With Putin's invasion of Ukraine, we are now in the line to question about World War II's lesson

On 1 July 1931, tensions occurred over irrigation dam ditched between Korean and Chinese farmers in the village of Wanpaoshan near the border of Korea. At that time, Korea was part of Japan, therefore the Korean farmers were seen as subjects of Tokyo, so the Japanese dispatched its police alongside the Chinese counterparts. However, before the dispute could be solved, Chinese farmers had rebelled and drove the Koreans away, only to be dispersed by Japanese police.

The Japanese took advantage of the dispute and sensationalised the problem into a massive nationalist discourse days later. This led to widespread anti-Chinese unrest across Japanese Korea and it was believed that the Japanese tacitly relaxing its hand for the Korean rioters so they could kill Chinese in there. The worst occurred in Pyongyang - the future capital of utopian North Korea - where more than a thousand casualties, both killed and injured. In response, massive unrest broke out in Manchuria against ethnic Koreans, which led to the casualties of more than 10,000 people.

The Japanese later justified the provocation as the mean to protect its Korean citizens in Manchuria from aggressive Republic of China, and militarised the peninsula. On 18 September the same year, a group of Japanese officers deliberately detonated (though unsuccessful) a rail line owned by a Japanese company in Mukden (now Shenyang) as a false flag for an invasion. Within just few hours after the failed explosion, Japan accused China, then under Chiang Kai-shek, of allowing dissidents to detonate the line, and subsequently dispatched its military force a day later, being renowned today as Mukden Incident. China was being torn by a war between Chiang's Nationalists and the Communists, henceforth it could not dedicate soldiers to fend off Japan. Japan spent six years spanning from it to bolster its new puppet regime, Manchukuo, bringing the last Emperor of China, Puyi, to power. Japan also used this to represent its demands on China to give the Japanese more economic and political privileges.

When these demands were not met, on 7 July 1937, the Japanese staged a false flag incident in Marco Polo Bridge in Peking and launched a full-fledged invasion. Chiang, in response, declared China was at war with Japan. This war eventually escalated before merging with the Pacific frontier that formed much of Asia's World War II history and was notable as the deadliest and bloodiest war in the history of modern Asia.

During this era of tensions and later war between China and Japan, Germany was neutral and friendly to both sides. The Germans got good ties with China and had dispatched former World War I officers to train Chinese troops, the most famous being Alexander von Falkenhausen, who was instrumental in providing significant military training that would help China to fight Japan in the future. At the same time, with Japan became increasingly militarist from time, Germany found itself restoring ties with Japan, the country which used to invite German advisors in early days of Meiji Restoration. Hitler's Mein Kampf underlined this,

It was not in the interests of Great Britain to have Germany annihilated, but primarily a Jewish interest. And to-day the destruction of Japan would serve British political interests less than it would serve the far-reaching intentions of those who are leading the movement that hopes to establish a Jewish world-empire.

Therefore, Germany used its original neutrality to facilitate both relations, and German-Chinese relations would go on to sustain until 1941, when Japan attacked Pearl Harbour, officially pit China and Germany on opposite polar. The Berlin pact in 1940 only guaranteed this.

I am not so sure if Vladimir Putin really reads that, but he definitely has it playing on mind. Learning how the Japanese saboteurs made up the fabrication to launch a savage war on Nationalist China, Putin also learnt to fabricate the situation to create a similar chaotic issue in Ukraine. First, he annexed Crimea and propped up two fake states, Donetsk and Luhansk's People's Republics, before finally waging war on Ukraine. All of these things probably made Hideki Tojo to smile.

Also, Putin probably counts very well about China's position. There is a need to emphasise that the modern China is not 1930s and 1940s China, it is the People's Republic of China, run by the Communist Party that won the mainland in 1949. Beijing itself has been somewhat familiar to that of Nazi Germany back in 1930s, China actively plays a neutral, though ambiguous role. China has increasingly become brotherly with Russia, while at the same time, it knows that some of its first effort to modernise its military, came from Ukraine - the first Chinese aircraft carrier was bought from Ukraine. As for the result, China can't jeopardise its relations with Kyiv, but China's open opposition to sanctions on Russia is enough for China to be distrusted.

Moreover, considering the amount of sanctions imposed on Russia proved severe and lethal, this may actually not deter Putin's aggression. Just as we remember Japan for example, after the Mukden Incident, Japan was kicked out of the League of Nations a year later, but it didn't bother about it, rather trying to consolidate its military goals for its imperialist aggression with the aim to conquer much of Asia. Nazi Germany, for most part being neutral between Japan and China, later joined the Japanese bandwagon and left the League in 1933. Together, Japan and Nazi Germany would later change the history course into a dark chapter.

Japanese troops advancing to Manchuria in September 1931.

Putin is aiming to restore what he believed to be the imperialist quest for the restoration of his empire rebuilding and he is using Japanese expansionism in a century ago as an inspiration. And Putin's megalomania is also reinforced by another reason: nuclear weapons. Although anti-nuclear weapons have already been developed ever since, notably the anti-ballistic missiles, it is still a deadly weapon enough for us to fear about, especially with high tantamount of radiation. So far, only Japan and Ukraine have suffered from it, the latter is already at war with Russia; and Japan had to take over ten years to finally clean radiation out of the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. With Ukraine, its efforts have been ongoing, but Russian invasion has disrupted all of these.

Moreover, there is another fear. Putin wants to inspire the militarist egos of Chinese generals and Xi Jinping to follow the same maniac pattern. One of the most notable thing back in pre-World War II lessons was, how the Germans observed the Japanese aggression as the key to study. Despite having no problem with both Japan and China, the Germans were astonished by the strong display of its future Japanese allies when it invaded China. Germany during that era attempted to mediate, and at the same time sought to learn from Japanese blitzkrieg on Chinese army as the mean to replicate the same tactic, eventually did with Poland. Another reason for Germany to take studies was, the country itself wondered how the Western nations and Soviet Union would respond before it could be guaranteed to make the same action.

Western and Soviet response to Japanese aggression on China back then was harsh, but it appeared to be the same limits like that of current Putin's attack on Ukraine. The harshest actions against Japan was, to cut off all trades and resources to Japan, including oil supplies, as well as imposing bank restrictions and freeze of assets. The Soviets even offered aids to China against Japan following the non-aggression pact. A massive economic embargo was led by the United States, at the time was not interested in involving in global conflicts. Yet it had only increased Hideki's hunger and eventually put Japan at war with the United States, opened the second frontier.

Overall, Putin is aiming to reset the time back to a century ago, where the use of violence was appreciated, and if he succeeds, it will be a disaster because it will embolden Xi Jinping, who is carrying a similar nationalist ego, to feel happy for such an adventure. This will require a massive and united response, if not saying stronger one, to deter Putin's aggression.