Empire of Japan

===Later Shōwa (1931–1941)===
{{Main|Hakkō ichiu|National Spiritual Mobilization Movement|World War II}}

====Prewar expansionism====
{{Main|Japanese nationalism|Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere}}

===== Manchuria =====
{{Main|Mukden Incident|Japanese invasion of Manchuria|Pacification of Manchukuo}}
[[File:Mukden 1931 japan shenyang.jpg|thumb|Japanese troops entering [[Shenyang]], [[Northeast China]] during the [[Mukden Incident]], 1931]]

In 1931, Japan invaded and conquered Northeast China (Manchuria) with little resistance. Japan claimed that this invasion was a liberation of the local [[Manchu]]s from the Chinese, although the majority of the population were [[Han Chinese]] as a result of the [[Chuang Guandong|large scale settlement of Chinese in Manchuria]] in the 19th century. Japan then established a puppet state called [[Manchukuo]] ({{zh|t=滿洲國}}), and installed the last [[List of emperors of the Qing dynasty|Manchu Emperor of China]], [[Puyi]], as the official [[head of state]]. [[Rehe Province|Rehe]], a Chinese territory bordering Manchukuo, was later also taken in 1933. This puppet regime had to carry on a protracted pacification campaign against the [[Anti-Japanese Volunteer Armies]] in Manchuria. In 1936, Japan created a similar Mongolian puppet state in Inner Mongolia named [[Mengjiang]] ({{zh|t=蒙疆}}), which was also predominantly Chinese as a result of recent Han immigration to the area. At that time, East Asians were banned from immigration to [[Immigration Act of 1924|North America]] and [[White Australia policy|Australia]], but the newly established Manchukuo was open to immigration of Asians. Japan had an emigration plan to encourage colonization; the Japanese population in Manchuria subsequently grew to 850,000.<ref>Kevin McDowell. Japan in Manchuria: Agricultural Emigration in the Japanese Empire, 1932–1945. University of Arizona</ref> With rich natural resources and labor force in Manchuria, army-owned corporations turned Manchuria into a solid material support machine of the Japanese Army.<ref name="The Economist">{{cite news |title=The Unquiet Past Seven decades on from the defeat of Japan, memories of war still divide East Asia |newspaper=The Economist |date=August 12, 2015 |url=https://www.economist.com/news/essays/en/asia-second-world-war-ghosts |access-date=November 26, 2016}}</ref>

===== Second Sino-Japanese War =====
{{Main|Second Sino-Japanese War}}
[[File:First pictures of the Japanese occupation of Peiping in China.jpg|thumb|The Japanese occupation of Beiping ([[Beijing]]) in China, on August 13, 1937. Japanese troops are shown passing from Beiping into the Tartar City through [[Zhengyangmen]], the main gate leading onward to the palaces in the [[Forbidden City]].]]

Japan invaded China proper in 1937, beginning a war against both [[Chiang Kai-shek]]'s Nationalists and also the Communists of [[Mao Zedong]]'s [[Second United Front|united front]]. On December 13 of that same year, the Nationalist capital of [[Nanjing]] [[Battle of Nanjing|surrendered to Japanese troops]]. In the event known as the "[[Nanjing Massacre]]", Japanese troops killed many tens-of-thousands of people associated with the defending garrison. It is estimated that as many as 200,000 to 300,000 including civilians, may have been killed, although the actual numbers are uncertain and possibly inflated—coupled with the fact that the government of the [[People's Republic of China]] has never undertaken a full accounting of the massacre. In total, an estimated 20&nbsp;million Chinese, mostly civilians, were killed during World War II. [[Wang Jingwei regime|A puppet state]] was also set up in China quickly afterwards, headed by [[Wang Jingwei]]. The Second Sino-Japanese War continued into World War II with the Communists and Nationalists in a temporary and uneasy nominal alliance against the Japanese.

===== Clashes with the Soviet Union =====
{{Main|Battle of Lake Khasan|Battles of Khalkhin Gol|Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact}}

In 1938, the Japanese 19th Division entered territory claimed by the Soviet Union, leading to the [[Battle of Lake Khasan]]. This incursion was founded in the Japanese belief that the Soviet Union misinterpreted the demarcation of the boundary, as stipulated in the [[Treaty of Peking]], between Imperial Russia and Manchu China (and subsequent supplementary agreements on demarcation), and furthermore, that the demarcation markers were tampered with.

On May 11, 1939, in the Nomonhan Incident ''([[Battle of Khalkhin Gol]])'', a Mongolian cavalry unit of some 70 to 90 men entered the disputed area in search of grazing for their horses, and encountered Manchukuoan cavalry, who drove them out. Two days later the Mongolian force returned and the Manchukoans were unable to evict them.

The [[IJA 23rd Division]] and other units of the [[Kwantung Army]] then became involved. [[Joseph Stalin]] ordered [[Stavka]], the Red Army's high command, to develop a plan for a counterstrike against the Japanese. In late August, [[Georgy Zhukov]] employed encircling tactics that made skillful use of superior artillery, armor, and air forces; this offensive nearly annihilated the 23rd Division and decimated the [[IJA 7th Division]]. On September 15 an armistice was arranged. Nearly two years later, on April 13, 1941, the parties signed a [[Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact|Neutrality Pact]], in which the Soviet Union pledged to respect the territorial integrity and inviolability of Manchukuo, while Japan agreed similarly for the [[Mongolian People's Republic]].

=====Tripartite Pact=====
{{Main|Tripartite Pact|Axis powers}}
[[File:Signing ceremony for the Axis Powers Tripartite Pact;.jpg|thumb|Signing ceremony for the [[Tripartite Pact]], September 27, 1940 in [[Berlin]], [[Nazi Germany]]]]

In 1938, Japan prohibited the expulsion of the [[Jews]] in Japan, Manchuria, and [[Republic of China (1912–1949)|China]] in accordance with the spirit of [[Racial Equality Proposal|racial equality]] on which Japan had insisted for many years.<ref name=mof>{{cite web |title=Question 戦前の日本における対ユダヤ人政策の基本をなしたと言われる「ユダヤ人対策要綱」に関する史料はありますか。また、同要綱に関する説明文はありますか。 |publisher=[[Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan]] |url=http://www.mofa.go.jp/mofaj/annai/honsho/shiryo/qa/senzen_03.html |access-date=October 2, 2010}}</ref><ref name=gosho>{{cite web |title=猶太人対策要綱 |work=Five Ministers Council |publisher=[[National Archives of Japan|Japan Center for Asian Historical Record]] |url=http://www.jacar.go.jp/DAS/meta/listPhoto?IS_STYLE=default&ID=M2006092115064531921 |page=36/42 |date=December 6, 1938 |access-date=October 2, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110726042931/http://www.jacar.go.jp/DAS/meta/listPhoto?IS_STYLE=default&ID=M2006092115064531921 |archive-date=July 26, 2011}}</ref>

The Second Sino-Japanese War had seen tensions rise between Imperial Japan and the United States; events such as the [[Panay incident]] and the Nanjing Massacre turned American public opinion against Japan. With the occupation of [[French Indochina]] in the years of 1940–41, and with the continuing war in China, the United States and its allies placed embargoes on Japan of [[strategic material]]s such as scrap metal and oil, which were vitally needed for the war effort. The Japanese were faced with the option of either withdrawing from China and losing face or seizing and securing new sources of raw materials in the resource-rich, European-controlled colonies of [[Southeast Asia]]—specifically [[British Malaya]] and the [[Dutch East Indies]] (modern-day [[Indonesia]]).

On September 27, 1940, Japan signed the [[Tripartite Pact]] with [[Nazi Germany|Germany]] and [[Kingdom of Italy|Italy]]. Their objectives were to "establish and maintain a new order of things" in their respective world regions and spheres of influence, with Germany and Italy in Europe, and Japan in Asia. The signatories of this [[Military alliance|alliance]] became known as the [[Axis Powers]]. The pact also called for mutual protection—if any one of the member powers was attacked by a country not already at war, excluding the [[Soviet Union]] and for technological and economic cooperation between the signatories.

For the sake of their own people and nation, Prime Minister Konoe formed the Taisei Yokusankai (Imperial Rule Assistance Association) on October 12, 1940, as a ruling party in Japan.

In 1940 Japan [[:ja:紀元二千六百年記念行事|celebrated the 2600th anniversary of Jimmu's ascension]] and built a monument to [[Hakkō ichiu]] despite the fact that all historians knew Jimmu was a made up figure. In 1941 the Japanese government charged the one historian who dared to challenge Jimmu's existence publicly, Tsuda Sokichi.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Sundberg |first1=Steve |title=2600th Anniversary of the Founding of Japan, 1940. |url=http://www.oldtokyo.com/2600th-anniversary-of-the-founding-of-japan-1940/ |website=Old Tokyo |date=October 22, 2018}}</ref> During the Second Sino-Japanese War and the [[Second World War]], the firm [[Iwanami Shoten]] was repeatedly censored because of its positions against the war and the Emperor. Shigeo Iwanami was even sentenced to two months in prison for the publication of the banned works of Tsuda Sōkichi (a sentence which he did not serve, however). Shortly before his death in 1946, he founded the newspaper ''[[Sekai (magazine)|Sekai]]'', which had a great influence in post-war Japanese intellectual circles.<ref name=echo>{{cite journal |author=Joseph K. Yamagiwa |title=Literature and Politics in the Japanese Magazine, Sekai |journal=Public Affairs |date=September 1955 |volume=28 |issue=3 |pages=254–268 |jstor=3035405}}</ref> The early 20th century historian [[:ja:津田左右吉|Tsuda Sōkichi]], who put forward the then-controversial theory that the {{Lang|ja-latn|[[Kojiki]]}}<nowiki/>'s accounts were not based on history (as Edo period {{lang|ja-latn|kokugaku}} and State Shinto ideology believed them to be) but rather propagandistic myths concocted to explain and legitimize the rule of the imperial (Yamato) dynasty, also saw [[Susanoo]] as a negative figure, arguing that he was created to serve as the rebellious opposite of the imperial ancestress Amaterasu.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Gadeleva |first1=Emilia |title=Susanoo: One of the Central Gods in Japanese Mythology |journal=Nichibunken Japan Review: Bulletin of the International Research Center for Japanese Studies |year=2000 |volume=12 |pages=166–7 |publisher=International Research Center for Japanese Studies |doi=10.15055/00000288}}</ref> A [[historian]] in 20th century, Sokichi Tsuda's view of history, which has become mainstream after the World War II, is based on his idea. Many scholars today also believe that the mythology of [[Takamagahara]] in {{Lang|ja-latn|Kojiki}} was created by the [[ruling class]] to make people believe that the class was precious because they originated in the heavenly realm.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Joos |first=Joël |date=2008-01-01 |title=17. Memories Of A Liberal, Liberalism Of Memory: Tsuda Sōkichi And A Few Things He Forgot To Mention |url=https://brill.com/view/book/edcoll/9789004213203/Bej.9781905246380.i-382_018.xml |journal=The Power of Memory in Modern Japan |language=en |pages=291–307 |doi=10.1163/ej.9781905246380.i-382.134 |isbn=9789004213203}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Reader |first=Ian |date=2003|editor-last=Befu|editor-first=Harumi|editor2-last=Oguma|editor2-first=Eiji |title=Identity, Nihonjinron, and Academic (Dis)honesty |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3096753 |journal=Monumenta Nipponica |volume=58 |issue=1 |pages=103–116 |jstor=3096753 |issn=0027-0741}}</ref>