INTRODUCTION

As the history of blockades over the years has shown, the success of any economic blockade depends, to a large extent, upon several key factors – factors that vary with the domestic resources and the geographic location of the nation that the blockade is directed against and the military resources at the disposal of the blockading power. First, “the economy of the blockaded power must be vulnerable” – given the resource and industrial base, a naval blockade directed against the United States, for example, would be almost certain to fail. Second, the blockading nation must have sufficient military power to have control of sea and land routes that connect the enemy with other nations; and, thus, enable it “to cut off the supply of goods to its enemy from outside his border.” Third, “the blockading power must be able,” either through military force or diplomatic pressure, “to secure the acquiescence or cooperation of neutral powers” that might be able to supply the blockaded country from overseas. In summary, then, economic warfare, to be successful, depends “on the ability to restrict an enemy's economy to a small and known stock of basic resources.” The blockade of Japan was successful because that country had been “driven back from her imperial outposts to the limited economic base of the Home Islands and Korea.” By the end of 1943, the United States and its allies had sufficient naval and air power to effectively enforce such a blockade.