I’m procrastinating right now, writing a blog post when I should be working on my PowerPoint notes for tomorrow’s class on World War II. I just can’t face another photo of Stalin right now. Dude gives me the creeps.

Of course I’ve been over this material before, but this time around I’m struck by the idea that the Sino-Japanese war, beginning in 1937, marked the start of the Japanese conflict of WWII. For that matter, the 1931 Japanese invasion of Manchuria is also an arguable beginning. I don’t really know why it strikes me. Maybe it’s just that I hadn’t previously considered 1937 as a starting year for the war. Usually, people point to Germany’s 1939 invasion of Poland as the beginning of the broader war while Japan spread it’s military and economic power across China and parts of South East Asia.

In any event, this is the kind of stuff I should be writing up just now. In fact, let me copy and paste the last paragraph into my notes.

There I go. Back on track.