Question

Japanese forces attacked Manchuria to gain control of its rich natural resources such as its minerals. true or false?

Answer 1

Japan suffered greatly during the Great Depression. In the early 1930's military leaders seized power in Japan. The island nation needed coal and oil and set out to expand into Asia. So now with that tidbit of info...true or false?

Answer 2

Maybe a little of both. It's true that Manchuria has some very fertile soil, and lots of it in broad plains, while Japan is a cramped and mountainous region where it's hard to find good agricultural land. Manchuria also has a lot of coal, which is useful stuff.

But the Japanese invasion in 1931 wasn't just a blue-sky initiative to get natural resources. Keep in mind the historical context. China had become a power vacuum by the late 19th century, with the collapse of effective government by the late Qing dynasty. Many European countries saw opportunities for exploiting the power vacuum to acquire at least influence and favorable trading situations in China. This led, among other things, to the famous "spheres of influence" deals and Boxer Rebellion.

Both Imperial Russia and Imperial Japan, since they bordered directly on China, saw even greater opportunities -- for actual colonization and expansion of their own borders. The Russians got in first, and built railroads and whatnot in Manchuria. This brought them into conflict with Japan, interested in the same area, and who had long had a "cultural" invasion of Manchuria going on. This was a major cause of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904-05.

However, the Russians lost that war, and not long afterward (1917) the Imperial Russian government dissolved into revolution, and then (1917-1922) into civil war. Consequently the Russian influence in Manchuria evaporated, and the Japanese had a nearly free hand. They built the South Manchurian Railway, built industries and colonies along it, and extracted from the Chinese the right to "guard" it with Japanese soldiers.

Ironically enough, the invasion of Manchuria started as an act of insubordination, where the Japanese Army in Manchuria decided to take full control of Manchuria and declare it independent of China entirely, and allied with Japan. The Japanese civil government acquiesced when the military victory appeared easy, and protests from the Western Powers, particurlarly the United States, perfunctory and toothless. (The US, we should remember, was at that time plunging into the Depression, and President Hoover not only had no money to spend on foreign policy, but was also much in favor of negotiations and peaceful resolutions to international conflict. He issued stern proclamations, but no more.

So, did the Japanese invade Manchuria for the main purpose of acquiring resources? No. It was the culmination of long-standing late 19th century imperialist and colonization impulses in Manchuria, fueled by conflict with Russia and Chinese weakness. You would be better saying they invaded Manchuria to complete what they saw as the glorious expansion by conquest of the homeland -- fulfillment of Japan's "Manifest Destiny," similar to the American conquest of a big chunk of Mexico during the Mexican-American War.

But, were the good resources of Manchuria one of the main reasons why Japan looked to it as the right place for expansion? Absolutely. Nobody thinks to expand the homeland into Arctic waste and desert, and this was no exception.

Answer 3

true because ww2 was erupting and japand did not have new resources

Answer 4

jose, the Second World War started in Europe eight years after the Japanese invaded Manchuria, and in the Pacific a full ten years later.