The military history of Japan is characterized by a long period of feudal wars, followed by domestic stability, and then rampant imperialism. It culminates with Japan's defeat by the Allies in World War II. Since then, Japan's constitution has prohibited the use of military force to wage war against other nations.
Unless one counts the Allied occupation following World War II, the Japanese main islands have never been successfully invaded in recorded history.
Read more about Military History Of Japan: Prehistory, Ancient and Classical Japan, Feudal Japan, Modern Period
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“Personal prudence, even when dictated by quite other than selfish considerations, surely is no special virtue in a military man; while an excessive love of glory, impassioning a less burning impulse, the honest sense of duty, is the first.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
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“I do not know that the United States can save civilization but at least by our example we can make people think and give them the opportunity of saving themselves. The trouble is that the people of Germany, Italy and Japan are not given the privilege of thinking.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)