Quote:
Originally Posted by Sarge
We cannot blame them for this as every country, including the US had colonies in the East and I believe they were following best practice, i.e. if you cant beat them, join them.
So in the 30's Japan no doubt thought it was following normal practice to expand into Manchuria Japan's Economic Expansion into Manchuria and China in World War Two
I hope I havent ranted on too much but firmly believe that you need to understand the background to any event. I know I have oversimplified some things but to go in depth would require a Novel. |
"Normal?" Hardly. Japan went up against China for the stated purpose of getting them to recognize the soverenty of their Manchuquo puppet. They grabbed Manchuria (administratively seperate from China) from the Russians ostensibly for "living space and resources," yet moved fewer than 15k people there, while by 1941 the iron smelters had yet to reach 50% capacity for want of labor and material.
The wholesale slaughter for Chinese civilians and of captured soldiers was hardly "normal" by any standards but thier own. The contempt that the samurai felt for China as expressed over and again in the media of the 1930s could only be caused by a racisim that few have ever seen.
No, the standard formulas for the Pacific War that have been in the history books for decades are the direct result of the West's revultion over the horrors of the A-bomb. They just don't wash.