The East Wind Rises Years before Europe went to war, Japan’s imperial ambitions targeted the divided Chinese Republic. Crippled by political paralysis and centuries of fitful development, China is still not a pushover. With vast reserves of manpower and resources, not to mention a giant landmass, the Republic of China and its temporary ally, the Communists under Mao, can withstand another aggressor. There have been, after all, very many.