Basically, was it a case of 'the enemy of my enemy', or did Japan have similarly racist opinions?

Both in terms of a spoken and written language. I'm aware that mastery of classical Chinese was considered a mark of prestige among the educated elite even after Japan stopped emulating customs from Tang -- and that Chinese must've been used to at least some extent for trading in the centuries that followed -- but I'm wondering how common/uncommon it was to encounter someone relatively fluent in the language, oral or otherwise. (In the sense that they could communicate with a Chinese person if necessary.)

I'm particularly curious about how prevalent it was among higher social classes. Would your average courtier/daimyo/imperial family member/etc have been able to speak or write Chinese? For those who could speak the language -- regardless of class -- would it have been more common to know, say, Cantonese or the like (as a result of trading) compared to historical Mandarin/a Mandarin-based dialect?

Alsace-Lorraine always seems to be awarded to either France or whatever Germanic state they are fighting depending on who wins a war. Why is this piece of land valuable though?

Edit: Thanks for the answer and source!

To phrase this more precisely: In most newsreels, photographs, and film footage (from the 1900s up to 1966) of the general public, it is observable that most men wore hats (i.e. bowlers, fedoras, etc.). Yet around the 1960's, this appears to abruptly stop.
What precipitated this sudden change?

Why are sabres significant in the military?

If you look at XIXth and early XXth century, you notice that clothes were much more formal than nowadays, with long sleeves and multiple layers all year around. How people managed to keep proper hygiene in this clothes, especially without modern bathrooms and hygiene products?

For example, house servants like footmen had to be on their feet very early in the morning with last of their duties finishing up well in the evening, during all this time performing semi-intensive physical labour (lots of walking and carrying) in formal clothes and possible 30/35+C temperatures in the summer. I feel like I'd want to have at least 1 or 2 showers during such day, with changing at least a shirt each time for a fresh one. However it doesn't look realistic for a XIX footman to have such luxuries...

I've been looking into biblical references for an English paper along with playing Persona 5, which references Canaanite gods. I've always considered Canaanites to be those who traveled to the holy land as written by the Torah/The Old Testament. I'm curious to know who these Canaanites were prior to the discovery of Yahweh.

I am trying to find articles or maybe a book that covers the "Minor" Axis Powers: Hungary, Romania, Slovakia & Bulgaria (or just one of them). The Cambridge History of the Second World War Vol. II has chapters on the "non-belligerents" Spain & Sweden, yet, sadly not the "minors".

I know Third Axis Fourth Ally: Romanian Armed Forces in the European War by Mark Axworthy, but I don't have access to it anymore.

Specifically, I'd like to know if there were any established cultural attitudes that contributed to or detracted from the state's opinion concerning these substances.

Google has no answers, and the drugs subs usually tell the same story of the state safeguarding their monopoly on the lives of the citizenry. I'm wondering if there's any real scholarship on this topic.

I am more interested in the logistics of color association changing to the complete opposite of the way it was before, not so much the why.

At the time of the Ottoman invasion you had the Byzantines, another Bulgarian empire, et cetera. Mainly quite strong nations- so why did they fall so easily? A follow up question would be why the Byzantine empire never named itself Byzantine and instead became Greece? And why did they not reclaim Istanbul/Constantinople?

I read that the vast majority of rice farming done in Europe is in countries on the Mediterranean because it provides good conditions for it. It seems like an empire that controlled the Mediterranean could make use of how productive it is compared to wheat.

I know this is a short and basic question, but why has it been the Jews that have always been prosecuted? All of the one’s I know are hardworking, intelligent, polite, and very kind people. So why them?

thanks

It's taught as a truism in America that one of Hitler's "Ways you can recognize he's a dictator" things was imposing a general disarmament on the German people early in his career as Chancellor.

However, I've lately learned that was... not really the case. In a debate I was reading, it was argued that the Third Reich actually expanded general private gun ownership (although it did formally outlaw german-jewish citizens from having weapons).

During that argument, it was also argued that Germany had been generally disarmed under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles.

All of which leads me to wonder, what did private firearm ownership look like between the opening of World War 1 to the fall of the Third Reich?

I am wondering about castrati in 17th and 18th centuries and the possible role they played for female desire. I understand that the most famous of them were opera stars and people adored them for more than their ethereal voices. There seemed to be a clear sexual undertone to their popularity (correct me if I'm wrong). Now, I understand that men might have liked them sexually, but what about women?

Were castrati really popular with women and if yes, how was this perceived? Were castrati seen as "harmless" in a sexual sense because of their castration? Or, on the contrary, were they seen as dangerous because those sexual encounters were made for pleasure and not procreation (the fear of female sexuality?) Do we even have any sources discussing these things?