The US had the choice to make the Shōwa emperor stand trial for war crimes. Though historically inaccurate, they portrayed him as blameless in order to secure Japan as an ally during the Cold War. […]
Shidehara Kijūrō was more motivated by trade agreements than imperialistic pursuits. This world view was not shared with the Japanese military who were trigger happy when it came to China. […]
Konoe Fumimaro strongly believed that Japan could defeat China in 1937. That one miscalculation cost Konoe his entire political career and plunged Japan deeper into a war it could never win. […]
What made Japan surrender was the fear that the Soviet attack generated. With thousands of Japanese soldiers taken by the Soviets as POW, it came just four miles short of Japan proper. […]
Revolutions don’t happen in a day. They are long-running disruptions that can take many years to build up and erupt. They require mass support and compel the complacent to risk everything for a cause. […]
Revolutions arise because of different crises, most common being a state’s attempt to modernize and reform. Having a singular message allows revolutionaries to mount an effective attack against the old system. […]
Fang Lizhi urged young people to take their future into their own hands. Already feeling restless, the students held many prodemocracy rallies and demonstrations in China. The party leaders were divided over how to view these events. […]
Rising income disparities and growth of urban inflation were major concerns in China in 1980s. As socio-economic stresses grew stronger, the traditionalists launched an ideological counterattack against capitalism. […]
As China went through the reform era in the 1980s, with people free to express their individualities and the spread of the globalization fever across the country, a new set of social problems took birth. […]
The public unrest that Poland experienced in 1980 rippled through the Communist world, eventually affecting China. The problems of the two countries were strangely similar. […]
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