Japan Becomes a Powerful Country 1890-1941

By the 1890s Japan was on the way to becoming one of the most powerful countries in the world. But first it had to solve a serious problem. Japan needed natural resources because there are few such useful materials in the island nation. Japan had to look to other countries for the resources it needed. Japan first looked to nearby China. In 1894, the two countries went to war. The following year, China was defeated by Japan & had to pay Japan $165 million. The money could buy resources. Other nations of the world now realized that Japan was gaining power. Nine years later, Japan went to war again. This time it turned against Russia in a war called the Russo-Japanese War. At the end of this war in 1905 Japan received land from Russia. Five years later in 1910, Japan seized control of Korea.

When WWI ended in 1918, Japan was on the winning side When WWI ended in 1918, Japan was on the winning side. As a result, Japan was given a number of islands that had belonged to Germany. The population of Japan grew rapidly during the 1920s. By 1930, there were 64 million people crowded onto the small islands of Japan. Once again, Japan looked for countries that could provide it with natural resources. In 1931, Japanese soldiers invaded Manchuria which is part of northern China. The Japanese took control of this area and renamed it Manchukuo. But Japan was not finished expanding, and in 1937 it attacked several other areas of China. The U.S. tried to stop this expansion of Japan. In 1940 the U.S. refused to sell scrap iron & oil to Japan because it believed that Japan was using these materials to prepare for future wars. Japan became angry with the U.S. On December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. The U.S. declared war on Japan. This gave Germany an excuse to back up its ally and declare war on the U.S.