Japanese expansionism

 This article is part of the

History of Japan series.

 Jomon

 Yayoi

 Yamato period

 Nara period

 Heian Period

 Kamakura period

 Muromachi period

 Azuchi-Momoyama period

 Edo period

 Meiji Era

 Taisho period

 Japanese expansionism

 Occupied Japan

 Post-Occupation Japan

 Heisei

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 paralleled the western form very closely, as its Feudalism did hundreds of years earlier. Unlike Adolf Hitler and Benito 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. Also, due to the lack of resources on Japan's home islands, in order to maintain a 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. So, for the sake of the military-industrial development scheme, and industrial growth on the whole, mercantilist 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 vast resources were prime targets for industry.

Manchuria was invaded and successfully conquered in 1931, with little trouble. Ostensibly, 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 (Manchukuo) was installed. Jehol, a Chinese 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 European spheres of influence. In 1936 before the Chinese invasion, Japan signed an anti-communism treaty with Germany, and another with Italy in 1937.