The Japanese invasion of mainland Asia began in 1931 with the Japanese invasion and conquest of Manchuria. The occupation of Manchuria, which was re-named Manchukuo, lasted until the Japanese defeat at the end of World War Two.

The only one of these answers that is an island that makes up part of the country of Japan is Honshu. The four main islands that make up the nation of Japan are Honshu, Hokkaido, Shikoku, and Kyushu. Honshu is the primary island that contains most of the nation’s largest cities, such as Tokyo. Seoul is the capital of South Korea, Osaka is a city in Japan, Hong Kong is an island off the coast of China, and Tahiti is an island nation in the South Pacific.

1931 could reasonably be seen as the beginning of World War Two in East Asia. This was the year when Japan invaded mainland China, occupying the territory of Manchuria and insituting a puppet-government that lasted until the end of the war in 1945. 

The Battle of Leyte Gulf was the largest naval battle of the Second World War. It was fought between the combined Allied forces, led by America and Australia, and the Japanese Imperial Navy. The battle resulted in an overwhelming defeat for the Japanese Imperial Navy, which was never again able to engage the Allied powers in large numbers.

The Bataan Death March happened in 1942 after the Battle of Bataan in the Philippines. It involved the forced transfer of American and Filipino prisoners of war by the Japanese Imperial army, in which several thousand American and Filipino soldiers perished. It was later deemed a war crime by the Allied military commission. 

Admiral Isokoru Yamamoto is one of the most famous military commanders of World War Two. He led the Japanese fleet in the attack on Pearl Harbor and coordinated the fleet at the Battle of Midway. He is also widely remembered for the pioneering developments in aviation that he fostered in the Japanese navy, namely the use of aircraft carriers and small planes used as the primary weapons of naval engagements. He is not, however, remembered for personally surrendering to the American forces at the end of World War Two, as his plane was shot down by an American pilot in 1943.

Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution is particularly important for understanding Japanese-American relations and Japanese-Chinese relations. The Article officially and permanently renounces Japan’s right to maintain an armed force for the purpose of using war to settle international disputes. According to the Article, Japan is effectively forbidden, in its constitution, from engaging in aggressive war and can only defend itself.

For much of Chinese and Japanese history, the relations between these two countries have been amicable. China's influence over Japanese culture, language, and customs cannot be overstated; however, in the nineteenth century, things changed. The Chinese were humiliated time and again by Britain and the other European powers, and as the Japanese began to modernize in the Meiji Restoration, they came to look at China as backwards and unable to defend itself.

The relations between Japan and China suffered in the years after the Second World War and continue to suffer to this day in large part as a result of atrocities committed by the Japanese during their invasion of China and perceived historical insensitivity on the part of the Japanese. The Rape of Nanking, a weeks-long massacre involving horrible violence and the rape of women that took place in 1937, is the most infamous and offensive of these atrocities.

The Meiji Restoration is the name given to the modernization and westernization of Japanese society in the second half of the nineteenth century. As a result of Japan's increasing economic and military power combined with China's subjugation by the British and French, the Japanese came to view the Chinese as a backwards nation that was unable to defend itself.