When Japan Invaded Shanghai: Echoes
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Japan’s imperial ambitions on mainland Asia, driven in part by shortages of industrial raw materials, exploded onto the global scene in September 1931. Chinese hostility to Japanese economic policies had led to boycotts, reducing Japan's export sales to China by 60 percent in nine months.
After deceptively staging an attack it blamed on Chinese dissidents, the Japanese army invaded China’s northeastern region, Manchuria, which was rich in coal and iron ore. The invasion was in defiance of orders from Tokyo. In January 1932, as the occupation intensified, military leaders sought additional gains, almost 700 miles south, at Shanghai. (For related film clips, click here.)