In this episode of pplpod, we dive deep into the often-overlooked history of Japan during World War I. While the trenches of Europe dominated the headlines, the Japanese Empire leveraged the global conflict to expand its sphere of influence and aggressively solidify its status as a world power.

Join us as we explore how Japan joined the Allies to systematically dismantle Imperial Germany's presence in the Pacific and East Asia. We cover the swift capture of German territories in Micronesia and China's Shandong province, as well as the world's first-ever naval-launched air raids from the seaplane-carrier Wakamiya. We also unpack the controversial diplomacy of the era, unpacking the Twenty-One Demands of 1915 that boldly sought to reduce China to a Japanese protectorate.

The ac ...