Japan's Militarism and Aggression Japan is an island country located in East Asia and has a long history of friendly exchanges with China. However, in the 40s of the 19th century, the eastern expansion of the Western powers broke the peace between the two countries and forced Japan to follow the opposite path of China.
China was forced to open its doors by Western artillery and became a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society, while Japan borrowed from the capitalist system of the West and carried out the Meiji Restoration, industrialization and modernization.
However, the rapid development of industry also brought about economic crises and bottlenecks, and in order to alleviate the turmoil at home, Japan began to adopt a policy of external expansion, taking China, the Korean Peninsula and other parts of Asia as the targets of its aggression and plunder, of which China was the most important one.
In 1874, under the pretext of killing the Japanese by the residents of Taiwan, Japan sent troops to land in Taiwan, carried out a bloody battle, and finally forced China to pay 500,000 taels in compensation, ending the adventure.
In 1894, the Japanese Navy suddenly attacked the Qing Dynasty's navy, and then officially declared war, triggering the "Sino-Japanese War". The Qing Dynasty's Beiyang Naval Division was defeated by Japan's modern navy and was completely annihilated, and the Qing Dynasty was forced to sign the Treaty of Shimonoseki, ceding the Liaodong Peninsula, Taiwan and the Penghu Islands, compensating 200 million taels**, and opening a number of treaty ports and privileges.
In 1900, Japan united with other Western powers to form the Eight-Nation Alliance, invaded Beijing, burned the Old Summer Palace, and forced the Qing Dynasty to sign the "Xinchou Treaty" the following year, and obtained the privilege of stationing troops along the Shanhai Pass, laying the foundation for further invasion of China in the future.
In 1904, Japan provoked the Russo-Japanese War, defeated **, received all the colonial interests of ** in China, and occupied the three northeastern provinces. During World War I, Japan took the opportunity to join the Allied side and seize the German leased territory in Shandong.
After the end of World War I, the United States, Britain and other Western powers finally realized Japan's ambition to dominate China, so they convened the Nine-Power Pact in an attempt to divide the interests in China equally and limit Japan's expansion space.
In order to compete for more interests, Japan established the Kwantung Army, which was specifically responsible for the war of aggression against China, which was Japan's first colonial army. In 1927, Tanaka Yoshiichi became the prime minister of Japan, he was a fanatical warmaker, and after taking office, he put forward the main task of developing to the mainland, and did not hesitate to use force to achieve his goals.
After occupying the three northeastern provinces, Japan wanted to use this as a springboard to further occupy China, conquer Asia, resist the Soviet Union in the north, and eventually dominate the world. As a result, the September 18 Incident in 1931 and the full-scale war of aggression against China in 1937 occurred.
Japan's Pearl Harbor Attack and the Pacific War On December 7, 1941, the Japanese Navy launched a surprise attack on the U.S. Pearl Harbor military base in Hawaii at dawn, killing thousands of U.S. troops, destroying more than 200 planes and several battleships and destroyers, and then Japan declared war on the United States.
Japan's action also drew the United States into the whirlpool of World War II, why did Japan dare to challenge a superpower?This is because Japan has a strong military and is able to support multi-front operations.
Japan's Military Service System and Military Quality Japan is a country that implements a military service system, starting from 1873, with reference to the German military service system, it is stipulated that all men over the age of 20 must serve, during the service, first in service, then in the reserve, then in the first reserve, and finally in the second reserve, different reserve forces have different combat tasks and training requirements.
In order to encourage people to join the army, Japan has also introduced some preferential policies, such as tax reductions and exemptions, increased food, and reduced exemption fees. Especially for those young people in poor rural areas, the Japanese army provided a high standard of food, such as pork and beef, which was a huge ** for those farmers who usually did not have enough to eat. Under such a policy, Japan established a standing army of nearly 500,000 men on land and sea and became the vanguard of aggression.
Japanese soldiers have undergone rigorous training and have superb military qualities, whether they are infantry, artillery, aviation, or bombers, they all have excellent performance. The Japanese infantry used the Type 38 rifle, a rifle with a dust cap and bayonet with a small recoil that was suitable for stabbing and shooting. Japanese artillery had a quantitative and qualitative superiority and was able to suppress enemy fire. Japan's air forces and bombers had air supremacy and were able to bomb the enemy at any time.
Japanese soldiers were also influenced by "bushido" and militarism, and had a spirit of fearlessness for death, and the enemies they fought with felt "like fighting the dead." On the frontal battlefield, the Japanese soldiers were able to win more with less and were overwhelmed, while the enemy troops could only resist hard and pay a heavy price.