The History of Japan

Many Japanese leaders feared that Japan would be surrounded by hostile western colonies and eventually strangled economically. Faced with these spheres, the Japanese government made an immensely cynical decision to take it in on the carving up of Asia itself. The first Sino-Japanese war lasted a mere eight months. Chinese forces were completely destroyed and Japan seized total control of Korea. If you look at a map of Korea and northern China, it's a little bit of China that sticks out above Korea.