I recommend reading Eri Hotta's Japan 1941: Countdown to Infamy It's a book about how Japan decided to go to war with the united states. It details how China w

I recommend reading Eri Hotta's Japan 1941: Countdown to Infamy It's a book about how Japan decided to go to war with the united states. It details how China was a quagmire for Japan that was sucking up all the empire's resources. They could conquer land but they couldn't hold it. They could achieve tactical victories against Chiang but could not erode his ability to stay in the field and fight. The story of how the leaders in Tokyo decided to double down on a war they were slowly losing in China, by starting a war they would more quickly and apocalypticly lose against the United States is a fascinating one.