First Sino-Japanese War

The end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century were a venerable period for China. The nineteenth century for China was a time of turmoil. The Boxer and Taiping rebellions, battles over the concessions and trading rights, all followed by the loss in the Sino-Japanese War shook all of China. The people were confused with the results and management of these events and wanted to know what would happen next. China’s search for security and superiority led it to study the very same people who humiliated and defeated them, all for the hope of never losing to anyone again. The nature of how Western and Japanese Imperialism affected China happened after China was defeated by both the Westerners and Japanese. The loss of the…

At first, Ah-Q does not support the rebels. The narrator states, “back then, he had an intuition – why, he couldn’t say – that these revolutionaries were rebelling against the established order of things, and that rebellion would make his life difficult; and so head conceived a violent hatred for them.” However, Ah-Q quickly changes his attitude towards the rebellion and sees it as an opportunity to settle his many grievances. The narrator says, “’Hurrah for revolution!’ Ah-Q thought. It’ll do…

within the country, but as an exception, China’s industrialization is forced due to the “barbarism” action from Britain, France and many other countries, which recalls from the first Opium War, the event that aroused the industrialization in China, and later on the second Opium war… Due to the pressures from enemies,…

The Second Sino-Japanese War, 1937-1945, is widely considered to begin with the Marco Polo Bridge incident of July 1937 and end with the Japanese surrender in September 1945. I would argue that to understand the motives as to why Japan invaded China, it is essential to grasp their previous history of conflicts and tensions, beginning with the Japanese claim of Taiwan from China’s Qing Dynasty after the First Sino-Japanese war in 1895, right through to the invasion of Manchuria in 1931. This…

develop diplomatic relations and free trade was inevitable due to the difference between the British and Chinese philosophy of diplomacy and trade. Britain was a country that built itself on trade and seeking China as a major ally for trade was a priority for Britain. However, China had established the Canton trade system which was very restricting to the British merchants trying to trade British manufactured goods instead of silver bullion that had Britain in a crisis3. In an effort to try ail…

The Second Sino Japanese War - Japanese Atrocities Against the Chinese The Second Sino Japanese War was one of great importance for the world as a whole. It is said to have been fought from 1937 till 1945 but many argue that this strife was much longer than those dates would imply. Not only did this war largely impact relations between Japan and China, but it made public many of the atrocities that the Japanese committed against the Chinese. While these atrocities had been ongoing for decades,…

The First United Front specifically, was from 1923 to 1927, when the parties came together to keep relative peace. It was successful until 1927 when the Nationalists turned on the Communists (“United Front”, World History in Context). The Shanghai Massacre sparked the very beginning of the Chinese Civil War along with the collapse of the First United Front. Occurring in April 1927, The Shanghai Massacre is often regarded as the start of the Chinese Civil War. Communists were either killed,…

Manhua Journey to the West, a graphic novel by Zhang Guangyu in 1945, is a nod to the Chinese classic Journey to the Wets by Wu Cheng'en written in the year 1592. It is written around the reign of the KMT and during the second Sino-Japanese War. From which Zhang uses the style in which Journey to the West was written to "implicate" poke fun of the government and their policies. How does Zhang Guang use the classic Journey to the west to explain the events around 1945 circa China? Why does he…

as a country and how we can prevent repetition of horrific historical events. Japan and China are known for finding cleaver ways to hide, disguise, and/or protect specific historical events from becoming common knowledge within the respective country because the lack of pride that may stem from any one event. Japanese history in…

Opium War. The British government was exporting Opium to China. Chinese citizens were getting addicted to opium and eventually the Chinese government stopped opium import from Great Britain. This hurt the British economy and resulted in a war between the two countries. At the end of the Opium War China was forced to give up land and be colonized by western civilizations. The Opium War and influence of Western powers led to The self-strengthening movement. China adopted Western military…