Japan's reaction was entirely different. After a brief period of internal turmoil, the Japanese united as a nation determined to learn from the West techniques for "strengthening the army and enriching the country." Within a remarkably short time the Japanese had acquired the power to compete with the West on its own terms, whereupon they took the initiative to "open" Korea, the most conservative of the three East Asian nations, and join Western nations in imposing unequal treaties on it. In 1894-95 Japan defeated China in a war to determine control of Korea, and a decade later it decisively defeated Russia in a war over exploitation rights in Korea and Manchuria in northeastern China. By 1910 Japan had incorporated Korea into the growing Japanese empire, and in 1931 it invaded Manchuria,
separating it from China and establishing a puppet government. Six years later it became embroiled in a war with China that would last for eight years, ending only with its unconditional surrender in 1945.