What kind of abuse was tolerated back in the 1930's?

Don't forget that Japan invaded and took over north-eastern China in the mid to late 1930s. All sorts of abuse of the local Chinese population, including forcing numbers of women to be 'comfort women' (unpaid prostitutes) for the Japanese troops.

Abusing China. Japan did a lot of that in the 1930s. Also abusing political prisoners. They had a secret police that was almost as bad as what Trump and Barr plan to create about 3 days after their second term starts.