Is it true that the Empire of Japan was the strongest maritime empire in the world and owned a quarter of the world at its peak? No, that's not true: At its peak, the British Empire controlled a quarter of the globe, dwarfing the territorial extent of the Empire of Japan during World War II, which comprised only 5 percent of the world's landmass. The pre-eminent maritime power, the British Empire, retained its status as the largest, commanding a quarter of the world's landmass.
The claim appeared on TikTok (archived here) by user @nazo_rekishi on March 20, 2024. In comments (translated from Japanese to English by Lead Stories staff), the narrator of the video explains that textbooks have erased the fact that the Empire of Japan was the largest and strongest maritime power during World War II, owning a quarter of the world:
The strongest maritime nation: the Empire of Japan. During WWII, the Empire of Japan owned 1/4 of the world's vast territories
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Sat Mar 23 20:31:09 2024 UTC)
As a maritime nation, the British Empire, which possessed a quarter of the world's landmass, surpassed the Empire of Japan in territorial extent. Throughout World War II, the British Empire governed a quarter of the world's landmass (archived here), whereas the Empire of Japan, at its zenith, commanded approximately 2.8 million square miles (archived here), constituting roughly 5 percent of the world's entire landmass.
