Japan expands
Japan expands Japan became a major power and expanded it’s overseas territories through wars against China , Russia , and Korea in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In 1910 , Japan annexed Korea. In 1931 , Japan invaded Manchuria , driving out locals in order to increase the Japanese population residing there. Japan was also in need of oil which Manchuria had to support its new military. Six years later in 1937 , Japan invaded mainland China in the second Sino-Japanese War , where Japanese soldiers committed the Nanjing Massacre massacring hundreds of Chinese soldiers and civilians and raping thousands of Chinese women. The United States supported China against Japan , and Japan joined Germany and Italy in a military alliance. A totalitarian leader named Hideki Tojo was elected prime minister of Japan in 1941.