On #ThisDayInHistory in 1942, soon after the #EmpireOfJapan took control of #Singapore, it launched #SookChing: a massive, genocidal #pogrom against the #SingaporeanChinese, under the lie that it was hunting subversives. 40-50,000 civilians were killed in indiscriminate violence.

Historians generally exclude the 1931 #InvasionOfChina from the sequence of #WWII events, and should not. On #ThisDayInHistory in 1932, the #EmpireOfJapan created a puppet kingdom of #Manchukuo/#Manzhouguo in #Manchuria, nominally ruled by the deposed former #Qing emperor #Puyi.

The #Shinto religion lost most of its links to government in #Japan on #ThisDayInHistory in 1945. US General #DouglasMacArthur issued orders under authority of the #OccupationOfJapan that abolished #StateShinto, blaming it for the extreme #nationalism of the #WWII #EmpireOfJapan.

Opposition to #socialism is a thread linking fascists, liberals, and conservatives as comrades in arms. On #ThisDayInHistory in 1936, the #AntiCominternPact was signed by #NaziGermany and the #EmpireOfJapan. After World War II, the US became the heart of an anticommunist crusade.