Japan has determined its southward policy, why is the Chinese battlefield the key?

Japan decided on the policy of "going south" because Japan occupies a small area and lacks resources, while China has a large land and abundant resources, and the Chinese battlefield is aimed at seizing China's rich strategic resources

Because of China's vast land and resources, it can be used as a good logistics supply base to ensure the materials and equipment of the front line.

Since 1940, Japan's expansion in East Asia has seriously damaged the interests of the United States, and the economic crisis of the United States has greatly improved, so the United States began to gradually tighten the embargo on Japan's strategic special assets, and the oil, coal, steel, copper, and rubber needed by Japan to support the war of aggression against China are gone, and if this problem is not solved, Japan will not be able to maintain the war.

At that time, Japan had two options, one was to attack the Soviet Far East in the north and obtain these necessary strategic materials from the Soviet Far East, and the other was to go south to the South Seas and obtain these strategic materials from Southeast Asia controlled by the United States, France, and Britain.

After the Battle of Nomenkan, Japan found that the Soviet Far East's military strength could not be shaken, while the United States, Britain and France had a poor level of preparation and relatively poor combat strength in Southeast Asia. Therefore, Japan chose to launch the Pacific War at the end of 1941, first inflicting heavy losses on the US Pacific Navy, and then lightly taking the whole of Southeast Asia and obtaining strategic materials such as coal, iron ore, petroleum, rubber rubber, tin, and grain in Southeast Asia.

In 1940, Japan finally abandoned the northward expansion strategy and chose to advance south because it was stubbornly counterattacked by the Soviet Union in the process of advancing northward and suffered heavy losses.

In 1939, the Japanese Kwantung Army, which occupied the northeast of our country, clashed with the Soviet Union at Zhanggufeng on the Sino-Soviet border. Due to the conflict between the Outer Mongolian herdsmen and the puppet Manchurian army, they rashly launched the Battle of Nomenkan (Sino-Mongolian border area) against the Soviet Union, but suffered a crushing defeat under the attack of the Soviet mechanized corps. As a result, the Japanese side believed that the Army was weak and insufficient to confront the Soviet Far East Army; The navy was stronger and could fight with the British and American colonial forces.

Japan's policy of going south was a kind of decision-making mistake of the Japanese officers at that time, and the battle line was stretched too long, and the logistical supply could not keep up at all.

Rightly, at that time Japan went south mainly to further improve the standard of living of the people. At that time, there were some people who went south. They are now very rich, and it was at that time that they accumulated absolute experience and learned a lot of ways to make money.

That's right. Because if a country wants to develop well, it must have abundant resources and vast territory, and invading China in the south is the best choice. China was rich in land and resources, and the political chaos at that time made it a good time to invade.

From a modern perspective, "in itself, it is not historical, and we can only look at Japan's behavior in the historical context of the time."

First, although Japan has been "planning for a long time" to launch a war of aggression against China, it has not been carefully planned. It wants a quick solution but is mired in a protracted war, and China will not collapse, surrender, or negotiate peace, and this stalemate has given China hope and Japan uneasy.

Second, Japan lacks resources, and the more it drags on, the more passive it becomes, and it is anxious to get out of its predicament. Backward China could not provide the conditions for "feeding the war with war" and tried to "march north" into the Soviet Union, and the Battle of Normenheim suffered another crushing defeat. Moreover, the "desert tundra" of the Soviet Far East could not quickly provide resources to Japan, and the "northward advance" hit a wall.

Third, if you can't "go north", you can only "go south", but Southeast Asia has long been carved up by the great powers. The Philippines is the territory of the United States, Myanmar, Malay and Indonesia are British territory, and Vietnam is the territory of France. If Japan wants to intervene, it must pass the hurdle of Britain and the United States!

Fourth, the United States has vaguely seen the signs of Japan's southward move, and it has "timely" drawn wages from the bottom of Japan's kettle! Stopping the supply of oil and steel to Japan will push Japan to a dead end.

Therefore, Japan's war against the United States is a "last resort," and of course, there is also the wishful thinking of Great Japan of "long-lasting military fortune." Who can figure out the second "right" approach for Japan?