Japan Invades China (1931-37)

Western incursion into China and Japan is a key factor as to how these countries developed economically and socially. While China and Japan were trying to get on their feet and figure out the standards in which to run their countries, the West was escalating in both power and ambitions. The escalation meant growth in European fire arm power which allowed the European countries to make their way into China and Japan without China and Japan being able to stop them because they were not as strong at this point. However, China and Japan both responded to European influence in very different ways. Under the influence of Western imperialism, China was hindered in the process of structural change and industrialization in their society, where as,

In December of 1937, the Japanese Imperial Army invaded Nanking, China. They killed 300,00 out of the 600,000 people in China’s capital city. The six-week rampage by the Japanese is now known as the Rape of Nanking and the single worst atrocity during WWII era in either the European or Pacific theaters of the war.

The most gruesome tales have come to light by the people who survived the merciless actions of the Japanese soldiers. For instance, Tang Shunsan who witnessed and survived the mass murder of Nanking when he left the safety of his hideout behind due to his simple curiosity. Tang and his fellow shoemaker apprentices hid in their house where they converted the doorway so it looked like “...from the outside, a smooth, unbroken wall”(nanking 2). The Japanese soldiers never would have known he was there had he not ventured out into the open to satiate his curiosities of what a Japanese man looked like. Once discovered, he was taken to a large grave for the Chinese people they had killed, and, “...to Tang’s horror, a competition began among the soldiers-a competition to determine who could kill the fastest”(nanking 3 pg. 85). With luck on his side, Tang survived the competition when “ the soldier decapitated the man directly in front of Tang”(nanking 4) and instead of moving out of the way, “Tang also toppled backwards and dropped, together with the body, into the pit”(nanking

In China, they had to survive, even though the Japanese Army sent out

World War II was a devastating war, whether you were directly in the war zone, or away from the battlefield, you were impacted greatly. Flyboys is a book written by James Bradley, in this book Bradley tells stories of World War II using first-hand accounts. In chapter five, Bradley discusses “The Rape of China” which was a battle that took place in 1937 during the beginning of World War II. In this battle, the Japanese fight the Chinese and destroy China. Both Japan and China had very different moral beliefs on fighting in the war. China believed that the soldiers needed to “be courteous,” and to also be “neither selfish nor unjust” to civilians (Bradley 54). Meanwhile, the Japanese had totally opposite policies known as the “Three Alls” meaning

They took Manchuria and turned it into one of their own states by the name of Manchukuo. After the invasion of Manchuria, in 1937, the Japanese continued their expansion. They took over more of China killing some 300,000 people. By the end of World War II, China would suffer over fourteen million losses. The League of Nations, an early form of the United Nations, highly rebuked these hostile actions.

In the late 1890s, tensions between China and Japan were growing. China’s power was growing into the early 1900s as it converted to Nationalism. Japan felt the need to expand and conquer because they had been forced into the modern age by the United States, and they believed it was their destiny to exert government over other nations (Chang 23-24). The Japanese felt the need to do something before China became “too powerful to be conquered” (Chang 28-29). This put Japan on the path to war with China (Chang 25).

The invasion of Manchuria was a Japanese invasion that tried to expand japan. When japan attack china they attacked our oil imports on china. So when embargoed all oil exports in that area, which led them to attack pearl harbor. Which is the immediate cause of the U.S. joining WWII.(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Events_leading_to_the_attack_on_Pearl_Harbor)This was a geographic issue.

In three days, the Japanese had reached the edges of the city. After the forces surrendered to the Japanese, the Kill All Order was initiated, where all POWs are to be executed, and in this instance, specifically the Chinese that surrendered in Nanking.

“Japanese forces had been fighting in China sing July 1937 and by 1940 had taken over much of Southeast Asia. Japan’s next targets

Japan started a campaign into China taking land. Japan pushed and took many supply ports on

The invasion of Manchuria was a pivotal point leading towards the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as well as the build- up of the tension between America and Japan. The minor engagement between the Chinese and Japanese troops conclusively led to undeclared war between the two nations. With China torn apart by revolution in the 1920s, Japan 's militarists viewed China, and in particular, its resource-rich northern

The real beginning of the tension between America and Japan began during WWI. In 1915, Japan issued “Twenty-One demands” to China’s government. These demands included giving Japan control over Chinese ports, increasing Japan’s leasehold on the South Manchuria Railway Zone for 99 years, handing over rights to settle and commercialize Manchuria and Inner Mongolia, give control of the Hanyeping mining complex to Japan, barring China to give any coastal or territorial concessions to foreign powers, excluding Japan.

But one time, a Calvary of Mongolians crossed the border of Manchuria to find some grass to feed their horses. The Japanese attacked the small unit, and drove the Mongols out. Then the Mongolian unit brought an army into Manchuria, but this time Japan was not able to defend against them. The Mongolians, with the Soviets, were too strong for the Japanese to defeat them and the Japanese got surrounded. Eight officers were killed along with ninety-seven soldiers, and one officer was wounded along with thirty-three soldiers on May 28. (Young) The Japanese were miserably defeated by the Soviet Union, but that did not convince the Japanese to stop attacking.

The Second Sino-Japanese war began on July 7th, 1937 and ended on September 9th, 1945. It was a military conflict which was fought between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. As part of the struggle against fascism, Japan invaded China. It is clear that, due to the restriction of its natural resources, Japan tried to increase by robbing resources from other countries. Japan used the conquered Manchuria as a launching base for their troops. Manchuria was an enormous region that consisted of three provinces- Liaoning in the south, Jilin in the middle and Heilongjiang in the north. In 1905, when Japan defeated Russia in the Russo-Japanese war, Russia, which used Manchuria for business and