Why did Japan attack China in World War 2?

Short Answer
The Japanese were trying to build a larger empire. War is usually about either religion or grabbing territory. The Japanese were building an empire and the emperor of Japan was almost considered a "God", and as such it almost qualifies as a religious war.

Second Focus
The reason for Japan attacking China is that Japan has little natural resources on the island. It was formed by volcanoes. Japan attacked China to get China's natural resources to fund Japan's economy.

Full Answer
Japan had imperial ambitions, the same as those held by Russia, England, France, the Dutch, and the USA - when it came to the Far East. Japan being geographically located there, they felt this was their territory to exploit, similar to the way the USA feels about the Carribean (see Monroe Doctine). Japan was also a resource poor nation with an industrious, expansionist people. It was only natural that they look to the mainland of Asia for new space to occupy. The war with Russia in the early 1900's gave Japan an opportunity to expand into Manchuria, technically a part of China but only loosely controlled. Once Manchuria (and neighboring Korea) were fully in their control, around 1930+/-, Japan began pushing into China proper. By 1934 this was a full blown war with huge resources being devoted to the conflict. The war was brutally fought with much slaughter of civilians involved. Gradually it seemed Japan was gaining control of more and more of China and it appeared inevitable that they would eventually conquer the whole country. Japan's tactics for the most part was to occupy the major industrial and population centers, leaving much of the small village dominated countryside unmolested. In these areas two groups of Chinese began to assert influence. The largest was the Nationalist group, with loose democratic ideals and some tie to the USA they were considered by most westerners to be the recognized government of China. The second group was the Communist movement with strong ties to the Soviets. They were a much smaller and weaker group in the 1930's. Japan exploited the division in the Chinese people between Nationalist and Communist to their advantage. As Japan made more and more progress towards conquering China, with the above noted abuses, they were criticized by western powers, including the USA and Germany. Entire books are devoted to just one such instance, the Rape of Nanking. This interior city was the Nationalist capital. Once the Japanese penetrated to it and conquered it, they went on a rampage of rape, murder, and arson. Eventually such abuses led to the USA organizing with the British and Dutch to freeze all financial assets of the Japanese in those nations possession. Since over 95% of

Japan's oil supplies came from these three nations (or their colonies), Japan was forced to choose: either stop the war in China and withdraw from their decades long conquests or fight the USA. They chose to attack the USA at Hawaii December 1941. In the Pacific the Japanese had great success for a year or so but ultimately the US Navy and supporting forces crushed them. In China, the war was put on hold for a year or two. But, as the Americans approached Japan proper, Japan began pulling back troops from outlying possessions. These men were thrown into the China conflict, and in 1944 a great offensive was conducted. This achieved huge success and nearly destroyed the Nationalist Chinese military. However, events in Europe would overtake the Japanese success in China. In May 1945 Germany collapsed. The Soviets then moved huge forces with heavy armor to the Manchurian border. There, in mid 1945, they launched an attack (Japan and the Soviets had been at peace for the entire war up to now). The Japanese were routed. The Soviets then took the vast amounts of captured Japanese arms (light tanks, small arms, medium artillery), and turned it over to their Chinese Communist partners. The combination of these new arms along with the devastating attacks in 1944 by the Japanese, doomed the Nationalist movement. The Nationalists were forced to flee the mainland and move to Formosa. As of 2006, the Communists remain in control of mainland China. Formosa island has transitioned from military rule to democracy as an independent nation. Eventually the mainland Chinese hope to reunite the country.