63: Why did Japan attack itself?

Did WWII really start in 1931 in Asia? Yes, it pretty much did - ten years before Pearl Harbor. Today, we investigate how and why the Japanese Empire attacked itself – and how that led to war with China and beyond! We are joined by expert historian, Quin Cho (Archival Researcher for . Quin has literally written the book on this: The Kwantung Army and the Japanese Occupation of Manchuria, available from September 2025. This is the second of three episodes in Dad & Me's series on modern Japan. Check out the photos from our research trip on After the end theme music, you'll find these questions: When did World War II begin for the USA? When did World War II begin in Europe? In Asia-Pacific, war began between Japan and which country? How did Japan fake an attack on the Japanese-owned railway in Manchurian, in north-east China in 1931? Which country faked an attack against Poland in 1939? Why do you think these countries choose to fake an attack by the other side? Here's our website, where you'll find photos, info about each episode and links to our social media: dadandmelovehistory.com - here, you can also listen to episodes. We also strongly recommend the family-friendly History Detective podcast, as advertised in our pod. Check out historydetectivepodcast.com ! For mature history lovers: read industry reviews of Dad's World War II novels, A Chance Kill and The Slightest Chance, at paulletters.com . Available as e-books, as well as in paperback. Dad's first wartime novel, A Chance Kill, is a love-story/thriller based on real events in Poland, Paris, London and Prague. The Slightest Chance follows the remarkable true story of the only escape from Japanese imprisonment by a Western woman during World War II. Please rate and review us wherever you get podcasts. And share our podcast on social media and recommend it to friends – that's how we'll keep going. We will bring you episodes throughout the year, so stay subscribed on your podcast app! Podcast cover art by Molly Austin All instrumental music is from and composed by Kevin MacLeod ( ) License: CC BY ( ) Sound effects are used under RemArc Licence . Copyright 2025 © BBC

You can listen to 63: Why did Japan attack itself? online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

63: Why did Japan attack itself? is an episode from Dad and Me Love History by Paul Letters.

This episode is 14:38 long.

This episode was published on Aug 10, 2025.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from Dad and Me Love History when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.