Not the first time in history have former enemies become trusted allies. And honorable ones at that.
Alan B.

Japan is historically very different, fortunately segregated by the sea, from authoritarian China in almost everything. China, Korea and Vietman are Confucian countries. Of the three, Korea is most Confucian , thus falling into the Great Leap Backward, though China is the birthplace of Confucianism, and Vietnam is least with a lot of Indian influence coming, particularly into South Vietnam, from Thailand and Cambodia.
Japan had little influence of Confucianism and most of this little was exerted in Tokugawa Japan (1600 - 1867). And this precious little was depoisoned, desinicized and deauthoritarinized or japanized, softend and humanitarianized in Japan. Muro Kyuso was a Tokugawa Confucianist. "In his hands they (Chu Hsi's doctrines) came to differ from from the cold dogmatics of his predessors, who held rather harsh views about virtues, and gained a warmth...he differed from most of its exponents in preaching pity and humility (Sir George Sansom, Japan: A Short Cultural History.)" Kaibara Ekken "wrote a great deal about Happiness, which he identified with Virture, and he was by no means an unswerving advocate of Chinese principle (ibid.)" Kumazawa Banzan...though a follower of Chu Zhi, went many steps further in his disapproval of Chinese institutions (ibid.)" To be continued

Shuichi Kato, A History of Japanese Literature serves as a good introduction to complete japanization of Confucianism that took place in Tokugawa Japan, particularly pages from 47 through 80. Confucius'philosophy underwent a great change in the four hundred years of the Han Dynasty. It became the political philosophy of the ruling used against the ruled. The father of the family was upgraded to the father writ large of the people, theoretically benign,in practice ruthlesss. Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty mobilized about twenty million people out of the total forty-six million population for building Xi Yuan Garden the circumference of which was one hundred kilometers. The Confucian wisdom of emperors is praised in records but "they in fact behaved like Legalists, who suggested that well-ordered society depended on clear rules and punishment for violators rather than benevolence (YaleGlobal Online, June Teufel Dreyer, China's Tiaxia: Do All Under Heaven Need One Arbiter?, 30 October, 2014).

Japan's closed door was foricibly kicked open from the outside and Japan had no choice but to willy-nilly set itself on the path of modernization for survival in 1868. Throuhout its modern history it was pro-British and pro-American. It was militarily allied with Grea Britain in 1903 until America strongly insisted on its termination at the Washington Conference in 1921-22. Japan and Britain wanted to renew it. Instead, Washington proposed the Nine Power Treaty for maintenance of peace. It was a fantastically perfect treaty, perfect because Japan, Britain and France were least interested in taking any of American Pacific islands, perfect unless America wanted to steal any from itself.
Even during the Pacific War "The attempt (by the government) to transfer the traditional admiration for Britain and the US to Nazi Germany did not succeed (Ben-Amy Shillony, Politics and Culture in Wartime Japan.)" Americans were allowed by Japan to send finacial assistance to Jews most of whom were mainly in the Japanese sector of the Shanghai International Settlement. Jews in other parts of China and Manchuria were protected in spite of German Ambassador Ott's protest. Ott and Germans living in Japan were angry. To be continued.

Opened Japan was thrown into the midst of international imperialistic rivalry. That was why Japan had to fight two wars, first with China and them Czarist Russia. Japan defeated Qing China in 1895. From this it should not be deduced that China was a peace lover and that Japan was an aggressive war monger.

Nazi Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, it invaded Soviet Russia in June 1941. These were all premeditated acts.
There was a military, but minor accident that took place near the Marco Polo Bridge, Beijing in July 1937. It was an accident. Both Japan and China tried to contain it, both tried to prevent it from turning into a large-scale war but it eventually did. Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, a suicidal act.
The qustion is why did Japan wait more than four years from July 1937 to December 1941 if it wanted to get rid of Britain and America from East Asia? Why did Japan start war on the United States, waiting till it exhausted itself with the four years' big war with China?
The answer is that Japan did not want any hegemony in the Pacific or in China. It wanted to avoid military engagement with the United States.
But the prevalent version of Japan's War and Peace is the one read upside down. from last page to first, read in the least interesting way.

Thank you Michi for this interesting account!

Now the RAA is obviously a good step, but is only a drop in the ocean.
So much more is needed for Australia to be ready for the imminent Chinese attack, most likely starting in the form of a sea blockade to cut off Australia from oil supplies.

A small military accident happened on the late evening of July 7, 1932. Both Japan and China wanted to restrain their armies, but eventually it got into a big continental war. The Japanee army was confounded with it because it had expected to knock down China in one or two big blows. It wanted not to lose face before the eyes of the Japanese people; in the long duration of the big war, losing its good balance of sense, and charmed with the dazzling rise of Nazi Germany in Europe, it chose not exiting from the narrow gate but exiting from the wide gate that leadeth to destruction, thus linking the East Asian crisis with the European crisis. "Most fundamental was the sense of frustraion with the long drawn-out war with China (Akira Iriye, The Origins of the Second World War in Asia and the Pacific." "The Japanese fascination and even obsession with the idea of distancing themselves from the Anglo-Saxon nations and identifying with Germany or the Soviet Union was an emotional response to the frustration a long war, and had little to do with a specific programme for solidarity with revisionist forces in the world (ibid.)"

At the Washington Conference a nine-power treaty was signed among Japan, the US, Great Britain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal,Belgiun and China. The purpose that Washington had in mind was to protect political and territorial integrity of China. It was a fantastically imperfect treaty because China did not behave as a signatory power should. "A country (China) which, throughout most of the 1920s, had been divided, unstable, and revolutionary, challenging the existing order of international affairs, was almost overnight trasforming itself into a champion of peace and order, pitting itself against another which hitherto had been solidly incorporated into the established system but which could now be accused of having defied it (ibid.)"