Chapter 38 The future of North Korea and Mongolia is uncertain

Let's learn practical economics briefly. Like the Italians, the Japanese were imprisoned on a small island, and the population swelled dramatically, so they yearned for more land.There is an immutable law of nature, and all the beautiful words in the world can't change it, and all the treaties can't change it, and all the sweet words of good women and men can't change it--I am strong, but I have nothing, I am hungry Panicked, I was adrift on a little raft in the middle of the ocean, with a man with me, his pockets full of ham sandwiches.Compared with me, that person is very weak and weak.So I either desperately snatched a ham sandwich out of his bag, or waited to slowly starve to death.As a decent person, I have been carefully educated by God-fearing parents for many years, I have been trying to restrain my desires, one day, two days, three days... Finally, my desires broke out: "Bring me a sandwich or I'll throw you into the sea—quick!"

To the owner of this sandwich, with some degree of mercy from my past education, I allow him to keep a sandwich for himself, but if I don't kill him, I will have to suffer. Hungry pain.Put the Japanese in the position of this person, and you will have a vivid understanding of the problems the Japanese face. The Japanese live on a small piece of land, smaller than the state of California (155,652 square miles in California, 148,756 square miles in Japan), with only 16 million square acres of agricultural land, only 2% of the total agricultural land in the United States %weak.If you want to compare something a little closer to us, take converted land in New York State.Even the best agricultural expert in the world can see clearly the real problems facing this impoverished island nation if he is allowed to visit the country.Of course, the Japanese live by fishing because they are near the sea. Although their agriculture has reached the level of raising fish in the muddy water of rice fields today, since Japan’s annual population growth exceeds 650,000, it takes some time to solve the problem of food and clothing. time.

Japan must find more land.Naturally, the Japanese looked first at the poorly managed and thoroughly neglected land across the Sea of ​​China.Of course, the United States is the most suitable for the Japanese, but the United States is too far away and too powerful.Australia is also far away, and 90% of that continent is barren, inaccessible and useless at all.In contrast, Manchuria is close at hand, the Korean Peninsula happens to be another bridge, and there is only a narrow Korean Strait between the Korean Peninsula and Japan, which is only 102 miles wide, and the Korean Strait happens to have the Japanese Tsushima right in the middle island. In 1905, the Japanese fleet destroyed the Russian naval fleet near Tsushima Island in one fell swoop, killing a potential opponent in the Far East at once.

Since there is no protective natural barrier, the Korean peninsula is colder than Sicily, although its latitude is roughly the same as that of Sicily in Italy.In ancient times, the Korean peninsula was also called Goryeo. The reason why it was called North Korea was explained by the Koreans as "a quiet place facing the sun".In the 12th century BC, a group of Chinese occupied the Korean peninsula, and today's Koreans are descendants of those Chinese immigrants.At that time, they came to the Korean peninsula and easily drove out the primitive tribes living in the caves in the middle.These new Chinese also established their own kingdoms, but never gained real independence from their mother country—China—and were often attacked by Japanese pirates.

In 1592, the Japanese first attempted to invade and annex Korea.Do not fight unprepared battles.The Japanese will not act rashly without adequate preparation.Beforehand, the Japanese purchased hundreds of large-caliber muskets from the Portuguese.Relying on the advantage of weapons, only 300,000 troops were sent across the Korean Strait.North Korea invited Chinese to help, the war was fought for 5 years, in the end, Japan was defeated because the Chinese army had more numbers. Why do Koreans hate the Japanese so much?It was during this war of aggression that the Japanese destroyed Seoul, the capital of North Korea, and created many heinous and brutal incidents.Japan is strong, but Korea is weak. Therefore, when Korea was under the protection of Russia in all aspects, including politics and economy, in the last 25 years of the 19th century, the Japanese found an excuse to launch a war of aggression again.

The apparent causes of wars are often prosaic, and the real roots are often hidden in the background.In order to feed the rapidly expanding population in the country, the Japanese government needs more food. This is the most direct and deepest root cause of the Japanese invasion of the Korean Peninsula, including the invasion in 1592. Japan defeated Russia and drove the Russian army out of the Yalu River on the border between China and North Korea, and Korea was reduced to a Japanese protectorate. In 1910, the Japanese Empire incorporated the Korean Peninsula into its own territory, and it was in the same position as Taiwan Island and Sakhalin Island. In 1895, the Japanese snatched Taiwan Island from China; after the Russo-Japanese War in 1905, Russia’s war compensation to Japan was Sakhalin Island.Now, there are 500,000 Japanese immigrants and 20 million Koreans living on the Korean Peninsula, and more Japanese immigrants will continue to flow into the Korean Peninsula.

Mongolia is a vast country. The south is sparsely populated and is a Gobi desert. The rest of the country is a vast and endless prairie, which is very suitable for herding cattle and sheep.Mongolia is 11 times the size of the British Isles, at 1.4 million square miles, but has a population of just under 2 million.The Mongols' riding and archery technology is the main determinant of Mongolia's past glory. Riding on the back of a war horse, they fought all the way from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean. For the Mongols, this is no longer possible. Many people seem to be filled with righteous indignation and denounced the brutal Japanese aggression, calling it "the wolfish ambition of the Japanese", but I prefer to call it "the survival needs of the Japanese".In order to solve the surplus population in the country, Japan must find a way out, so its actions in North Asia are logical.North Asia is vast and sparsely populated, and people are used to any brutal rule, and their past days are not necessarily better than they are now.

If North Asia ceased to exist as a safety valve, the Philippines, the Dutch East Indies, Australia, New Zealand, and the West Coast of the United States would forever be exposed to the iron heels of the Japanese.For each of the Polynesian islands we would have to place a battleship in front of each island in case they were "towed away" by Japanese cruisers some night. From a global perspective, this pattern seems to be more favorable at the moment.Because of my heartless and selfish words, if anyone sheds tears, please cry on the shoulders of the Indians.