Imperialism: Japan and China

1 Chapter 1

SETTING THE STAGE Industrialization stirred ambitions in many European and Asian

nations. Industrialization brought in steam engine machines which require a huge

amount of resources in order to produce them. This caused many countries to invade

into other countries territory to obtain the natural resources needed. The process of

capturing another country or territory by a stronger country is called imperialism. By

the 1930’s imperialism has impacted many nations in Asia including Japan and China.

Even though Japan was a small country, they were a strong nation with a strong and

intelligent military, which made them capable of imperializing China with the idea of

turning China into a better and stronger country.

In the early 1900’s, before the domination of China, China was a peaceful country which

only believed in their own government. They did not take in any ideas from the outside

countries not even industrialization. Therefore China had a wide variety of natural

resources that hasn’t been used. Due to their large number of natural resources, China

was one of the countries the Europeans wanted to imperialize in order to gain control

of their huge population and land mass. But the Japanese has already made their move

into China to protect their fellow Asian country from being imperialized by the

Europeans.

Motivations for Japan There were many reasons as for why Japan wanted to conquer

China. One of the reasons being that they wanted to stop the Europeans from

imperializing China and making it their own country (Brooman, “China”). Even though

Japan knew that Europe was a strong country with military advantages, they didn’t back

down. The Japanese emperor decided that they were going to move forward and

conquer China so that they would become a stronger country. Not only would this

benefit China, by imperializing China it would also benefit the Japanese people because

they now would have a larger territory and China could provide them with the natural

Imperializing China

POWER and AUTHORITY Japan tries

persuading China to become an

imperialized country. But due to

their stubbornness, Japan had to

force China into imperializing.

-Amau Declaration -Imperialism

- Anti Comitern Pact

-Three All Campain

- Hundred Regiments battle

WHY IT MATTERS NOW

If it wasn’t for Japans attempt to try

and imperialize China, China

wouldn’t be as successful as they are

now.

MAIN IDEA TERMS & NAMES

In the early 1900’s, before the domination of China, China was a peaceful country which

only believed in their own government. They did not take in any ideas from the outside

countries not even industrialization. Therefore China had a wide variety of natural

resources that hasn’t been used. Due to their large number of natural resources, China

was one of the countries the Europeans wanted to imperialize in order to gain control

of their huge population and land mass. But the Japanese has already made their move

into China to protect their fellow Asian country from being imperialized by the

Europeans.

Motivations for Japan There were many reasons as for why Japan wanted to conquer

China. One of the reasons being that they wanted to stop the Europeans from

imperializing China and making it their own country (Brooman, “China”). Even though

Japan knew that Europe was a strong country with military advantages, they didn’t back

down. The Japanese emperor decided that they were going to move forward and

conquer China so that they would become a stronger country. Not only would this

benefit China, by imperializing China it would also benefit the Japanese people because

they now would have a larger territory and China could provide them with the natural

GEOGRAPHY SKILLBUILDER: Interpreting maps

1. Location What was China’s Location relative to the

nearest Japanese territory?

2. Region What other countries did Japan take control of?

resources for their nation because Japan has become an industrialized country (Brooman,

“China”). During that period of time, Japan was known to be a weak and small country.

No one seemed to show any interest in their country so they wanted to increase on

nationalism of their country to prove that even though they are a small country, they are

still a strong and united country (Brooman, “China”).

The Process of Imperializing During the process of imperializing China, the Japanese had

to go through war against China because of China’s belief of only believing in their own

ideas. In order to imperialize the country, Japan had to use force to enforce it on the

Chinese people leading to unnecessary deaths during the process. During that process,

Japan seized control of Manchuria because of its large land of 192,000 square kilometers.

The territory is more than three times as large as our own empire, not counting Korea and

Formosa, but it is inhabited by only one third as many people. The attractiveness of the

land does not arise from the scarcity of the population alone; its wealth of forestry,

minerals and agricultural products is also unrivalled elsewhere in the world.

↓ The Japanese

people conquered

the northern

countries of China

was lacking the

guidance to make

the country better.

PRIMARY SOURCE

“In order to exploit these resources…we created especially in South Manchuria Rail Way

Company. The investment involved in our undertaking in railways, shipping, mining,

forestry, steel manufacture, agriculture, and in cattle raising… amount, to no less than

440 million yen”. Prime Minister of Japan, Baron Tanaka (Brooman, “China”).

In order for China to give up their authority to control their land, the Japanese had to capture many provinces and railways

in order to get the advantage in the

country. In July 1937, the Japanese

had no choice but to launch attacks

on the provinces of China, capturing

their large occupied cities, important

railways, airfields, ports and roads,

and also the Nanjing capital , this

was called the Nanjing incident

(Brooman, “Roads”). While

occupying North China, the Japanese

government announced in the Amau

Declaration of 1934 that Japan had

special rights in China as well as

‘responsibility for maintaining peace

in East Asia’. In other words, Japan

would not allow other countries to

interfere in China and East Asia.

(Brooman, “Roads”) Imperialism: Japan and China 2

China ResistanceThe Chinese people disagrees with the way the Japanese

people do things so they set up small forces called

communist to regain control of their country.

The Communist at War Many resistance movements

occurred during this time. But one of the most effective acts

of the communist was one of their offensive plans the

Japanese undertook in 1940 called the Hundred Regiments

Battle in which they attacked Japan’s railway

communications through north China, paralyzing Japanese

traffic to and from the south (Brooman, “China”). This put

Japan at a huge disadvantage, not being able to

communicate from one city to another was a huge problem.

The one by one the communist took out small parts of the

Japanese army and managed to gain back their power.

Japan Regains Control A year after Japan was defeated by

the communist, Japan managed to get back on their feet and

they thought of a plan that would outsmart the communist in

every way. This plan was called the Three All Campaign,

which was a plan to help them recapture China. Even though

China’s plan successfully accomplished what they aimed for,

this greatly disappointed the Chinese local workers, farmers,

and peasants.

Three All Campaign Fails The Three All Campaign achieved its

goal but fails to satisfy the needs of the Chinese peasants

causing them to hate the Japanese people even more. In

1945, the Chinese peasant agreed on helping the communist

attack the Japanese military and is willing to support them

more than ever before. In July 1945, as the Japanese

withdrew from southern China back into Manchuria, which

enabled the communist to advance into the areas that the

Japanese people had left. By the end of World War II, Japan

had left China, but not empty handed; they were smart

enough to obtain Formosa (modern time called Taiwan) and

as a result of imperializing China became a more successful

country than ever.

Imperialism in China,

1930-1945

1945

1940

1935

1930

1940 (China)

Hundred

Regiments

Battle

3 Chapter 1

1934 (Japan)

Amau Declaration

1931 (Japan)

Manchuria Incident

1941 (Japan)

Three All Campaign

1945 (China)

Japan withdrew

from Southern

China back into

Manchuria

MAIN IDEA

What strategy was

it that made China

capable of

recapturing China?

The Effects of Imperialism on Imperialism had a huge impact on the country of China leading to many effects causing a

change in China. It greatly impacted on many lives in the country of China and the nation. If

it wasn’t for Japan’s attempt to imperialize China, China wouldn’t be as successful as it is

now. But not only did it impact China, this also impacted Japan in many ways.

Effects on China There were two types of Chinese people, the communist and the non-

communist. The communist were the group of people who tried to fight against Japan, and

the non communist didn’t like

the communist so they didn’t

follow their ways. But in order

to stop Japan from imperializing

the country, the two groups had

to cooperate in order to stop

the Japanese from colonizing

their country (Brooman,

“Roads”). China also lost many

of their men from resisting

imperialism by Japan. These

deaths wouldn’t have occurred if China didn’t resist.( China and Japan Rival Giants)

Effects on Japan The Japanese people were able to accomplish many of their goals, one being

to improve on their nationalism. They were known as a small and weak country after the

World War I. But now they have proved to the whole world that not only they are intelligent,

they had the military power that enabled them to capture China and many other Asian

Imperialism: Japan and China 4

countries (Brooman, “Roads”). Even

though Japan was thrown out of

China, during the years they took

over the country, they took over

many provinces in China, which

helped them adapt to their culture

and give them ideas (Brooman,

“Roads”). During the years they were

in control, Japan managed to obtain

enough natural resources for their

industrialized equipment to support

the nation. (Brooman, “Roads”)

↓The communist

leaders who lead

the Chinese people

into war during the

Hundred

Regiments Battle

MAIN IDEA

What was the

greatest effect of

the two countries?

Work Cited

Brooman, Josh. Roads to War. England: Longman Inc, 1989.

Brooman, Josh. China since 1900. England: Longman Inc, 1988.

Beck, Roger B. Modern World History patterns of interaction. Boston: Houghton – Mifflin, 2005.

China and Japan Rival Giants BBC News. 15 Oct. 2009.

<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/ shared/spl/hi/asia_pac/05/china_japan/html/history.stm>.

Defeat Japanese Imperialism 3 Aug. 2009. Fog Eye. 2 Nov. 2009.

<http://fogeye.blogbus.com/logs/39064551.html>.

Hundred Regiment Campaign. 15 Aug. 2005. 2 Nov. 2009.

<http://english.people.com.cn/200508/ 15/eng20050815_202518.html>.