Arright this is kind of random, but I was surfing wiki, and I stumbled upon this element of our modern history that I was never taught in school.
Anyway, I skimmed the article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Sino-Japanese_War
and was left wondering, did USA prevent Japan from taking China over? I looked over the estimated casualties from 3rd party sources, and it seemed that Japan was not phased, while China was really hurting (death toll wise, and economically).
The purple shows how far Japanese control extended. From my understanding the war btwn China and Japan ended when USA declared war on Japan, and dropped two bombs on it.
So what I am asking is; what if Japan never instigated USA?