What were the problems caused by Japan because of Manchuria, especially between China and Japan, and what were the influences?

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The tension between China and Japan has appeared for so many years. As a Chinese, I want to know more about what Japan did during 1930s and 1940s. I also want to understand what was actually going on between China and Japan, and how the problems affect people's life now. I checked up a few web sites, both in Chinese and English, so that the ideas wouldn't be too subjective or simplistic.

Japan's industry and military powers were developing very fast during the 1920s to 1930s, and its population was rapidly increasing as well. Japan's land was getting crowded. Manchuria had nearly 200,000 square kilometers of land that could help Japan solve their population problem. Japan thought that Manchuria would have many resources, so the desire for taking over Manchuria became stronger and stronger. The Great Depression in US in 1929 hit Japan very hard as well. People lost their jobs and houses, and they didn't have the money to buy food.Many people saw Manchuria as a new opportunity, because they thought there would be new jobs and better lives. So some people started moving to Manchuria. The final result was that Japan created a puppet regime in Manchuria, and founded Manchokuo. Puyi, the last emperor of Qing dynasty, technically "ruled" Manchokuo, but, in reality, the real power lay in the hands of the Japanese.

Japan's actions during this time caused many problems. For example, the League of Nations was very angry about the establishment of Manchokuo, because it made them fail badly in 1930s and 1940s. "In the 1930s there was a world-wide economic depression. Japan tried to overcome the depression by building up an empire. In 1932, the Japanese army invaded Manchuria and threw out the Chinese. They set up their own government there and called it Manchoukuo. China asked the League to help. The League sent a group of officials led by Lord Lytton to study the problem (this took a year). In February 1933 it ordered Japan to leave Manchuria. Japan refused to leave Manchuria. Instead, Japan left the League. The Japanese stayed in Manchuria. The League had failed." (http://www.johnd clare.net/)This source shows that Japan put the League of Nations in a hard pinch. As one of the strongest members in the League, Japan's behavior made the situation of the League worse. The main ideas and aims of the League were to stop wars, improve people's lives, disarm, and enforce the Treaty of Versailles. However, as a main member Japan broke the promise that to keep the peace, by invading China. Since the League was powerless to stop Japan for a variety of reasons. For example, Sanctions was one of the four main powers that the League had. It is a power to forbid a country to trade with other countries in the League, when they did something wrong. Most of the countries in the League had very important trading relationships with Japan. One of the four most significant powers of the League was Sanctions. If Japan left the League, the power of sanctions would totally fail, because America was not in the League either. Another reason was that other main members such as Britain and France did not prevent Japan from invading Manchuria, is because they did not want any wars after World War One, because they felt that they were not strong or powerful enough to sustain another war. There behaviors did not make the League look better even a little bit. When China was asking the League for help, the on action that the League could do was to send a person over to try and mediate the conflict. The League did not have an army, so the League could actually do nothing about it. If the League had an army, that would be against the aims of the League. So all these factors made the people in the world even more doubting about the foundation and aims of the League. Japan's action set the stage for how other nations viewed it in the future. The League of Nations led to the formation of the United Nations. The League of Nations was founded after World War One, and the United Nations was founded after World War Two under almost the same guidelines. In 2005, when Japan wanted to enter the Security Council of the United Nations, China hinted that it would oppose Japan's bid for a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council. One of the reasons for this opposition could have stemmed to when Japan was in the League of Nations, and it just like a new school will want the student's previous scores. So Japan's behavior and attitude might be considered nowadays.

Most of the Chinese web sites describe what Japan did with anger. This part of the history deeply humiliated all the Chinese people. Following is an example from an English web site, which doesn't seem that furious but explains very well. "Between 1925 and 1928, Chinese nationalists under the banner of the Kuomintang (Nationalist Party) had begun to unite all of China's far-flung regions under a Kuomintang Nationalist government. Japan's militarists feared that a unified China under a Nationalist government would block Japanese territorial expansion into Manchuria where Japan had massive commercial interests and had achieved significant political influence. In 1927, Japanese militarists demanded action by the imperial government to block the Chinese Nationalist movement reaching Manchuria. The militarist Prime Minister Tanaka responded by sending Japanese troops to China's Shantung province in 1928 to block a union of Manchuria with the Chinese Nationalist cause."(http://www.users.bigpond.com/)This is a good example, because it shows an increase in Japan's desire for invading China was growing bigger and bigger. However, this was just a start, or maybe it's not even a start, because they didn't find an excuse to invade Manchuria until 10:20pm, September 18th, 1931.A Japanese troop bombed a railway, and imputed it to the Chinese troops. The Japanese troops claimed that the Chinese were trying to attack them. After that, Japan started its occupation in China which had been planned for a long time. Because of Jiangjieshi's policy of nonresistance, in less than half a year, most of the North-east part of China had been override by Japanese. Invading Manchuria and creating Manchokuo was a beginning for Japan, in its plan to turn China into its own colony. This kind of colonization lasted for 14 years. During those 14 years, Japan did large numbers of cruel things to China and Chinese people. When Germany first used the poison gas in the second Battle of Ypres during World War One, Japan realized how powerful the chemical weapons were. So they made their own chemical weapons and tested them on the Chinese people. As a result, more than 80,000 soldiers died, as well as countless numbers of innocent perished civilians. At that time, the Japanese had a special policy for Chinese. "Kill all! Burn all! Rob all!" Some old people nowadays, who had gone through that part in history, when asked about what happened to the Chinese people during the Japanese occupations, cried so hard that they couldn't even answer the question. Up until 1945, millions of Chinese were killed. In 1930s and 1940s, under the pressure of national crisis, the Chinese started their movement of fighting back and saving their own country. So the events since Japan invaded Manchuria were very important in both Chinese and Japanese history. History is part of the country that can't be forgotten or changed. However, some of the Japanese people still do not admit the things that Japan did to China and to Chinese people. Every country has to show respects for their own history, and they must face their own past. It may be a hard thing to do, but it's worth it. Because hen a country knows how to accept both sides of histories, including bad ones and good ones, it may not make the same mistakes again. During these few months, the tension between China and Japan is becoming very serious. Chinese people are so furious about the prime minister of Japan, because he keeps going to the Yasukuni Shrine these years. One of the most important reasons that influence the relationship between China and Japan is that Japan seems not really to repent for what it did in the past. Improving the relationship between China and Japan now depends more upon Japan's behavior and attitude, towards amending their past wrongs.

What Japan did since it invaded Manchuria is a part of the history. The problems that it caused can not be changed now, so the best way for Japan to deal with its history is to admit it. Self-examination is also very significant, especially all the atrocities. Also when a person does something wrong, he or she may have a second chance and other people may forgive him; however, if he or she can not realize or does not want to admit that what he did was wrong, there cannot be a chance for reconciliation. Therefore, Japan should show amity to all the Chinese people. Years of fighting in the past, and years of tension now, enough is enough. As a person that lives in this modern world, I really want the world to be peaceful, as peaceful as Woodrow Wilson described. I think all the people in the world want to keep the world a peaceful place. So no matter you are a president or a prime minister, or even you are only a student, we all have to work on that. I believe the dream of Woodrow Wilson and all the people in the world will come true. Japan should also make contributions to the world's peace by admitting what they did and show their friendliness to other countries.