Chapter 416 The Ethnic Disparity

Don't look at the fact that Aberdeen has not taken advantage of the past few years when he has been entangled with the volunteers in Benxi Lake, but his ambition is still very big, he doesn't care about the gains and losses of a place, he has a bigger goal, he wants to take advantage of this position in Benxi Lake, take advantage of the convenient condition of the commander to make a profound analysis and study of the national conditions and geography of China and Japan, and pave the way for his future road. (：)

An should have said that he is more suitable to be a politician. Through analysis and research, he found that in terms of geographical scale, Japan's area is more than 370,000 square kilometers, which is less than half the size of the entire area of Manchuria and only two-thirds the size of Longjiang Province.

In Japan, from the imperial family to the government, in order to realize the dream of a strong country and a great power, as early as the Ming Dynasty in China in the 16th century, the occupation and invasion of China, harassment and aggression on the southeast coast of China.

Since the middle of the 16th century, the Japanese have been threatening the Ming government against the security of their (i.e., Ming) provinces along the East China Sea. In fact, at that time, Chinese soldiers were supposed to cross the sea to attack Japan. At that time, the country was not only cramped and sparsely populated, but also had not formed a unified political power for decades, civil wars were frequent, and laws and discipline could be said to have disappeared. The Ming Dynasty was a highly centralized state, ruled by a highly organized civilian-bureaucratic group, with the central government commanding the localities as if they were their own arm, and there was very little disobedience. At the same time, the Ming Empire nominally had the largest standing army in the world at the time, numbering as many as two million.

Through research, what makes Asumoto a little unbelievable is that the unified Ming Dynasty, which had an army of 2 million, did not have the slightest desire to invade Japan, but was a small country that was not unified and had frequent civil wars, and had a great intention of annexing China. At the end of the 16th century, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who unified Japan, said:

"I vow to include the territory of Tang in my territory...... Destroyed China, moved the capital to China, and the emperor lived in Beijing. "It can be seen from some that the country, which is not very large, has been ambitious since then.

As early as in Japan, there have long been wise politicians who have compared the Japanese archipelago to a silkworm, and China is a mulberry leaf, and the silkworm is to eat mulberry leaves. His own teacher instilled this idea in the class: Japan is shaped like a silkworm, and the branch is like a mulberry leaf, and it is natural for silkworms to eat mulberry leaves, otherwise wouldn't silkworms starve to death?

Therefore, it is not difficult to see that from a long time ago, Japan had the idea of expanding China and incorporating it into its own territory, and secondly, it had the ability and ability to do so.

The words are two-fold. From China's point of view, the reason why Japan regards China rather than other countries as the main object of expansion is because China is a large land and a large resource, a piece of "fat meat", and it is very close to Japan, which is convenient for Japan to use troops; The more important reason is the weakening of China's national power, a nation with major weaknesses and deficiencies that give its own invasion an opportunity.

From the Japanese side. Why did it invade China. Why do you want to invade China?

Tracing back to the roots, the reason why Japan embarked on the road of expansion is also rooted in the fact that there is a strong tradition of military power in Japan's national culture.

Let's take a look at the first reason, which is closely related to Japanese bushido.

In the history of Japan, there was a long Warring States period, when the daimyo led many countries and fought endlessly, and gradually formed a samurai class that specialized in conquest and killing. In 1192, the first samurai government, the Kamakura shogunate, was established, and the centuries-long era of samurai rule began. "Samurai habits" and "the way of the bow and arrow" have formed a set of ethical norms such as loyalty, righteousness, honesty, martial bravery, and perseverance, which are collectively referred to as "bushido".

The formation of bushido greatly strengthened the samurai consciousness, which not only strengthened the samurai class in terms of ethical relations, but also made the samurai's ideological and behavioral characteristics more clear. The elegance of the style not only did not make the Japanese samurai weak, but instead covered the murderous samurai with an elegant coat, so that they could achieve a psychological balance between the pool of blood and the ink. Samurai often slashed passers-by for no reason to test their swords, and then politely bowed to the deceased and said "I'm sorry".

This is a typical example of the samurai's dual character of civility and ferocity and murder. This is also the difference between samurai and bandits from other countries. During the centuries of samurai rule, bushido was propagated as the basic content of social ethics, and the subtle influence of bushido gave the country's culture and national character a strong and strong martial character.

The Meiji Restoration overthrew the dominance of the samurai class and abolished the samurai hierarchy, but bushido was inherited as the dominant ethical tradition and used to inculcate the people in the country, infiltrating the spirit of bushido into the education of young people, and cultivating a bushido mentality among young people.

The second reason is the emperor system.

Japan's imperial system of government was an alternative to bushido that was retained during the Meiji Restoration. Japan's emperor system has two characteristics: one is that there is a family of people for all generations, and the vast majority of their own people have absolute spiritual belief in the emperor; Second, the emperor does not hold real power. This characteristic of the emperor system was skillfully used in the military field. The system of independent command of the armed forces is practiced by the first unit, that is, the command of the armed forces does not belong to the cabinet but to the emperor, so that the military circles can use the name of the emperor to use troops at will to use troops abroad, and the political party system of the country has no binding effect on the military.

It can be said that a military power is the root cause of its foreign invasion, and bushido and the emperor system are precisely the spiritual pillars and political foundation for the formation of a military power.

Third, the development after the Meiji Restoration led the country to embark on the path of military statehood

From the world's point of view, the road to becoming a strong country in history and the development of society will inevitably bring about an urgent need for overseas resources and overseas markets, and the superiority in economic strength and military strength, especially in weapons and equipment, has enabled them to forcibly seize overseas resources and open up overseas markets through expansion.

Japan's relatively weak national power and the general tendency of its citizens to catch up, coupled with its inherent bushido tradition and the influence of the emperor's form of government, naturally led to more reliance on military expansion.

In order to seize overseas resources and open up overseas markets through military affairs, it is necessary to have a strong military force. For this reason, the government of the country has taken military building as its fundamental national policy, made every effort to expand its armaments, and quickly embarked on the road of becoming a strong country.

Fourth, the idea of a Western military power was introduced to Japan, forming a new doctrine of military power

At the end of World War I, the idea of a military power originating from Europe also began to sprout in Japan. After being introduced by the Japanese folk ancestor Kazuki Kita and another thinker, Shuaki Okawa, the trend of thinking of military powerism has spread rapidly in Japan, especially in Japanese military circles. It constitutes a relatively complete ideological system of military power, that is, through the idea of loyalty to the emperor of "the emperor is one", the "national consciousness" with the emperor as the absolute authority is established; relying on the military to carry out "national transformation" and establish a new political power; Through the implementation of national general mobilization, a general war system was established, external expansion was carried out, hegemony in the Far East was seized, and the "Showa Restoration" was completed.

From these studies, Yasumoto sorted out a line of thought: Bushido made the people strong and martial, and the national character of the strong and martial and the characteristics of the emperor system, coupled with the needs of the country's development after the Meiji Restoration, prompted Japan to embark on the road of military power, and the ideas of these military powers, intersected with the doctrine of military power, imported from the West, and gave birth to a new state system with its own characteristics—the idea of a military power that was more belligerent, more tenacious, more adventurous, aggressive, and expansive. From this point of view, China's entry into China has become an inevitable part of its development.

Yamamoto had his own unique views on why Japan was able to enter Manchuria and even China.

This is first and foremost related to the Meiji Restoration, which can be said to be a fundamental turning point in the historical destiny of the country in modern times.

It began to expand abroad long before the Meiji Restoration, but basically did not achieve its goals, and the fundamental reason was that the country's national strength was not enough to support its external expansion at that time. After the Meiji Restoration, foreign expansion was almost successful, mainly because the economic development after the Restoration provided a material basis for foreign expansion.

Taking weapons and equipment as an example, it is now possible to mass-produce all advanced heavy weapons, such as tanks, armored vehicles, large-caliber artillery, combat aircraft, battleships, cruisers, aircraft carriers, and military communications equipment, and their performance is no longer incomparable, while Manchuria today, and even the whole of China, can only produce infantry light weapons and small-caliber artillery, and heavy weapons are basically dependent on imports from other countries.

It can be said that the Meiji Restoration was a blessing for the country and the foundation of a strong country.

Second, some characteristics of national culture and national character have strengthened national strength and military capabilities. On the road to the expansion of a military power, in addition to bushido, the emperor system, and economic development, there are also some things that embody the national character and national cultural characteristics of Japan, such as unity, conscientiousness and dedication, being good at creative imitation, and having a sense of crisis.

As mentioned earlier, Aberdeen, as a professional soldier, has a dual identity, he is not satisfied with the role of a soldier, he has his own ambitions, he wants to win an honor for his royal family, and he wants to re-establish his prestige in the army for his royal life.

In order to achieve his goal, he worked tirelessly, devoted himself to research, and finally became a China expert, of course, he knew the country's road to a strong army and the characteristics of his own nation.

Japan is only able to launch an all-out war because it is strong, and Japan's strength is inseparable from the characteristics of the Yamato nation.

To tell the truth, one of the most important advantages of the Yamato nation is that it does not engage in internal strife

In fact, it is not that the Japanese do not have internal contradictions, but they do not engage in internal commotion, they cherish their compatriots very much, and whoever touches the Japanese at all, even if a senior general of the Imperial Allied Army accidentally injures a Japanese soldier, it is a terrible thing.

Derived from the army, the Japanese army has never had a civil war, and there is constant friction within the squadron.

A long time ago, some Chinese put forward a famous slogan: "Unite, unite with the outside world!"

Although the slogan is quite loud, for them, it is simply impossible to do it, that is, now, except for Manchuria, all parts of China, the so-called "brothers" are fighting each other. On the other hand, the local people have truly achieved "unity, unity to the outside world!" ”

This book is derived from reading books