Intelligence Gathering & Jujutsu - Part 3 - When does the war in the Pacific start for the Japanese?

Before we look at the activities of the Japanese in the first half of the twentieth century on a covert level, we must obtain some context by looking at the overt activities of the Japanese Empire.

From the restoration of the Emperor Meiji in 1868, Japan embarked on a rapid process of modernisation and militarisation.  By 1920 it had the third largest Navy in the world.

When we consider war in the Pacific we tend to focus on either the invasion of China in 1937 or the bombing of Pearl Harbour in 1942, however Japan's military activities in the region stretch back much further in time.

Japan's war in the Pacific essentially starts with the restoration of the Emperor Meiji in 1868.

Meiji Restoration	1868
Start of the Empire of Japan	1868
Imperial Navy Established (Dominated by Satsuma)	1868
Conscription Introduced	1871
Imperial Army Established (Dominated by Choshu)	1871
First Sino-Japanese War	1894	1895
Japanese Invasion of Taiwan	1895
Boxer Rebellion	1899	1901
Russo-Japanese War	1904	1905
Protection/annexation of Korea	1905	1945
World War I	1914	1918
Siberian Intervention	1918	1922
Japanese Invasion of Manchuria	1931	1932
Second Sino-Japanese War	1937	1941
Invasion of French Indochina	1940
World War II (Pacific)	1941	1945
End of the Empire of Japan	1947

Map By Original Author: User:San JoseDerivative Author: Dead Mary - This file was derived from:  Second world war asia 1937-1942 map de.png, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link