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With the [[Great Depression]], [[Japan]] like some other countries turned to [[Fascism]]. While it was a unique form of the system, probably due to cultural differences, Japan parelled the western form very closely, as its [[Feudalism]] did hundreds of years earlier. Unlike [[Hitler]] and [[MusoliniBenito Mussolini|Mussolini]], though, Japan had two economic goals in developing an empire. First, as with its European counterparts, a tightly-controlled domestic military industry apparently jump started the nation's economy in the midst of the depression. (I don't believe it really did produce economic benefit, but that's just my opinion.) Also, due to the lack of resources on Japan's home islands, in order to maintain an strong industrial sector with strong growth, raw materials such as iron, oil, and coal largely had to be imported. Most of these materials came from the [[United States]] at the time. So, for the sake of military-industrial development scheme, and just industrial growth on the whole, [[Mercantilistmercantilist]] theories prevailed, and the Japanese felt that resource-rich [[colonies]] were needed to compete with European powers. [[Korea]] ( 1910 ) and [[Formosa]] ( [[Taiwan]], 1895 ) had earlier been annexed as primarily agricultural colonies. [[Manchuria]]'s iron and coal, [[Indochina]]'s Rubber, and [[China]]'s pretty much everything were prime targets for industry.
Manchuria ( Today atoday part of Northwestnorthwest China ) was invaded and successfully conquered in 1931, with little trouble. Ostensibly, this Japan did this to liberate the Manchus from the Chinese, just as the annexation of Korea was supposedly an act of protection. As with Korea, a puppet government was set up. Jehol, a Chines territory bordering Manchuria, was taken in 1933.
Japan invaded China in 1937, creating what was essentially a three-way war between Japan, Mao Zedong's communists, and Chiang Kai-shek's nationalists. Japan took control of much China's coasts and port cities, but very carefully avoided Europeans in their enclaves. The year before their Chinese invasion, Japan signed an anti-communism treaty with Germany, and another with Italy in 1937 itself.
*Note: More astute observers might notice that I've used [[Pinyin]] translation from Chinese for Mao Zedong's name and Wade-Giles translation for Chiang Kai-shek. That's because I'm entirely against [[Wade-Giles]], but couldn't find the Pinyin translation for Chiang. I find it hard to do the changes myself when I'm dealing with names. Any observers who would notice this probably know enough to fix it and delete this unsightly note. Please do so. Incidentally, the Wade-Giles form of "Mao Zedong" is "Mao Tse-tung." The conventions for Chinese translation are almost important enough to be an issue for people like [[Rhoades Murphey]] and [[Edward Said]].
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