What Value Was China To Japan

While China contains large amounts of natural resources, how much these were a factor in Japans war with China, I do not know. China is now one of the worlds largest producers of oil, but how much of that oil was known about in the 1930's, I do not know. The largest of the reasons was most basic. Japan was becoming overcrowded and there wasn't enough farmland to keep up with food demands. Japanese immigration to these area's coupled with the local "slave labor" and good farmland was very appetizing to the Japanese.

 

It was, as you say "mikebatzel" mostly the crops/food and the fiber the Japanese removed from the Chinese mainland for their own use. I don't think they were able to control the coal bearing/mining areas enough to really benefit much.

Since the "industrial revolution" in Japan, the population had multiplied far beyond their own ability to feed them. They truly needed the rice, wheat, millet, and barley the Chinese land and manpower (and Manchurian) could provide them.

I am sure they (the Japanese) were eying the far future in controlling raw materials and manpower for their own benefit when they "coveted" their neighbors property. Even though they were late comers to the game of Imperial colonial expansion, they certainly didn't feel they should be left out of the game just 'cause they started late.

 

I believe compared to the cost of the IJ navy it wouldn't have seemed so much - the army was very underfunded - don't have any figures yet so that may be way off base?

 

this essay might answer a few of the questions;

Japan's War and Defeat 1937-1949 by Sanderson Beck

one telling quote;

"the Army could not accept giving up China because in four years they had sacrificed more than 100,000 dead and tens of billions of yen"

Not sure it truly answers the question about natural resources, but it does give great detail of the progress of the sanctions imposed on Japan, which partially explains the issue.

There is also more detail in here;

http://www.san.beck.org/21-8-ImperialJapan1894-1937.html

 

I am not so sure that we should be dismissive of Manchuria's resources. There was a flourishing steel and coal industry while southern China was at the time one of the most fertile rice-bearing farmlands. Also, the Kwantung Army that occupied Manchuria was not merely a military force, but also a major player in Japanese politics and had its own economic fiefdom. So there were aspirations of autarky on the part of the Japanese state, as well as the particular interests of the Kwantung Army faction that converged on the decision to invade China.

Keegan once stated that Japan effectively won the war in China, since the IJA effectively controlled all the major rivers, agricultural basins, coastal ports and industrial complexes desirable for the maintenance of the empire. If they could spare the troops from fighting the Allies in the Pacific they might have been able to pacify the Chinese.

 

i provide some date...before 18.9.1931.
Chang-Tsolin and Chang Hsueh-liang,who headed the Fengtian clique or warlords.
After more than twenty years' to construction in China Northeast.Strength is cencond only to Chiang Kai-shek.
only in 1929,land reclamation 196236 Hectare.Case soybean crops only,in 1923,output 300 million tons,but in 1930,output 584 million.in 1939,worldwide output 695.8 million.
japan's industrial level and technological level behind Europe,coal is the most important by Japan.in 1930,only FuShun coal mine is output 793.6 million Tons.epual to annual output of Japan.
。。。 。。。
Industry of China Northeast is the highly developed area in China.
The big country's shake,usually takes a long time for them.chinese used 100 years.
the Englishmen used 48 years.French used 89years.haha

 

Thankyou for that - these figures are not so easy to find or to completely understand

 

After reading the question and trying to look it up...
Maybe the original problem with Japan's "special undeclared war" and subsequent WW2, might have begun in 1868 with the end of the shogunate. The Meiji Restoration. When Japan decided to end it's self imposed isolation and accept western ideas, technology...Rather than have American influence in China, Japan wanted a Co-Prosperity Sphere of Asian countries which were free from western influences.
Perhaps Japan left substantial men and material in China because they were sure of victory at the beginning of war, but were unable to transfer troops due to subsequent events.

 

The Pacific War:1941-1945 by John Costello has been the best resource I have found about understanding the Chinese connection to the Pacific Theatre. It's the best comprehensive book I have read about the Pacific, for that matter.

 

Rather than have American influence in China, Japan wanted a Co-Prosperity Sphere of Asian countries which were free from western influences.

I would amend that to say "free from influences other than Japan's". Japan was not interested in sharing anything, but rather wished to subjugate.

tom