A somewhat brief history of Japanese Imperial Occupation during WWII -

• Japan invades Manchuria in 1931, claiming they are liberating the Manchus from the Chinese. They conquer Manchuria.
• In 1936 they create a puppet state in Inner Mongolia.
• In 1937 the second Sino-Japanese war occurs between Japan, Mao Zedong’s Communists, and Chang Kai-shek’s nationalists. Japan invades the Nationalist capital, Nanjing (also known as Nanking) in what is known as the Nanjing Massacre. The Nationalists and Communists form an uneasy alliance against the Japanese.
• In 1940 Japan forms a tripartite pact with Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, creating is what is known at the Axis powers.
• In 1941, what is known as the Pacific War begins - Japan invades Thailand, British Maylay, and Hong Kong, as well as bombing Pearl Harbor in Hawai’i. 
• In 1942, the following happens: In January, Japan invaded Burma, the Dutch East Indies, New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and captured Manila, Kuala Lumpur and Rabaul. After being driven out of Malaya, Allied forces in Singapore attempted to resist the Japanese during the Battle of Singapore but surrendered to the Japanese on 15 February 1942; about 130,000 Indian, British, Australian and Dutch personnel became prisoners of war. The pace of conquest was rapid: Bali and Timor. At the Battle of the Java Sea in late February and early March, the Japanese Navy inflicted a resounding defeat on the main ABDA naval force, under Admiral Karel Doorman. The Dutch East Indies campaign subsequently ended with the surrender of Allied forces on Java  and Sumatra.
• ^{In March and April of 1942 Japan air raided the Indian ocean, paving the way for assault on India and Burma.}
• ^{In may 1942, Manila, Philippines is declared an open city, which Japan then occupies.}
• In the aftermath of the Japanese conquest of Burma, there was widespread disorder in eastern India, and a disastrous famine in Bengal, which ultimately caused up to 3 million deaths. In spite of these, and inadequate lines of communication, British and Indian forces attempted limited counter-attacks in Burma in early 1943.

I hope I didn’t miss too much. Basically that’s the order of where Japan invaded…

- Source/Reference: Wiki.

The Colonial Romance from Imperial Japan

Excerpted from “Mediating Modern Love in Manchuria: Performing Ethnicity, Gender, and Romance in Yokota Fumiko’s “Love Letter” by Kimberly Kono.

One of the most popular images associated with the “puppet state” of Manchukuo to appear in Japanese cinematic production during 1931- 1945 was that of the colonial romance, a love affair between colonizing Japanese and colonized subjects set on the Asian continent.’ Many writers and directors implicitly likened the colonial relationship between Japan and the continent to a romance, highlighting the diverse possibilities emerging from this union. The proliferation of such images in the Japanese popular imagination throughout this period thus functioned to “romanticize” (in both senses of the word) and ultimately advocate Japan’s colonial enterprise. But while Japanese film portrayed the union of Japanese and colonized subjects as a romantic adventure, the political “unification”of Japan and Manchuria represented the less appealing reality of discriminatory colonial policies and anti-Japanese resistance.

…

Read More