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Japan was involved in WW1 with the Allies because they were an ally with Britain. When WW1 broke out, Britain asked Japan to join in with the Allies to capture all German possessions in the Asia Pacific. Japan sent Germany an ultimatum on August 14, 1914, and then formally declared war on Germany on August 23, 1914. Japan then went on to take all German possessions in the region.
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The Japanese government had accepted limits on the size of its navy. Later it had cut the strength of the army and prevented the military from challenging the Chinese troops in Manchuria.
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Japan helped found the League of Nations & Pledged to solve all disagreements peacefully
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Japan needed land and resources for its growing population, and claimed that Chinese soldiers tried to blow up a railway line. In 1931, the Japanese Kwangtung Army attacked Chinese troops in Manchuria in an event commonly known as the Manchurian Incident. Essentially, this was an attempt by the Japanese Empire to gain control over the whole province, in order to eventually encompass all of East Asia. This proved to be one of the causes of World War IIs(1).
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League of Nations ordered Japan to give up Manchukuo, Japan refuses and withdraws from the League of Nations
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Manchuria was now the independent state of Manchukuo, under Japanese protection
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In 1936, an uprising by junior military officers resulted in the murder of several high government officials. The uprising failed, but it gave the military even greater power.
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In December of 1937, the Japanese Imperial Army marched into China's capital city of Nanking and proceeded to murder 300,000 out of 600,000 civilians and soldiers in the city. The six weeks of carnage would become known as the Rape of Nanking and represented the single worst atrocity during the World War II era in either the European or Pacific theaters of war.
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In 1940 Japan allied with Germany and Italy through the Tripartite Pact. The Tripartite Pact, also known as the Berlin Pact, was an agreement between Germany, Italy and Japan signed in Berlin on 27 September 1940 by, respectively, Adolf Hitler, Galeazzo Ciano and Saburō Kurusu.
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At about 8 a.m., Japanese planes filled the sky over Pearl Harbor. Bombs and bullets rained onto the vessels moored below. At 8:10, a 1,800-pound bomb smashed through the deck of the battleship USS Arizona and landed in her forward ammunition magazine. The ship exploded and sank with more than 1,000 men trapped inside. Next, torpedoes pierced the shell of the battleship USS Oklahoma. With 400 sailors aboard, the Oklahoma lost her balance, rolled onto her side and slipped underwater.
