 10th century as warriors who rose through their skill in archery, swordsmanship and horsemanship, and they dominated Japanese politics from the 12th century until the 19th.⁵

Their road to power ran through the Gempei War between the Taira and Minamoto clans. Minamoto Yoritomo raised a revolt in 1180, and in 1185 the Minamoto destroyed the Taira in the sea battle of Dannoura, where the child emperor Antoku drowned. Yoritomo became shogun in 1192 and ruled from Kamakura, and the Kamakura shogunate lasted until 1333.⁶

The ideal of loyalty to one's lord was formalized as bushido only in the long peace of the Edo period, centuries after the samurai first rode to war. The class lost its privileges when the new imperial government abolished feudalism in 1871.⁷

How did Japan defeat the Mongol invasions?

The Mongol emperor Kublai Khan twice sent invasion fleets against Japan, in 1274 and in 1281, with armies made up largely of Chinese and Korean troops. Both times the main point of attack was Hakata Bay in northern Kyushu, and both times the Kamakura shogunate repelled the invasion.⁸

Typhoons wrecked the invading fleets on both occasions. The Japanese saw the storm of 1281 as a gift from the gods and called it kamikaze, the divine wind, the word later given to the suicide pilots of World War II.⁹

The Sengoku period and the unification of Japan

Firearms changed the wars of the Sengoku period. Portuguese sailors brought the musket to Japan in the early 1540s, and within a decade or two Japanese smiths were making matchlocks in large numbers.¹⁰

Oda Nobunaga used them to begin the military unification of the country. At the Battle of Nagashino in 1575 his relieving army, firing from behind wooden palisades, defeated the cavalry of the Takeda clan, and the battle is often called the first modern battle in Japan because of his use of firearms.¹¹

In 1582 Nobunaga died after an attack by his own vassal, Akechi Mitsuhide. Toyotomi Hideyoshi, born a peasant, defeated Akechi, took over the work of unification and had brought most of Japan under his rule by 1590. His sword hunts disarmed the peasants and fixed the line between warriors and farmers.¹²

Why did Japan invade Korea in 1592?

Hideyoshi meant Korea as the road to China, which he hoped to conquer, and he also wanted to keep his own vassals busy abroad. His battle-hardened armies, equipped with firearms, landed in 1592, but his Britannica biographer Tadachika Kuwata judges Japan's forces entirely inadequate for an undertaking of that size.¹³

The Korean side decided the war at sea. Admiral Yi Sun-sin, whose fleet was ready when the Japanese came, won a run of victories off the southern coast, Hansan Island among them, that cut the Japanese armies in Korea off from supplies and reinforcements. A Ming Chinese army came to Korea's aid, and the invaders were driven back.¹⁴

After peace talks with China broke down, Hideyoshi invaded again in 1597. Yi, demoted on false charges, was restored to command of the few ships left and regained control of the sea, as at Myeongnyang. Hideyoshi died in 1598, the Japanese withdrew, and Yi was killed by a stray bullet off Noryang while pursuing the retreating fleet.¹⁵

Korean painting of a walled town in a mountain valley surrounded by Japanese soldiers with swords and spears, while Korean defenders with colored banners line the walls and a governor sits in the central courtyard. — Byeon Bak, Dongnaebu sunjeoldo (The Martyrs of Dongnae), 1760 (Korea Military Academy Museum): the fall of the Korean fortress town of Dongnae to the Japanese invasion of 1592, painted for its Korean defenders. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

What happened at the Battle of Sekigahara?

Hideyoshi left a young son, Hideyori, and a council of regents that included Tokugawa Ieyasu. On 21 October 1600, in a valley of central Honshu, Ieyasu's Eastern Army fought the Western Army of the Toyotomi loyalists, led by Ishida Mitsunari, and won within hours.¹⁶

The battle turned when Kobayakawa Hideaki attacked Mitsunari's army. The traditional account has him changing sides at about noon after a secret agreement with Ieyasu; a newer theory holds that he fought for the Eastern Army from the start, and the question is still debated.¹⁷

In 1603 the emperor named Ieyasu shogun. Ieyasu outlawed private armies, his successors kept the peace for more than 260 years, and the Tokugawa shogunate ruled Japan until 1868.¹⁸

How did the Meiji Restoration change Japan's military?

The long peace ended under Western pressure. Commodore Matthew Perry of the United States ended Japan's policy of isolation in 1854, and the unequal treaties that followed gave Western nations special privileges, showing how vulnerable Japan was to superior Western firepower.¹⁹

In 1868 young samurai from domains hostile to the Tokugawa overthrew the shogunate and restored direct rule under the young Emperor Meiji. The new government abolished the samurai estate and replaced it with a European-style conscript army, which the old warrior class scorned as an army of conscripted farmers.²⁰

Former samurai rebelled several times in the 1870s. The last and largest rising, the Satsuma Rebellion of 1877, was led by Saigō Takamori, one of the heroes of the Restoration, and was put down by the new army; Saigō died in Kagoshima that September.²¹

Colored lithograph of a bay lined with ranks of American sailors and marines in blue and Japanese samurai, with boats and flags at the shore, warships in the distance and two samurai in broad black hats in the foreground. — Eliphalet M. Brown after Wilhelm Heine, First Landing of Americans in Japan, under Commodore M. C. Perry, at Gore-Hama, July 14th 1853, colored lithograph, 1855 (National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution). CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

The First Sino-Japanese War and the Russo-Japanese War

The two wars that made Japan a great power were fought over Korea. In 1894 and 1895 Japan defeated Qing China on land and at sea, and in the Treaty of Shimonoseki China recognized the independence of Korea and ceded Taiwan, the Pescadores and the Liaodong Peninsula. Russia, France and Germany then forced Japan to give back Liaodong in the Triple Intervention, and Russia took Port Arthur for itself.²²

In 1904 Japan opened war with Russia by a surprise attack on the Russian squadron at Port Arthur, made before war had been declared. Japan won the major battles: Port Arthur surrendered in January 1905 after a siege, the Japanese army decisively defeated the Russians at Mukden, and in May 1905 the fleet of Admiral Togo Heihachiro destroyed the Russian Baltic Fleet at Tsushima. The victories were costly, and losses were high on both sides.²³

President Theodore Roosevelt mediated the Treaty of Portsmouth, signed on 5 September 1905. Russia recognized Japan's dominant position in Korea and handed over its lease of the Liaodong Peninsula with Port Arthur and the southern half of Sakhalin, but Japan received no indemnity. It was the first defeat of a European great power by an Asian state in modern times, and in 1910 Japan annexed Korea.²⁴

Japanese color print of a night sea battle in driving rain: two Russian warships burn in the background while a Japanese destroyer flying the rising sun flag fires torpedoes from the foreground through heavy waves. — The Japanese torpedo destroyers, the Asagiri and Hayadori, attacking the Russian men-of-war, a Japanese chromolithograph published in 1904 during the Russo-Japanese War (Library of Congress). Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Japan in World War I and the war in China

As Britain's ally, Japan declared war on Germany in August 1914 and, alongside a small British force, took the German naval base at Tsingtao (Qingdao) in China after a siege of two months. At the peace of 1919 Japan kept the former German rights in Shandong, which it handed back to China in 1922, and took over Germany's islands in Micronesia.²⁵

In September 1931 Japanese soldiers provoked an incident on the South Manchurian Railway near Mukden as a pretext, and the army occupied Manchuria; in 1932 Japan set up the puppet state of Manchukuo there. In July 1937 a clash at the Marco Polo Bridge near Beijing began a full-scale invasion of China.²⁶

After they took the Chinese capital, Nanjing, on 13 December 1937, Japanese troops killed and raped on a mass scale for weeks. Estimates of the Chinese dead run into the hundreds of thousands and remain disputed. The army also forced women, most of them from Korea, into sexual slavery in military brothels; estimates of the number of these so-called comfort women run up to 200,000.²⁷

Why did Japan attack Pearl Harbor?

The war in China set Japan against the United States, the main supplier of the oil and steel its army needed. When Japanese troops moved into French Indochina in 1941, the United States froze Japanese assets and cut Japan off from American oil.²⁸

Japan's leaders chose war rather than give up their conquests. On 7 December 1941 Japanese carrier aircraft made a surprise attack on the US fleet at Pearl Harbor, and Japanese forces struck Dutch, British and American possessions across Southeast Asia and the Pacific in a southern advance meant to secure the region's resources.²⁹

Why did Japan lose World War II?

The tide turned at Midway in June 1942, where American dive bombers destroyed the four large carriers Akagi, Kaga, Soryu and Hiryu, all of which had taken part in the attack on Pearl Harbor. The Japanese evacuated Guadalcanal in February 1943, and from then on Japan was on the defensive.³⁰

At Leyte Gulf in October 1944 the Imperial Japanese Navy sent most of its remaining battleships, cruisers and carriers against the American landings in the Philippines and was beaten; the battle destroyed it as an effective fighting force.³¹

The American landings on Iwo Jima in February 1945 and on Okinawa in April brought the war to the doorstep of the home islands. On Okinawa somewhere between 70,000 and 90,000 Japanese soldiers died, and as many as 150,000 Okinawan civilians may have died with them. On Saipan and Okinawa many soldiers and civilians killed themselves rather than be captured.³²

The United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima on 6 August and on Nagasaki on 9 August 1945, and on 8 August the Soviet Union declared war and invaded Manchuria. Japan accepted the Allied terms on 14 August, Emperor Hirohito broadcast the surrender on 15 August, and the instrument of surrender was signed aboard USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on 2 September 1945.³³

The cost to Japan was enormous. Historian Yoshida Yutaka estimates about 3.1 million Japanese deaths in the war of 1937 to 1945, 2.3 million of them military, and argues that most of the soldiers died of disease and starvation rather than in combat; Britannica counts some 2 million Japanese killed by military action, nearly 700,000 of them civilians, and hundreds of thousands more dead of disease or starvation. Whether the atomic bombs were needed to force the surrender is still debated by historians.³⁴

Black and white aerial photograph of a towering column of smoke rising from a dark plain and spreading into a mushroom-shaped cloud. — The cloud over Hiroshima after the atomic bombing of 6 August 1945, photographed from one of the US Army Air Forces aircraft of the mission by George R. Caron (US National Archives). Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Does Japan have an army today?

Under the Allied occupation the Imperial Army and Navy were disbanded and Japan was disarmed. In Article 9 of the new constitution, in force from 3 May 1947, the Japanese people renounce war as a sovereign right, and land, sea and air forces are never to be maintained.³⁵

In 1954 Japan nonetheless set up the Ground, Maritime and Air Self-Defense Forces. Its governments read Article 9 as allowing the minimum force necessary for self-defense, and Japanese still debate whether the article was imposed by the occupation or chosen by Japanese leaders shocked by the war.³⁶

Famous Japanese commanders

Oda Nobunaga began the unification of Japan and won at Nagashino with massed firearms; Toyotomi Hideyoshi completed it and sent his armies into Korea; Tokugawa Ieyasu won at Sekigahara and founded the last shogunate. Saigō Takamori helped to overthrow the Tokugawa and then led the last great samurai rebellion. Admiral Togo Heihachiro commanded the main fleet against Russia, and Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, commander in chief of the Combined Fleet, was at sea with the main body at Midway. Their great opponents included the Korean admiral Yi Sun-sin and the Americans Chester Nimitz and Douglas MacArthur. Our ranking of the greatest commanders of feudal Japan covers the samurai era in more depth.³⁷

Major battles in Japanese history, era by era

Every battle we have written up in which Japanese clans, the Toyotomi regime or the Empire of Japan took part, from Nagashino and the invasions of Korea to Tsushima, Midway and Okinawa, grouped by era and in date order:

The early modern era 1492 to 1789 · 5

1575
Battle of Nagashino, 1575Oda-Tokugawa alliance vs Takeda clan
How Oda Nobunaga's massed gunners behind palisades shattered the Takeda cavalry at Nagashino in 1575.
1592
Battle of Hansan Island, 1592Joseon Korea vs Japan (Toyotomi regime)
In August 1592 Admiral Yi Sun-sin lured a Japanese squadron out of a narrow strait near Tongyeong and destroyed it off Hansan Island in a crane-wing formation.
1597
Battle of Myeongnyang, 1597Joseon Korea vs Japan (Toyotomi regime)
In 1597 Admiral Yi Sun-sin, freshly released from prison, held the Myeongnyang strait with 13 ships against a far larger Japanese fleet. What really happened?
1598
Battle of Noryang, 1598Joseon Korea and Ming China vs Japan (Toyotomi regime)
In December 1598 Joseon and Ming fleets under Yi Sun-sin and Chen Lin fought Japan's fleet in the Noryang strait. Yi fell, and the Imjin War came to an end.
1600
The Battle of Sekigahara, 1600Eastern Army (Tokugawa) vs Western Army (Ishida)
Two coalitions of samurai, a valley in the fog, and one betrayal that decided Japan for 250 years.

The industrial age 1815 to 1914 · 5

1904
Battle of Chemulpo Bay, 1904Empire of Japan vs Russian Empire
On 9 February 1904 the Russian cruiser Varyag and gunboat Korietz sailed out of neutral Chemulpo to fight a Japanese squadron. Beaten in an hour, they came back and were scuttled.
1904
Battle of the Yellow Sea, 1904Empire of Japan (Combined Fleet) vs Russian Empire (Port Arthur squadron)
On 10 August 1904 Togo's fleet caught the Russian squadron escaping from Port Arthur; a hit on the Tsesarevich's bridge killed Admiral Vitgeft and broke the Russian line.
1904
Battle of Liaoyang, 1904Empire of Japan (Manchurian Army) vs Russian Empire (Manchurian Army)
In late August 1904 Oyama's three armies attacked Kuropatkin's larger army at Liaoyang; when Kuroki crossed the Taitzu, the Russians retreated to Mukden.
1905
Battle of Mukden, 1905Empire of Japan vs Russian Empire
For three weeks in 1905 half a million men fought along a front of 150 kilometers in Manchuria. Oyama tried to encircle Kuropatkin's armies at Mukden; the Russians escaped the trap but lost the battle.
1905
Battle of Tsushima, 1905Japan vs Russia
How Admiral Togo crossed the T and annihilated a Russian fleet that had sailed halfway around the world.

World War II 1939 to 1945 · 24

1941
Second Battle of Changsha, 1941Empire of Japan (11th Army) vs Republic of China (9th War Area)
In September 1941 Anami's 11th Army broke the Chinese river lines and entered Changsha on the 27th, then fell back; both sides claimed the battle.
1941
The Attack on Pearl Harbor, 1941Empire of Japan vs United States
How a surprise strike on 7 December 1941 pulled the United States into World War II.
1941
Battle of Wake Island, 1941United States vs Empire of Japan
In December 1941 Marines, sailors and civilians on Wake beat off a Japanese landing and sank two destroyers before a second assault took the atoll.
1941
Battle of Hong Kong, 1941British Empire (British, Canadian, Indian and local Hong Kong forces) vs Empire of Japan
From 8 to 25 December 1941 British, Canadian, Indian and local troops held Hong Kong against Japan's 23rd Army, until the colony surrendered on Christmas Day.
1942
Battle of Bataan, 1942United States and Philippine Commonwealth vs Empire of Japan
From January to April 1942 Filipino and American troops held the Bataan peninsula against Japan's 14th Army, until hunger and disease forced their surrender.
1942
Battle of Makassar Strait, 1942ABDA naval force (Netherlands, United States) vs Empire of Japan
On 4 February 1942 Japanese bombers caught Doorman's Dutch and American cruisers on their way to the Makassar Strait. Marblehead was crippled, Houston lost a turret and the raid was called off.
1942
The Guadalcanal Campaign, 1942 to 1943Allies (United States, with Australia) vs Empire of Japan
Six months of land, sea and air battles for one jungle airfield turned the Pacific War.
1942
Battle of the Java Sea, 1942Empire of Japan vs ABDA Combined Striking Force
On 27 February 1942 Karel Doorman led a mixed Allied squadron out of Surabaya to stop the invasion of Java. By midnight he had lost two cruisers, three destroyers and his life, and the convoy sailed on.
1942
Second Battle of the Java Sea, 1942Empire of Japan vs United Kingdom and United States
On 1 March 1942 the crippled cruiser Exeter and two destroyers tried to escape from Java. Four Japanese heavy cruisers caught them north of the island, and by afternoon all three ships were gone.
1942
Battle of Corregidor, 1942United States and Philippine Commonwealth vs Empire of Japan
In May 1942 Japanese troops stormed Corregidor, the fortress island at the mouth of Manila Bay, and Wainwright surrendered; Americans retook it in 1945.
1942
The Battle of the Coral Sea, 1942Allies (United States and Australia) vs Empire of Japan
The first carrier duel in history, fought entirely by aircraft over the horizon.
1942
The Battle of Midway, 1942United States vs Empire of Japan
Broken codes, an ambush, and five minutes of dive bombers that sank four Japanese carriers and turned the Pacific.
1942
Battle of the Tenaru, 1942United States vs Empire of Japan
On 21 August 1942 Colonel Ichiki's detachment charged the Marine line at the mouth of the Ilu on Guadalcanal and was wiped out in a single day.
1942
Carlson's Long Patrol, 1942United States Marine Corps vs Empire of Japan
From 6 November to 4 December 1942 Carlson's raiders hunted retreating Japanese through Guadalcanal's jungle: 150 miles, a dozen fights, and a heavy toll from disease.
1943
Battle of the Komandorski Islands, 1943United States vs Empire of Japan
On 26 March 1943 a small US force fought Japan's Fifth Fleet for hours in the Bering Sea. Salt Lake City was stopped dead in the water, yet the Japanese turned away and took their convoy home.
1943
The Battle of Tarawa, 1943United States (Marines) vs Empire of Japan
Seventy-six hours on a tiny atoll, and the bloody schooling of amphibious war.
1944
Battle of Imphal, 1944British Empire (British Indian Army) vs Empire of Japan (with the Indian National Army)
From March to July 1944 mostly Indian troops of IV Corps held the Imphal plain against Japan's U-Go offensive, until hunger and monsoon broke the attackers.
1944
The Battle of Kohima, 1944British Empire (British and Indian forces) vs Empire of Japan
At Kohima the front line ran across a tennis court.
1944
The Battle of Peleliu, 1944United States (Marines and Army) vs Empire of Japan
Promised as a three-day fight, Peleliu became two months of agony on Bloody Nose Ridge.
1944
Battle of Leyte Gulf, 1944United States and Australia vs Empire of Japan
The largest naval battle in history, four huge actions off the Philippines that broke the Imperial Japanese Navy.
1945
Battle of Manila, 1945United States and Philippine Commonwealth vs Empire of Japan
From 3 February to 3 March 1945 US and Filipino forces retook Manila from Iwabuchi's garrison. Intramuros was razed and about 100,000 civilians died.
1945
Battle of Iwo Jima, 1945United States vs Empire of Japan
How US Marines took Iwo Jima in 1945 in one of the Pacific war's bloodiest battles.
1945
The Battle of Okinawa, 1945United States (with Allies) vs Empire of Japan
The bloodiest battle of the Pacific, and its cost shaped how the war with Japan ended.
1945
Battle of Tarakan, 1945Australia, with U.S. and Dutch forces vs Empire of Japan
On 1 May 1945 the 26th Australian Brigade landed on Tarakan to seize an airfield for the Borneo campaign. It took the island at a cost of 225 dead; the strip opened seven weeks late.

Timeline of Japanese military history

1180 to 1185
Gempei War: the Minamoto defeat the Taira, finally at sea off Dannoura.³⁸
1192
Minamoto Yoritomo becomes shogun; the Kamakura shogunate begins.³⁹
1274, 1281
Two Mongol invasions are repelled; typhoons wreck both fleets.⁴⁰
1575
Oda Nobunaga's musketeers defeat the Takeda at Nagashino.⁴¹
1590
Toyotomi Hideyoshi completes the unification of Japan.⁴²
1592
Hideyoshi invades Korea; Yi Sun-sin's fleet cuts the invaders' supply lines.⁴³
1597 to 1598
Second invasion; after Hideyoshi's death the Japanese withdraw.⁴⁴
1600
Tokugawa Ieyasu wins at Sekigahara on 21 October.⁴⁵
1854
Commodore Perry ends Japan's isolation.⁴⁶
1868
The Meiji Restoration overthrows the Tokugawa shogunate.⁴⁷
1877
The Satsuma Rebellion, the last samurai rising, is crushed.⁴⁸
1894 to 1895
Japan defeats Qing China and gains Taiwan.⁴⁹
1904 to 1905
Russo-Japanese War: Mukden, Tsushima and the Treaty of Portsmouth.⁵⁰
1910
Japan annexes Korea.⁵¹
1914
Japan joins World War I and takes Tsingtao.⁵²
1931
The army occupies Manchuria.⁵³
1937
Full-scale war with China; the Nanjing Massacre.⁵⁴
1941
Attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December.⁵⁵
1942
Four Japanese carriers are lost at Midway.⁵⁶
1944
Defeat at Leyte Gulf.⁵⁷
1945
Iwo Jima and Okinawa; the atomic bombs; surrender signed on 2 September.⁵⁸
1947
The postwar constitution renounces war.⁵⁹
1954
The Self-Defense Forces are created.⁶⁰

Memory and further reading

Japan remembers these wars in conflicting ways. Yoshida Yutaka sets the popular image of the war dead as noble heroes against the record of soldiers who died of hunger and disease far from any battlefield. Memories of the war and public opposition have helped keep Article 9 as it was written: as of September 2026 the constitution had never been amended since it took effect in 1947, although leaders of the governing Liberal Democratic Party have long sought to revise it.⁶¹

For the other side of many of these wars, see our guides to the Pacific War, the battles of Korea and the commanders of the Pacific War, our hubs on the United States and Britain, and the matchup samurai vs knight.