Japan's Great War: Pacific Sieges, U-Boats, and the Rise of an Empire

In this episode of pplpod, we dive deep into the often-overlooked history of Japan during World War I. While the trenches of Europe dominated the headlines, the Japanese Empire leveraged the global conflict to expand its sphere of influence and aggressively solidify its status as a world power.

Join us as we explore how Japan joined the Allies to systematically dismantle Imperial Germany's presence in the Pacific and East Asia. We cover the swift capture of German territories in Micronesia and China's Shandong province, as well as the world's first-ever naval-launched air raids from the seaplane-carrier Wakamiya. We also unpack the controversial diplomacy of the era, unpacking the Twenty-One Demands of 1915 that boldly sought to reduce China to a Japanese protectorate.

The action wasn't just in the Pacific. We follow the Imperial Japanese Navy all the way to the Mediterranean, where their Second Special Squadron operated out of Malta, braving German and Austro-Hungarian U-boat attacks to escort over 700,000 Allied troops to safety.

Beyond the battlefield, this episode breaks down the massive economic boom that briefly transformed Japan from a debtor to a creditor nation, only to trigger massive inflation and nationwide rice riots in 1918. Finally, we head to the 1919 Paris Peace Conference to see how Japan secured a permanent seat on the League of Nations Council, yet suffered a stingingly rejected "racial equality clause"—a pivotal event that historians argue turned Japan away from the West and helped spark the rise of Japanese militarism.

Whether you are a dedicated military history buff or looking to better understand 20th-century geopolitics, this comprehensive World War I history podcast episode covers all the vital turning points of Japan's transformative role in the Great War.

Source credit: Research for this episode included Wikipedia articles accessed 3/9/2026. Wikipedia text is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; content here is summarized/adapted in original wording for commentary and educational use.