would span a distance of some two hundred miles. Their combined blood would way in at 1,200 tons, and their bodies would fill 2,500 railroad cars. If the dead were stacked on top of each other, these bodies would reach the height of a 74-story building. The slaughter of people in this one Chinese City alone-exceeds the civilian casualties of some European countries for the entire war. 7Americans tend to think of World War II as beginning on December 7, 1941, with Japans surprise attack on pearl harbor. Europeans date it from September 1, 1939, and the Blitzkrieg assault on Poland by Hitlers Luftwaffe and Panzer divisions. Yet Asians trace the beginning of the war all the way back to Japans first steps toward the military domination of East Asia-the occupation of Manchuria in 1931.In much the same way that Hitler did, Japan too, used a highly developed military machine and a master race mentality to set about establishing its right to rule its neighbors. Manchuria fell quickly. Four years later, in 1935, parts of Chahar and Hopeh were occupied. In 1937, Peking, Shanhai, and finally Nanking fell. The Chinese would not rid themselves of the last Japanese until almost the end of the war, in 1945.Much like Hitlers Germany, Japan suffered mightily during the Great Depression. Soaring inflation, labor strikes, a tremendous population explosion, and even a massive earthquake, in September 1923, only exacerbated the dismal conditions. Expansion of Japanese territory became a popular argument in order to stave off mass starvation by giving Japan a place to grow the food required to feed its people. China seemed like the most obvious place for this Japanese dream of Manifest Destiny. The Japanese believed that this would inevitably lead to war with the United States. So, when western financiers began to invest more heavily in China instead of Japan it made the argument even more plausible to them.In the 1930s, Japan had launched an u...
