Japan's Scheme to Invade Nansha Islands in Early 20th Century
At the beginning of the 20th century,Japan took a series of steps to encroach the Nansha Islands of China.In 1917,Komatsu Shigeharu and Hirata Sueji,who had a close relationship with the Japanese Navy,explored the Nansha Islands.In 1918,the Japanese Navy,under the pretext that phosphate ore was discovered on"uninhabited islands",secret-ly led the Lhasa Phosphate Mine Corporation to investigate the Islands.The corporation employed Japanese Reserve Navy of-ficer Ogura Unosuke and Navy officer Fukushima Murahachi to inspect the area twice.The Lhasa Phosphate Mine Corpora-tion began in 1921 to steal large amounts of resources from the Nansha Islands,forming a fact of colonization and occupa-tion.Meanwhile,the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs actively cooperated and secretly investigated the ownership of the Nansha Islands through diplomatic channels,making preparations for the final occupation and annexation.Although this is-sue was temporarily shelved because the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs was worried about China's opposition and be-cause the Great Depression broke out in 1929,it was no secret that Japan was constantly plotting to encroach the Nansha Islands at the national level.
the Japanese Governmentthe Lhasa Phosphate Mine Corporationthe Japanese NavyOgura Unosukethe Nansha Islands
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