When I was reading about Japan's involvement in WWI, I kept thinking that I was reading about WWII, because I don't really know anything about Eastern involvement in the Great War.
I don't know if this is just my lack of much concrete knowlage about the first world war, or my tendancy to mix most of the 1900's together, but mostly I think it speaks to the highly westernized view of our historical education. We focus so much on western Europe and the war that we are familar with, we often forget that there were other players.
I know that Japan's role in the war was not a major one, and it may be that I've simply forgotten learning it... but I still think that the lack of emphasis but on Japan's role is rather scary.
Interesting. A few others commented on this as well. Japan's role is less important to the war itself (In my opinion) than it is to Japanese expansion and post-war policy. It is impossible to understand conflict between the US and Japan in WWII without understanding Japan's role in WWI. See the following for more:
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