If you like this article, please don’t hesitate to click like and restack! It’s a quick way to make sure more people will get to enjoy it too. And don’t hesitate to subscribe to my newsletter for free to receive my new articles right in your inbox! In 1937, Japan invaded China by staging a border incident in Manchukuo, the colonial name given to Manchuria which they had seized from China several years prior.
I would say that Japan pre-1930s was trying to do with China what the US today has mostly done to Europe, trying to incrementally gain control by installing puppet officials and promoting the idea of “shared values” to blind people of being exploited. Luckily, a lot of pro-Japanese in China got removed in mass protests and Japan eventually resorted to war when their incremental strategies weren’t working.