Why did Japan even want to expand all of a sudden in the first place?

They needed resources with which to feed their expanding industry and saw colonialism as something that would give them more prestige in the international community after they westernized.

>>3181304
They saw everyone else doing the same thing and thought ''hey, wouldn't this be fun!''

Then everyone else reee'd because they weren't white.

>>3181304
They needed resources to continue industrialization and international trade wasn't mature enough yet. Also they just tend to try to kill everyone else on earth every 100 years or so.

>>3181304

Japan regarded the imperialist nations of Europe with a mixture of admiration, envy, and fear. They saw that other Asian countries were being dominated by Europeans, and Japan wanted to prevent that from happening to them. They decided that the best way to not get bullied was to become a bigger, meaner bully. To paraphrase a certain foreign minister of Japan:

>Japan will decide her own fate. She will not only be able to put into place the various powers that seek to meddle in her affairs, she will even be able to, if such is necessary, meddle in THEIR affairs.

What Japan wanted more than anything else was to build a powerful navy, and to do that requires outward expansion because the Japanese mainland lacks the oil and mineral wealth required to support such an endeavor. Japan was especially enamored with Prussia, and deliberately sought to emulate Prussian standards and practices in organizing their own army.

>>3181351
kek best summary.

>>3181304
To put it simply, military leaders were off their rockers and starting shit all over the place. Government had to rubber stamp their batshit insanity in China. This led to them pissing off the world powers and leaving the League of Nations. Countries like the U.S.A embargo them. They need resources. Sneak attack America and try to seize as much oil as possible from south-east Asia. Pray that America will not fight back. Fail.

>>3181304
Great Depression.

>>3181407
funny how they became a superpower again by being really good at manufacturing.

you can be a shitty resourceless nationlet and still rule the world!

>>3181351
Everyone else ree'd because they were doing some pretty messed up shit

File: mush.jpg (213KB, 793x1080px) Image search: [Google]

213KB, 793x1080px

>>3183186
>pray the americans will not fight back
Of all the risks anyone's ever taken in all of history, I think the japs deciding to go ahead with pearl harbor might have been the worst idea of them all

>>3181351
Closest thing to white tbqh

>>3183271
No worse than what the average colonial european power did really