Makes you wish sometimes we could have worked with the Imperial Japanese before the hardcore militarists seized control.
It would have been better to have a Japanese “East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere” than a Chinese one.
I know some Chinese and knew of many Taiwanese who feel and felt the same way—had the Japanese not gone in the direction they did in the 30’s and 40’s—they think China would have been better off under Japan.
Not sure when that could’ve happened. The military on its own invaded Manchuria in 1931, and assassinated the Japanese PM in 1932, when the West and especially the U.S. were mired in the Depression.
At the Versailles conference, German colonies in China (where Tsingtao beer had been birthed) had not been returned to China but given to Japan, even though neither Japan nor China contributed much to the Allied victory.
Maybe giving Japan more at the Washington naval conference in 1921-1922 would’ve satisfied the Japanese, but sometimes ultimately there’s no negotiating with people who matter, given the times.