AS from 1868 CE onwards, the whites were welcomed in Japan as military advisors to Emperors because they could provide their armies with superior weapons to those of their neighbours in the region.
Japan became a student of Imperialism and white missionaries who were also soldiers were sent regularly to corrupt Japan’s leadership.
The Japanese began intensive ideological studies pertaining to the military, political, technological, social and economic sectors. This pattern of deliberate borrowing from a culture which the Japanese deemed superior to them had once already taken place in the 7th and 8th Century when Japan studied and copied the Chinese civilisation of that time. This was Japan’s classical period and it bears testament to the closeness between China and Japan in ancient times.
This time, the direction of civilisation that the Japanese had taken was to have devastating effects on the nations of East Asia. Japan identified the rest of the East Asian nations as weak, and itself strong, because they were strategically acquiring western weapons and ideology.
Very quickly Japan was transformed into an ambitious and proud military power and was now drawing up plans of world dominion.
We looked at how Japan attacked Korea in 1894 CE. The war ended up in China after the Chinese intervened on Korea’s side and this led to the signing of the Treaty of Shimonoseki after China’s defeat. In 1910 CE, Japan attacked Korea again and this time succeeded in making it a colony. The Koreans are kinsmen of the Han people of China though their spoken language is more similar to that of the Japanese because the two nations are next to each other.
When Japan colonised Korea, there was no division between North and South Korea and the people were one. The division came after the eventual defeat of Japan in the Second World War. The Soviet Union rushed to claim the north of Korea and the USA claimed South Korea. The political borders and different systems of the European colonial powers in Korea led to a previously non-existent, but now continued division between the Koreans of the North and the Koreans of the South.
The effects of Japan’s invasions on its neighbours not only cost Korea its independence, but also led to the annexation of former Japanese colonial territory like the Philippines, China, Cambodia, Vietnam and Myanmar by the Western nations after Japan’s defeat. This would later lead to wars such as the USA – Vietnam War in the mid 1900s CE.
In 1919 CE, after the Pan-European war which is referred to as the First World War, there was a meeting of many nations in France, which ended with the formation of the League of Nations. The League of Nations was a predecessor of the United Nations and was supposedly formed to prevent the world slipping into another war. Before this, the west was seen as a strategic partner, but after the League of Nations period, the west was viewed by Japan as an enemy and a competitor.
After 1919 CE, Japanese militarism increased significantly, this time with a strong anti-western drive. In the end of the 1920’s CE, Japan undertook a military plan of world annexation which was based on a book called ‘The Tanaka Memorial – Japan’s dream of World Empire’ by Baron Tanaka in 1927 CE. The plan was to prepare the Japanese for war and to buy and produce advanced weapons and war vehicles such as planes and tanks for world conquest.
The Tanaka Memorial said the first course of action Japan was prescribed to take was to conquer China for land, resources and manpower.
In 1931 CE, Japan invaded Manchuria as planned and set it ablaze. A few months after the invasion of Manchu, the Japanese invaded the Chinese city of Shanghai. Shanghai was a popular port city inhabited by a large population. Today Shanghai is the biggest city and commercial capital of China. The Japanese attacked Shanghai by way of navy military fleets but were met with great resistance from the Chinese. About a year later the Japanese attacked China from the North and began to take it piece by piece.
In 1937 CE, the Japanese turned Manchu and another province of China into a puppet state which they called Manchukuo. As planned, the Japanese set up a puppet Emperor called Puyi to rule over this area which they planned to increase. The Imperial power of China had been ended by the Dr Sun Yat Sen reforms of 1911 CE. Puyi had been the last Emperor of China and previously abdicated by the 1911 CE reforms. The Chinese remember Puyi as a sellout. In July of 1937 CE, the Japanese attacked the area near Beijing which was then known as Peking, and they proceeded into China’s interior.
The Japanese had not proclaimed a war against China, but rather opted to use excuses to warrant their aggressive actions against China. For example, the Japanese claimed that they only invaded Manchu because their train was bombed. The Japanese also claimed that they attacked Beijing because they allegedly heard gunshots, a Japanese soldier went missing and they suspected the Chinese.
In August 1937 CE, the Chinese decided to fight back after the Japanese invaded Shanghai for a second time. After the Opium Wars and the defeat of China by the Western powers, the nations of Britain, France and Japan among others had established an international settlement in Shanghai. The international settlement had troops from the respective countries stationed in Shanghai so as to protect their bases and to guard against Chinese resistance if need arose.
The Japanese secretly broke the treaties signed among the nations, by over-mobilising its troops in the international community. This was in preparation for the Japanese attack on Shanghai. When the Japanese attacked, the Chinese tried to defend themselves with a large army. Japan had underestimated China and was about to be pushed away when it sent reinforcements from the north, south and east of Shanghai.
The Chinese army was forced to retreat after half of them had lost their lives, thus abandoning Shanghai and heading south west. As a statement, the Japanese decided to attack the defenseless civilian population of Shanghai by dropping plane bombs from the sky. Thousands of Chinese people perished in Shanghai on that day and such ruthless warfare had never before been seen.