A Factor of Sino-Japanese War
Before the end of WWII, contempt of Chinese was widely observed in the Empire of Japan.
Japanese people came to disdain Chinese after the Japanese-Russo War (1904 - 1905).
It is even suspected that leaders and authorities of the Imperial Government promoted this superior feeling to Chinese among the Japanese people.
This general atmosphere that the Japanese public held Chinese in contempt was a key to understanding the Sino-Japanese War (1937 - 1945).
Before Japan started its modernization and Westernization, there was no such disdain of Chinese people. Before the Meiji Restoration of the Imperial Authority in 1868, Japan was ruled by the samurai class who honestly learnt Confucianism and other Chinese classics. So, Japanese people in the samurai era respected China as a culturally advanced country.
But, when the last samurai regime of Japan fell to be replaced by the modern and Westernized Meiji government, the tide came to gradually change. Japanese people, in addition to the Japanese elites, realized that China could not compete with Western powers. The Qing Dynasty lost the Opium War against the UK in 1842 and 1856. This defeat of China gave a great shock to the Japanese elite samurais and other Japanese. They admitted superiority of Western science, technology, and systems. Japanese people in the late 19th century found that China was no more a leader in Asia. Confucianism and other Chinese classics could not give merit to East Asians facing a threat from invading Western powers. Japanese people started to import Western science, technology, and systems so as to enhance national power.
This effort of Japanese people was paid off as the Empire of Japan won the first Sino-Japanese War in 1895 and defeated the Russian Empire in 1905.
The Japanese people came to realize at the time that only the Empire of Japan could cope with Western powers that had been busy colonizing Africa and Asia. And, China was in a great social turmoil after the collapse of Qing Dynasty. Korea was worse than China without any effective movement toward modernization and Westernization.
In the samurai era, Japanese people respected China and Korea, but it was only based on reading and learning of the Analects of Confucius and other Chinese classics. Japanese people had not seen real life of ordinary Chinese people. Indeed the samurai Japan closed its door to the world except trade with China and the Netherlands. Japanese people only imagined an ideal country and society when they thought about China. But, after the Meiji Restoration, reality and poverty of ordinary Chinese people and their living came to be well known in Japan. In one word, Chinese were at the brink of colonization by the UK, Russia, and other Western powers. As the Empire of Japan succeeded in modernization and Westernization of its industry and society, the Japanese elites came to despise China and Chinese. This disposition to make little of China and Chinese diffused widely among ordinary Japanese. The Japanese elites wanted to be a member of Western colonizing powers. They came to despise China and Chinese as Europeans did.
This biased psychological advantage of Japanese people made it easier for the Imperial military to launch military campaigns in the Chinese continent if those battles were first triggered by Chinese troops.
And, the war with China that started in full swing in 1937 could not be stopped. It developed to the Japanese-US war that started in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in 1941, since China became a virtual ally of the US.
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Luk 7:5 For he loveth our nation, and he hath built us a synagogue.
Luk 7:6 Then Jesus went with them. And when he was now not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to him, saying unto him, Lord, trouble not thyself: for I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof:
Luk 7:7 Wherefore neither thought I myself worthy to come unto thee: but say in a word, and my servant shall be healed.
Luk 7:8 For I also am a man set under authority, having under me soldiers, and I say unto one, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it.