After the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 invaded and occupied the Korean Peninsula and Taiwan Province Island, Japan directly incorporated these two areas into its territory. After nearly half a century of Japanese rule, by the time of World War II, most Koreans and Taiwan Province people had lost the concept of colony and completely regarded themselves as Japanese. The best proof that these two places could be officially counted as Japanese territory at that time was that during World War II, there were as many as one million Korean Japanese soldiers, all of whom took Japanese names directly. They were as fierce as real Japanese devils on the battlefield, and many of them participated in the Nanjing Massacre. And Taiwan Province's Japanese army also exceeded 3,. Although the fighting capacity is not as good as that of Korean Japanese army, most of them are arranged as artillery, and the level of controlling artillery is still quite high. In addition, most of Sakhalin Island, 76, square kilometers, was also in the hands of the Japanese. In addition, China's three northeastern provinces, Shandong's Qingdao, Lushun and Dalian at that time were all colonies firmly controlled by the Japanese before the outbreak of the All-round War of Resistance Against Japan.
the Korean peninsula covers an area of 22, square kilometers, Taiwan Province is nearly 4, square kilometers, Sakhalin Island was controlled by Japan at that time, and it was over 5, square kilometers. Together with the 38, square kilometers of the four Japanese islands, the territory directly under the jurisdiction of Little Japan reached 8, square kilometers before the war of aggression against China was launched in an all-round way. During World War II, the population of Japan was 7 million. Together with the Japanese from the Korean Peninsula and Taiwan Province Island, the total population has fully exceeded the current 12 million. The puppet Manchukuo covers an area of 1.13 million square kilometers, with a population of 4 million at most. Together with Qingdao and Lushun, which Japan has captured in China, Japan's overseas colonies covered an area of 1.2 million square kilometers at that time, and the colonial population was close to 5 million. At that time, before Germany launched World War II, Austria and Czech Republic were annexed, with a total area of only 37, square kilometers and a population of about 8 million. There were no overseas colonies, and the population and land area actually controlled by Japan were far behind that of Japan before the launch of World War II.
8, square kilometers of territory directly under its jurisdiction, with a population of over 12 million, and an area of 1.2 million square kilometers of colonies and a population of 5 million, was definitely a superpower before the outbreak of World War II. Before the outbreak of World War II, the total population of the United States was only 13 million. At that time, although China claimed to have 4 million people, it actually had only 34 million people. It had to throw away the three northeastern provinces that had been occupied by Japan, and Mongolia and Tibet, which would not fight devils with us, and the population that could actually participate in the war of resistance was more than 2 million. Therefore, simply from the actual land and population at that time, Japan during World War II was not small at all, and its comprehensive national strength was enough to rank among the top three in the world. Therefore, from the real situation, Japan's performance in World War II was actually not very strong compared with its real strength.