Like, when did World War II start? In September 1939, when the Nazis invaded Poland? I'd say no, it actually started when Japan invaded Manchuria in 1931, or at the very latest when the Japanese invaded China in 1937, because they didn't stop fighting until 1945. Then again, you could also argue 1933, when Hitler took power, or 1941, when America started fighting. It's complicated. But anyway, in China the fighting was very brutal, as exemplified by the infamous Rape of Nanking, which featured the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Chinese people, and is still so controversial today that 1. It affects relations between Japan and China, and 2.