Before the Lugou Bridge Incident in 1937, Japan was able to fight and become richer because it did not encounter strong resistance to invade China.
After 1937, it fell into the quagmire of China's protracted War of Resistance, especially the anti-Japanese guerrilla war behind enemy lines led by the Communist Party of China, which made It impossible to realize Japan's plundering plan, and this island nation with scarce resources and excessive ambitions became poorer and poorer.
01 Japan earned its first pot of gold in the Sino-Japanese War
At the beginning of the Sino-Japanese War in 1894, the annual revenue of the Japanese government was more than 80 million yen (about 50 million taels of silver). The Sino-Japanese War lasted for 8 months, and the Japanese government was in economic difficulty.
If the Qing government took advantage of the large number of national leaders and protracted the War of Resistance for a long time, the Japanese government would not be able to sustain it.
However, the Qing government was afraid that the Japanese army would attack Beijing, and it did not dare to mobilize the people, so it conceded defeat early and paid compensation for the land.
After the war, the Japanese government settled the account and received about 390 million yen (about 260 million taels of silver), a net income of 300 million yen after deducting war expenses, equivalent to the country's fiscal revenue for four years, and also seized the rich Taiwan.
The Emperor of Japan asked Prime Minister Itō Hirobumi about his finances, and the answer was: I feel incredibly rich.
The huge indemnities of the Sino-Japanese War became a turning point in the development of Japan's modern industry, which enabled the amazing development of industry, transportation, banking and trade.
Japan invested 85 per cent of its reparations in the development of industry and military industries. The input of a large number of funds has enabled industrial and military enterprises to complete technological innovation and upgrading.
The reparations financed the construction of Railways in Japan, and the total length of railways after the war doubled compared with before the war. The great development of railways has promoted the rapid development of the Japanese economy.
The reparations of the Sino-Japanese War pushed Japan forward to its position as a world capitalist power.
02 Occupy the three eastern provinces of Japan to earn the second pot of gold
The global economic crisis of 1929 dealt a heavy blow to the Japanese economy.
Exports fell by 76 per cent and imports by 71 per cent in two years. The operating rate of the industrial sector was only 50%, the total industrial output value fell by 1/3, and the total agricultural output value fell by 40%.
Nearly half of the workers in the cities are unemployed, and the peasants are even more miserable, many of whom do not have enough to eat for many years.
In the face of the economic crisis, the Japanese warlords, especially the young officers, advocated external expansion to solve it.
When Ishihara launched the 9/18 incident, he was very nervous. Because at that time, the Japanese army that really went out was less than 700 people, and the Northeast Army in the North Camp of Shenyang had 8,000 people.
The Japanese troops stationed in Korea at that time were ready to take Ishihara across the Yalu River if he failed.
However, the Northeast Army did not return a single shot to Guannei, and before leaving, all the guns and equipment were locked in the warehouse, and the officers ran to Beiping with the keys.
Ishihara's gamble was won, and the Northeast fell without a fight, which was equivalent to giving Japan a resource-rich strategic base.
Since then, Japan has plundered and developed industrial and mining industries in the northeast, quickly ending the economic crisis and ushering in great development.
In 1937, radio watches were basically popularized in urban households in Japan, and the economic conditions in rural Japan were greatly improved.
The Japanese government also plans to relocate 5 million poor peasants in mountainous areas to the northeast, not only to "Japaneseize" the northeast, but also to solve japan's internal contradictions.
03China's protracted war against Japan, Japan fought more and more poorly
From the Sino-Japanese War to September 18, Japan profited enormously.
From the top of the government to the general public, Japan believes that foreign expansion can bring rich benefits to the country and individuals, solve Japan's economic difficulties and create a better future.
In 1937, the July 7 Incident, Japan launched an all-out war of aggression against China.
The Japanese military promised the emperor that "three months to settle China" and occupy the fertile areas of northern and central China, and the Nanjing government surrendered and paid huge reparations.
But the opponent Japan encountered at this time was not the corrupt Nanjing government, but the awakened Chinese people.
By 1938, although Japan occupied half of China's population (i.e. 200 million people) from south to north, it was caught in a protracted war against Japan Chinese people.
In 1937, the Japanese government's fiscal revenue was 4.7 billion yen, and in the same year, it spent 3.3 billion yen on military expenses to launch a full-scale war of aggression against China, which is equivalent to spending 2/3 of the government's annual revenue in only half a year after the war began.
With the disillusionment of "solving China in three months", the war became protracted, and the government's finances could not make ends meet.
Beginning in the second half of 1938, Japan put forward the strategy of "feeding the war with war" in China, plundering and settling war expenses on the spot.
However, the Japanese occupation areas were full of guerrilla warfare led by the Ccp, communication lines were destroyed everywhere, and most of the plundering plans were ineffective.
In 1939, Japan's economy declined, and plunder could not make up for the consumption.
In 1941, the United States stopped selling resources to Japan, and the Japanese authorities decided to seize a large area of Southeast Asia in order to reverse the predicament.
In the same year, Japan raided Pearl Harbor in the United States and attacked the Southeast Asia region at the same time, seizing the American, British, and Dutch colonies with a population of nearly 200 million in half a year, and controlling the rich resources.
However, with the counteroffensive of the United States in the Pacific, the protracted war in the Chinese battlefield made the Japanese war consume far more than the gains from plunder.
In 1944-45, the supply of the Japanese army was getting worse and worse, and the overseas troops received orders to "live by themselves", that is, to solve their own supplies.
In Dingxiang County, Shanxi, an anti-Japanese guerrilla group was active, and its leader was the anti-Japanese hero Fan Jintang.
At the end of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the guerrillas controlled the surrounding rural areas, and the Japanese army in Dingxiang County only dared to shrink in the county seat, and after eating a meal, the Japanese wing commander decided to negotiate with Fan Jintang.
This wing commander did not have any weapons with him, so he took an interpreter with him and went directly to the guerrilla station, where Fan Jintang set up a banquet and entertained him, eating and talking at the same time. Before leaving, the wing commander thanked Fan Jintang for his hospitality and asked him what he needed?
Fan Jintang jokingly said: I want a machine gun, two boxes of bullets.
A few days later, two Japanese soldiers arrived at the guerrilla garrison with a few migrant workers, carrying a machine gun and two boxes of bullets.
Fan Jintang invited the two Japanese soldiers to eat a meal and wrote a thank-you letter for the Japanese soldiers to bring back.
As a result, the Japanese soldiers used the harsh Chinese dialect that they did not want to fight at all, and the wing commander asked them not to go back after delivering the machine guns, so as not to be tracked down.
Later, the Japanese army and the guerrillas in Dingxiang County kept the well water from violating the river water, and in order not to go hungry, the Japanese army often exchanged guns and ammunition and Fan Jintang for grain.
Such a situation was not unique in the later stages of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and the Japanese army in many areas exchanged guns and ammunition for supplies.
In 1945, in order to facilitate the exchange of weapons with the Japanese devils in Beiping, the local county party committee directly set up an early stall near Tsinghua Garden.
The two sides agreed on how many rifles and bullets to exchange for how many pounds of white noodles, and how many pounds of machine guns for how many pounds of pork.
The Japanese army guaranteed that the weapons exchanged were genuine, and the Eighth Route Army guaranteed that the grain exchanged would not be short of two pounds.
The eventual defeat of Japan, which started by war plunder, was the result of the joint efforts of the World Anti-Fascist Alliance.
Looking at the node of Japan's decline, it began when it fell into the quagmire of protracted war on the Chinese battlefield, and the guerrilla war Chinese played the greatest role.
History proves that the most brilliant strategy is for a weak country to confront a strong enemy, to hold the opponent back with a protracted war, and to drag the enemy to the point of exhaustion.