Seeking raw materials to fuel its growing industries, Japan invaded the Chinese province of Manchuria in 1931. By
The fact is that the war really began in 1931 when an explosion on the South Manchurian Railway near Mukden touched off a well-planned invasion of Manchuria. Japan struck in 1931 because China was becoming united. China's new armies, however, were neither well enough trained nor well enough equipped to resist Japan.
Japan believed it had a sovereign right to rule, to become the “Light of Greater East Asia” and ultimately the “Light of the World”. The Japanese felt that by conceding ground their country would be humiliating itself in front of the world.
The conflict is often termed the second Sino-Japanese War, and known in China as the War of Resistance to Japan. There are arguments that the conflict began with the invasion of Manchuria in 1931, but between 1937 and 1945, China and Japan were at total war.
September 29, 1972: Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka said to the people of the People's Republic of China: "The Japanese side is keenly conscious of the responsibility for the serious damage that Japan caused in the past to the Chinese people through war, and deeply reproaches itself.
The war in China, 1937–41
In 1931–32 the Japanese had invaded Manchuria (Northeast China) and, after overcoming ineffective Chinese resistance there, had created the Japanese-controlled puppet state of Manchukuo.
Japan had possession of roughly 25% of China's enormous territory and more than a third of its entire population.
One of Japan's main goals during World War II was to remove the United States as a Pacific power in order to gain territory in east Asia and the southwest Pacific islands.
According to Rummel, in China alone, from 1937 to 1945, approximately 3.9 million Chinese were killed, mostly civilians, as a direct result of the Japanese operations and a total of 10.2 million Chinese were killed in the course of the war.
Japanese occupation in most of Asia was brutal across their period of rule. In 1937 the Japanese took the Chinese capital of Nanjing, and in 1945 they retreated from the Filipino capital of Manila.
The Japanese were brutal colonizers. Japanese soldiers expected civilians in occupied territories to bow respectfully in their presence. When civilians neglected to do this they were viciously slapped. Chinese men who showed up late for meetings were beaten with sticks.
Some Japanese think that the Nanjing Massacre was committed by people before them, and later generations do not have to bear the blame. They think that denying or erasing the history of the Nanjing Massacre helps maintain Japan's dignity, while acknowledging and apologizing for it is an action of "self-abuse."
Japan waged an undeclared war on China from July 7, 1937, and China resisted that undeclared war without technically announcing the existence of a state of war until December 9, 1941, when the text of the declaration was issued by Lin Sen, President of the Chinese Republic.
China had been at war with Japan since 1937 and continued the fight until the Japanese surrender in 1945. The United States advised and supported China's ground war, while basing only a few of its own units in China for operations against Japanese forces in the region and Japan itself.
Japan is forbidden by its own Constitution from having an “ army”, but it is allowed to have a “self defence force”. Global firepower ranks Germany's ARMY ( armed forces actually) as the world's 9th best military. Japan's non-army is rated the 7th best military in the world.
The previous spring Japan in fact had almost experienced a military coup. As he mulled it over, Hitler envisaged an alliance with Tokyo primarily for what it meant in the struggle against “Jewish” Bolshevism.
Japan had the best army, navy, and air force in the Far East. In addition to trained manpower and modern weapons, Japan had in the mandated islands a string of naval and air bases ideally located for an advance to the south.
Japan's economic growth after the 1940s was based on unprecedented expansion of industrial production and the development of an enormous domestic market, as well as on an aggressive export trade policy.
To be clear, China could not have won the war on its own. The defeat of Japan was dependent on western, and in particular, American finance, military support and supplies (although western ground troops did not fight in China).
In September 1945, China's long and bloody war with Japan finally came to an end - millions had died and thousands of foreigners were held in internment camps.
China entered into diplomatic relations with Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Bangladesh and Maldives in Southeast Asia and South Asia, seven countries including Iran, Turkey and Kuwait in West Asia and the Middle East and five countries in South Pacific such as Fiji and Papua New Guinea.
Was China colonized by any country? Yes, China was colonized directly by Britain, Portugal, Russia, and China. Many other countries had control over trade in much of China.
Because they couldn't, Chinese armies was keeping fighting with them. Japanese were basically drag into Pacific War by Chinese armies in fact, before the attack of Pearl Hobour, Japanese only had six month oils and steel supply on keep fighting with Chinese, They were already losing.
How did China lose so many in WW2? China lost many people in WW2 because they were invaded by Japan. Japan was able to conquer a large part of China and had control of a decent amount of the larger Chinese cities of the time.