Why did the Japanese invade China?

Why did Japan embark on the road of aggression? We can find the answer from the development history of Japan.

Throughout the historical development of Japan, foreign aggression, especially the attempt to conquer China and control East Asia, has always been the basic strategy. After Japan's reunification, when its strength was insufficient, it mobilized some samurai and ronin to burn, kill and plunder China's coastal areas during the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, which China called the enemy. /kloc-in the 4th century, Qi Jiguang, an anti-Japanese general, fought bloody battles to destroy the enemy.

Later, Toyotomi Hideyoshi ① once said to Oda Xintai ②: If you want to reward me, you are willing to invite North Korea. I used North Korean soldiers to enter the Ming Dynasty, swept the Ming Dynasty by relying on monarchical power, and merged the three countries into one. This is also my ambition. The headquarters invaded Korea twice and were defeated by the Chinese and Korean people. By the 1990s of 18, Ben Doming's Journey to the Western Regions strongly advocated the invasion of kamchatka peninsula, Sakhalin Island and Manchuria.

1803 also put forward On Trade, arguing that plundering wealth in the form of war should become Japan's national policy. 1823, Saito's cell cabinet formulated a secret policy of chaos in the house, and proposed that "the world should know the county of the imperial kingdom." All the monarchs in the world are subjects of the emperor ... It all started with the annexation of China. "How ambitious is this sea snake? Not only to swallow China, but also to swallow the whole world and take all the wealth between people as your own! " Empire is the first country between heaven and earth and the foundation of all countries in the world, so it is self-evident that the empire dominates the "justice" of all countries in the world. According to this "law of nature", Japan should first annex Manchuria, then bring all the territory of China into Japanese territory, and then March into India from Southeast Asia to merge with other countries in the world. In the 1950s, in 19, Yoshida Shōin advocated: once the ship was fully armed, it would cut Manchuria in the north and take Taiwan Province Province and Luzon Island in the south. He also shouted: Make peace with Russia and the United States, and take this opportunity to cultivate national strength and plunder North Korea, Manchuria and China instead. "Russia-US trade losses can also be made up by a slight visit to Manchuria. "

1On July 25th, 927, Tanaka Yoshiichi put forward an extremely explicit aggressive plan "Manchu-Mongolian positive policy", which was called "Tanaka Memorial" in history. The main content of this secret document is to expound the principles and policies of aggression against China. The general strategy of Japanese new world policy put forward by Tanaka Memorial is: "If you want to conquer China, you must conquer Manchuria first, and if you want to conquer the world, you must conquer China first." After acquiring the resources of China, Japan "can further conquer India, Southeast Asia, Asia Minor and even Europe." "The Yamato people have shown their talents in the Asian continent, and mastering the rights of Manchuria and Mongolia is the first key."

"Tanaka Memorial" proposed that Japan "should explore the rich resources of Manchuria and Mongolia to cultivate the lasting prosperity of the empire." To this end, Japan must do everything possible to obtain land lease rights, railway construction rights, mining rights, forest rights, foreign trade rights, shipping rights, financial rights and so on. Japanese people freely enter and leave Manchuria; Set up Japanese political, financial and military advisers and instructors; Vigorously reward North Korean immigrants; Send soldiers into Mongolia to control the old prince. In order to manage the affairs of Manchuria and Mongolia, the Japanese government should set up a colonial province, that is, the colonial department. "The Memorial of Tanaka" holds that "Japan can get rid of the East Asian predicament except adopting the policy of" blood and iron ""If you want to control China in the future, you must destroy the power of the United States as the premise "and" you must fight with the United States ".In the near future, there will be conflicts with the red Russia in northern Manchuria. "Therefore, Japan plans to quickly build several railways with strategic value" for military purposes ",integrate Manchuria and Korea, and strengthen the economic plunder of northeast China.

The invasion steps put forward in The Memorial of Tanaka are: the first stage to capture Taiwan Province Province, the second stage to capture Korea, the third stage to capture Manchuria, the fourth stage to conquer all China, and the fifth stage to conquer the whole world. The memorial reads: "The first conquest of Taiwan Province Province and the second conquest of Korea have all been realized. Only the third stage of conquering Manchuria conquers all the land of China, ... has not been completed. " They hope to put forward specific methods of invading China. Later, according to this plan, Japanese militarism adopted the policy of "iron-bloodism", that is, armed aggression, and constantly expanded and strengthened the scope and influence of aggression in northeast China through a series of forms of aggression such as "trade", "immigration", "development", "railway management" and "factory management". It was not until the "September 18th Incident" was launched in 1930s that the northeast of China was occupied by force and the puppet Manchukuo regime was created. Then, the "July 7th Incident" was launched to launch an armed war of aggression against China in an all-round way. All this shows that since the "Oriental Conference", Tanaka's evil aggression plan has gradually become a reality for Japanese imperialist aggression.

From the analysis of economic situation. From 65438 to 0929, the world economic crisis broke out, which greatly impacted the United States and Europe, and the economy regressed for decades. The Japanese economy has also been greatly affected. From 1929 to 1932, the whole world fell into a miserable situation. Because China's economy is mainly a small-scale peasant economy, it is less affected. Japan, on the other hand, has taken four measures to deal with this crisis, one is the depreciation of the yen, the other is the decline of the wage index, the third is the low interest rate, and the fourth is the expansion of military expenditure and the scale of the arms industry. At the same time, out of economic and territorial needs, the Japanese brazenly invaded the three northeastern provinces of China.

From 193 1 to 1936, Japan, which was highly militarized and greatly stimulated by the September 18th Incident, began a large-scale military expansion. Japan's official military orders reached 7 billion yen, and the profits of the top ten private military enterprises such as Mitsubishi, Kawasaki, Urawa Shipyard, Nissan and Japan Nitrogen Production increased by an average of 48%. Japan calls it "military prosperity". Military expenditure reached 35% to 47% in 193 1- 1936, while civil engineering and public utilities only accounted for 8%- 15%. But behind this apparent "arms boom" is the danger of quenching thirst by drinking poison. Although military industry can also stimulate production, its products can only be consumed in the war (unless it is a pillar industry for arms export), and it can neither be reduced to capital and transferred to society for reproduction, nor can it improve people's purchasing power and preserve or develop resources. Unless we wage war and plunder other countries' financial, human and material resources. There is only one reason for choosing this road, and that is that Japan has been preparing for a total war.

Correspondingly, in 1932, the Japanese government issued deficit bonds for the first time, totaling 383 million yen, accounting for 17.4% of the annual revenue. The exchange rate of Japanese yen against the US dollar dropped from 100: 50 of 1932 to 100: 25 of 1933. In the same year (1932), Japan issued 310 billion yen of military bonds. By 1935, Japan's national income was145.3 billion yen, and the government's central fiscal expenditure was 5.7 billion yen. Correspondingly, the annual general national income is 166.5 yen, and the expenditure of ordinary citizens in Tokyo to maintain the minimum living standard is 109.2 yen per person per year. The standard of living in rural areas is even worse.

This situation is unsustainable. Because Japan's national strategy is to conquer occupation with military strength, and it has a huge imperial army and fleet, as well as land, sea and air forces, it is difficult to last economically. Although Japan forced the Kuomintang government to make concessions that humiliated its sovereignty on the issue of autonomy of five provinces in North China, its goal was not just North China, but the whole of China and Asia. Coupled with the contempt for China's military strength, the Japanese provoked the Lugouqiao Incident and put forward the arrogant slogan of "national subjugation in June" in an attempt to conquer China within three to several months.