How was Japan able to invade China when they are way smaller than china?

[Gizmo j]

China has about 100x the population to Japan but somehow Japan was conquering China, how?

 

[IronWing]

Japan was industrialized, China was not. China was also preoccupied with a civil war. Sort of like Great Britain conquering India.

 

[bbhaag]

Japan was industrialized, China was not. China was also preoccupied with a civil war. Sort of like Great Britain conquering India.

Yep! A lot of people don't realize that the industrialization of China didn't really take off until Nixon made his famous visit in 1972 which eventually opened up the doors for trade.

 

[Tormac]

Oddly enough, depending on how one counts the population of Japan around the time they invaded China, Japan and its colonies (mainly Korea) had a larger population than China did, if Wikipedia can be trusted (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_population_in_1939)

China was not unified in the first half of the twentieth century. Some parts of it were rules by Warlords who did not answer to a central government, but were their own little kingdoms. Add to that the infighting between the Republicans and Communist and you had a country that Japan though was very weak, and could be taken over piecemeal with ease.

Combine that with the fact that China had almost no Navy, armor, or Air force, while Japan had a particularly strong Navy and Air force, Japan did think that China would be easy pickings.

China actually turned into a meat grinder for the Imperial Army during WW2. The Chinese refused to stop fighting, even though they were horribly outclassed by the Imperial Japanese. China, rather like Russia’s fight against Germany, traded land for time, and pulled the Japanese into a long war of attrition. China moved its capital into the interior to the city of Chong Qing, and dug in the remnants of their leadership and industry into the mountains around that city. Aided by the Americans with air support and material China never surrendered throughout the war, even though all of their rich coastal cities were smashed to rubble.

China actually is second only to Russia in casualties in WW2. They were tenacious fighters, although considering Imperial Japan’s treatment of the people they colonized, China knew it was fighting for its life, and was not going to surrender no matter what.

 

[sdifox]

Second Sino-Japanese War - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[ultimatebob]

I don't think that Japan ever fully conquered China... did they?

 

[sdifox]

I don't think that Japan ever fully conquered China... did they?

Nope. About a quarter of the territory (the important parts) and a third of the population.

 

[DigDog]

the chinese used crossbows.

the japanese no.

 

[BarkingGhostar]

China has about 100x the population to Japan but somehow Japan was conquering China, how?

Seriously? Where do you get the dope you're smoking? Its closer to 10, not a hundred times. And as others have pointed out, Japan was a highly industrialized nation whereas China was backwater country sitting in the dark ages.