At the end of World War I, the victorious powers handed the Japanese a mandate over the former German islands north of the equator, one of the most important strategic areas in the Pacific. After defeating Russia in 1904–05, Japan took the south half of Sakhalin and the southern tip of Manchuria known as the LiaotungPeninsula. The successful war with China in 1894–95 added Formosa and the nearby Pescadores islands to the Japanese Empire. For the next fifty years Japan’s conquest and absorption of Asia and the Pacific islands has continued, step by step, with time out to consolidate the gains and gather strength for the next move. In July of that year Japanese naval guns fired on Chinese ships without warning. Moving cautiously, while its modern navy and army were still in the infant stage, Japan took over several groups of small islands not far from its homeland without having to fight for them.īy 1894 it was strong enough to challenge the weak and aging Chinese Empire. Japan started in business as a land-grabbing power in a small way. But that was not the starting point of Japanese aggression. World War II really began when the Japanese army seized Manchuria in 1931.
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