Case Study 1: Japanese Expansion in East Asia (1931-1941)

From P1 Prescribed Subject 3: The Move to Global War

• Subject 3 is on military expansion from 1931 to 1941 in Japan, Germany and Italy.

• The focus of this prescribed subject is on the causes of expansion, key events, and international responses to the expansion.

• Discussion of domestic and ideological issues should therefore be considered in terms of the extent to which they contributed to this expansion.

The Guide Curriculum

Causes of expansion:

• The impact of Japanese nationalism and militarism on foreign policy

• Japanese domestic issues: political and economic issues, and their impact on foreign relations

• Political instability in China

Events:

• Japanese invasion of Manchuria and Northern China (1931)

• Sino-Japanese War (1937-1941)

• The Three Power/Tripartite Pact; the outbreak of war; Pearl Harbor (1941)

Responses:

• League of Nations and the Lytton report

• Political developments within China – the Second United Front

International response, including US initiatives and increasing tensions between the US and Japan

HISTORIOGRAPHY FOR EACH GUIDE BULLET POINT

Taken from the Move to Global War Pearson’s Textbook

Causes of expansion:

• The impact of Japanese nationalism and militarism on foreign policy

  • Ian Buruma

    • Traces the period of momentous change back to the arrival of Commodore Perry

    • Compares Japan’s move towards militaristic extremism at the end of party democracy with Weimar Germany

      • Claims Itō Hirobumi, president of the Privy Council (advisors of the Emperor), had designed the Japanese constitution upon the German one and that it was ‘a mixture of German and traditional Japanese authoritarianism’

    • Claims the conscription of all Japanese men for three years was not only to defend the country but also a way to instill unification and nationalism in everyone

    • Buruma and Eri Hotta both agree that the 1882 Imperial Decree where soldiers and sailors were not allowed to express political opinions nor comment on imperial policies (even in private) was the ultimate flaw in the system

      • Hotta: could be considered one of the latent underlying causes of Japan’s militarization of the 1930s and eventually its attack on Pearl Harbor

  • Mikiso Hane

    • The population needed to be convinced that this was not a new system of government, but the restoration of imperial rule

    • Religion, emperor worship and nationalism were intertwined and anyone who questioned the mythological origin of the imperial dynasty got into trouble

    • About education changes after the Restoration → the minds of young children were molded to ensure that when the time came, they would go to battle shouting ‘Imperial Majesty Banzai’

• Japanese domestic issues: political and economic issues, and their impact on foreign relations

  • Niall Ferguson

    • Argues that Japan’s decision to pursue austerity and return to the gold standard in 1929 was ill-timed and only worsened the situation (before the Great Depression)

    • He further claims Japan’s exports needed a strong world economy, but when protectionist measures led to a drawing in of world markets, Japan had to reassess its political and military position

    • Japan found themselves in a difficult position → the more they expanded their empire for resources, the more resources they needed

  • Hane

    • During the interwar period, disarmament became a source of discontent among the ultra-nationalists

• Political instability in China

  • Buruma

    • On the First Sino-Japanese War: Argues that the main question of the conflict was which army had modernized the most effectively to dominate the other

    • On the First Sino-Japanese War: Japan’s victory was a change in continuity for Japan and confirmed the popular belief that Japan was now equal to the Western powers

  • Jonathan Fenby

    • Zhang Zuolin was ‘China’s biggest warlord’

    • Japan had thought it ‘only natural for China to sacrifice itself for the sake of Japan’s social and industrial needs’

Events:

• Japanese invasion of Manchuria and Northern China (1931)

  • Immanuel Hsu

    • Claims that Jiang’s reaction was ‘a combination of non-resistance, non compromise and non-negotiation’

    • Hsu believes some organized resistance might have boosted the moderates in Tokyo, who could have used it to call for an end to the conflict with the CCP → approaching LoN was thus better

  • Buruma

    • Claims those who supported the takeover maintained that the region was rich in resources (such as coal and iron ore) that were vital for Japan’s continued industrialization: without them, Japan would surely collapse

    • Argues that propaganda in Japan glorified the bravery of its soldiers who were described in the media as ‘human bullets’

  • Fenby

    • Jiang had not wanted to fight the Japanese, he had hoped that the seizure of territory would be limited and that Western powers would step in to ‘reverse the situation’

    • Called the invasion ‘the biggest land grab in history’

    • Jiang’s lack of opposition to Japan’s forces was ‘widely seen as the first episode of appeasement of the revisionist Axis powers that would stretch up to 1939’

    • Jiang only sent in GMD troops after he realized there would be no support from the Western powers → lead to the ceasefire on 3 March 1932

  • Hane

    • Calls Japan’s search for natural researches was ‘the acquisition of its own imperial market’

• Sino-Japanese War (1937-1941)

  • Some historians have compared the Marco Polo Bridge Incident to the shooting of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo 1914 → marked the true outbreak of WW2

  • There has been speculation as to why Japanese soldiers committed such astrocities in the Rape of Nanjing

    • Rana Mitter suggests that the length of time it had taken to end Chinese resistance in Shanghai had led to frustration and anger among Japanese soldiers

    • Other historians (Fenby, Buruma) argues racism was ‘certainly a factor’ in the brutality with which Nanjing was destroyed

  • Fenby

    • Emperor in Tokyo called for a ‘war-ending’ battle

  • Andrew Crozier

    • The Imperial Way faction wanted a ‘subjugation of China’

    • Manchukuo would cooperate politically, economically and culturally to defeat communism and to establish a new economic union in the region

    • The basic intention was that the raw materials which China possessed in abundance would be contributed by China and the technique, capital and skilled personnel [would be] contributed by Japan for the mutual benefit of both countries.

• The Three Power/Tripartite Pact; the outbreak of war; Pearl Harbor (1941)

  • Crozier

    • Britain was especially concerned in The Brussels Conference (Nine-Power Pact signatories) as British investment in Shanghai at the time ‘exceeded that of any comparable area outside the UK’

    • The US would ‘only participate in the most modest gestures if Japan did something really outrageous to provoke American opinion’

    • Believes that it is ‘unsurprising’ that Neville Chamberlain thought ‘further attempts at conciliation with Germany and Italy were better advised than confrontation with Japan’, given their lack of support from the dominions

    • To Hitler, an expansionist Japan would be a useful thorn in the side of both the Soviet Union and Britain, thus leaving Germany free to pursue its own expansionist policies in Europe

Responses:

• League of Nations and the Lytton report

  • AJP Taylor

    • In defense of the League, AJP Taylor points out that it had acted as it had been designed to do in that it ‘limited the conflict and brought it to an end’

      • Though they only imposed ‘moral sanctions’, they begun the process of enabling the League to impose economic sanctions as well, which were utilized against Italy in 1935

    • According to AJP Taylor, the League did not condemn Japanese ‘aggression’, but rather criticized it for ‘resorting to force before all peaceful means of redress were exhausted’

  • Fenby

    • Chinese response to reading the Tanggu Truce was to say it was purely military and without political significance, but were told to ‘shut up and sign’

• Political developments within China – the Second United Front

  • Mitter

    • States that Stalin was anxious that Kiang Jieshi was not killed during the kidnapping, but Mao later made much of how he could have had Jiang killed, but in the interests of China, chose not to

      • Stalin feared the next leader would join the Anti-Comintern League

    • Argues the Anti-Comintern Pact was not intended as a precursor to a military or fascist alliance → Japan signed because it was increasingly concerned of the threat of the USSR in Manchuria and Northern China

• International response, including US initiatives and increasing tensions between the US and Japan

  • Taylor

    • Pointed out that the US did not intend to ‘curtail its trade with Japan’ with the Stimson Doctrine

    • Criticizes the US’ response and claimed they ‘would do nothing’ → put out sentiments, but allowed others to do the actual work

    • ‘They wanted the moral satisfaction of non-recognition and also the material satisfaction of their profitable trade with Japan.”

  • Mitter

    • Although there was ‘no affinity’ between China and Nazi Germany, Jiang had nonetheless hoped to ‘persuade Germany to choose China and not Japan as its principal East Asian, anti-Communist partner

  • Hsu

    • China was left to ‘face the enemy alone’ after the US ‘took the easy position’, The soviet union also ‘took no action’ and Britain only stated sentiments

NOTES TAILORED TO THE GUIDE

Move to Global War

• The lead up to WW2

• In three states over two case studies

Origins of Japanese Nationalism and Militarism

• Where did these notions come from?

  • In the late 19th century, there was a determination from the Japanese leadership to turn themselves into a Western-styled military power

  • Japan believed it was their destiny to lead the Asian sphere and become an imperial power

    • Much the same way that the United States felt it was their destiny to stretch from sea to sea

  • Needed more raw materials

    • Relatively small nation compared to their large population

    • To achieve their goals of industrialization, modernization and gaining power, they needed more raw materials than what was within their own shores

  • Suffered discrimination from Western Powers

    • Including those powers at the Paris Peace Conference and the US

    • Built resentment and hatred

  • All these factors put together contributed to pushing Japan towards these nationalist and militarist ideas

    • Become a militarist to expand

• Historic developments that led to these ideologies and situation in Japan

  • 1853 → The first American fleet led by Commodore Perry arrived in Tokyo Harbor

    • Not long after the British had imposed their will on the Chinese in the Opium Wars

      • Japan was aware of the situation China faced due to this → did not wish to experience the same, refused to bow down

    • Sentiments against the Japanese government began to grow

      • The isolationism within the Japanese government and their refusal to modernize

  • 1868 → Previous sentiments and isolationism comes to a head with a revolution in Japan

    • The Meiji Restoration

    • A Japanese emperor was restored to preeminence over the government of Japan

    • Lead to a rapid modernization of Japan

  • Impacts of the Meiji Restoration → essentially all focused on reforming based on Western models

    • Development of a Western-style Constitution with a representative body called Diet

    • The Emperor of Japan was now the Commander-in-Chief of the military, not just a figurehead anymore

      • Change from a centuries old tradition

    • Economic reforms pushed to Westernize and industrialize Japan’s economy

    • Education reforms will model Japanese after those in the West (particularly German model of schooling)

      • But the education itself was still strictly dictated by the central government

      • Focused on developing a strong Japanese nationalist identity

    • Military reforms → moved away from traditional notion of samurai warriors

      • Developed instead into modern Western-style officers

  • Japan as an imperialist power

    • Japan utilized the developments from the Meiji Restoration, industrialization and modernization to grow as an imperialist power

    • Grew as an imperialist power largely through land concessions after winning wars

    • In 1894, they went to war with China in the Sino-Japanese war

      • Essentially the First Sino-Japanese War

      • New modern Japanese military going against a rather outdated Chinese army

      • Resounding victory for Japan → showed themselves as a modern, major player in the global landscape

      • After the war, Japan took some land concessions

        • Took Taiwan

        • Moved to grant Korea its independence

Though became essentially a puppet state of the Japanese

• Gained concessions within Manchuria

  • Took on Russia in the Russo-Japanese War

    • Japan had large advantages, particularly as it was highly difficult and long winded for Russia to get its navy into the Pacific

    • The war ends largely because of the tensions in Russia’s domestic politics (1905 revolution)

    • Japan won

    • The defeat of Russia was significant for Japan’s entry into the Western world as an imperialist power

      • An East-Asian nation defeated a European power in war

    • Took land concessions from Russia → aided them in the continuation of expansion of their empire

  • Participated in WW1 on the side of the Allies (and won)

    • Launched attacks against German holdings in East Asia during this war

      • Received these holdings as League of Nations mandates in the aftermath

    • It was the WW1 developments that pushed Japan towards being even more nationalistic and militaristic

    • The League of Nations Conference after WW1 does not accept Japan’s request for a racial equality clause included

      • Japan as an Asian nation looking for equal representation in this community of nations

      • They wanted racial equality and unity to be actually codified

      • As the Western powers had so many colonial holdings outside the Western world they did not want the clause, so it was rejected from the Treaty of Versailles

      • This created large frustrations for Japan against the West

• Internationalism in the 1920s

  • Despite the frustrations Japan had against the West, they made a move in the 1920s towards internationalism

    • Working with the international community

  • After WW1, nobody wanted to get into another major conflict

    • Japan’s played its part in this

    • Led by diplomat (and later foreign minister) Shidehara Kijuro, Japan thus adopted a more international role

  • Participated in the Washington Conference of 1921-22

    • A series of diplomatic meetings in Washington DC

    • This resulted in multiple multilateral treaties and agreements

      • Japan enters into these, along with other nations

        • The Four Power Treaty

US, UK, France and Japan all agreed to talk with each other if any of their Asian holdings are threatened

• Nine Power Treaty

Brings even more nations in

Keeping China open for all those nine powers

• Five Power Naval Treaty

Japan agrees to limits the size and scope of its navy

A major sticking point for the opponents of the agreement is that Japan agrees to have a smaller navy than the other four nations

Japan feels slighted and discriminated against

• The end of the 1920s sees a negative development in Japan’s relationship with the West

  • The democratic Japanese government was rather fragile

    • Financial scandals led to a decline in public support → questioned them

  • Fears of left-wing radicalism and the rise of communism

    • Due to the 1917 Russian Revolutions leading to the establishment of the communist Soviet Union

    • The largest nation of the world is now communist → scared every other western-style economic systems

  • Conservative groups and the Army in Japan pushed against the idea of internationalism

    • Army was built to expand and conquer → internationalism does not achieve this

  • After WW1, the Japanese economy was slumped

    • During and right after WW1, Japan’s economy boomed

      • Japan did not suffer from the horrors of the war within its own country, so their economy was able to flourish

      • Gave a lot to support the warring nations both during and the immediate aftermath

    • However, in the early 1920s when the world was being put back together lead to the Japanese economy slumping

    • Made worse by the 1929 Great Depression

      • Japan was deeply reliant on foreign trade for imports and exports

      • Particularly hit hard

• Chinese instability

  • China suffered from tremendous political instability after the fall of the Qing Dynasty in 1911-12

    • Various entities competing for control of the Chinese nation

    • Made China a divided nation

  • The divide in China made the country ideal and open for attack

  • A rivalry in the late 20s grew between two main political entities → the Guomindang (GMD, Chinese Nationalists), led by Jiang Jieshie and the Communist Party of China (CCP), led by Mao Zedong

    • These two parties started a civil war that grew over multiple years

  • The Chinese instability emboldened Japanese militarists and nationalists to expand into Asia

    • China was seen as “for the taking”

    • When Japan had already moved into Korea, Manchuria particularly and the rest of China was easily accessible

Japanese Expansion in Asia

• Causes of the expansion in the 1930s

  • Political instability in China

    • China was a divided nation after the fall of the Qing Dynasty

    • But Jiang Jieshi the leader of the nationalist movement GMD moved to unify China

    • GMD launched the “Northern Expedition” where they sent armies to the North of China to try to bring in territories not under the GMD’s control

      • Unify China under them

      • Including Manchuria

      • Caused the split between the GMD and the CCP → begun a Civil War between the two factions

        • Jiang’s hope of unification is thus not achieved but made worse

  • Political instability in Japan

    • Growing disagreements between the political leadership (the Emperor, prime minister, etc.) and the militarian leadership

      • Who is ultimately pulling the strings of foreign policy? → military leadership enabled to make many decisions through force and power

      • Came to a head when a Manchurian warlord named Zhang Zoulin had his own plans to invade into China

        • Similarly to Jiang, tried to unify under his control

        • The Qing Dynasty was a Manchirian dynasty → therefore a large desire for the area, source of power

        • Japan does not want to see a powerful Manchuria that unites Chona

    • The Japanese military (the Quangtong army, based in Korea and Manchuria) moved against Zhang

      • Assassinated the Warlord without the Emperor’s sanction

      • First sign that the Japanese political authority does not actually have control of the Japanese military

  • The Great Depression

    • Beginning in the US in the 1929 → impacted every country in the world that does business overseas

    • Devastated Japan, as their economy relied on imports from outside and exports of Japanese manufactured goods

    • The US launched a hard protective tariff against imported goods from Japan called the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act

      • Increased the price of Japanese imports by 200%

      • Those Japanese exports were thus crushed

      • Example of exports: silk

      • This lead to a spike of unemployment in Japan

        • Economic discontent from the Depression paired with the above political discontent proves a powerful and dangerous mix

  • Manchuria

    • The Great Depression pushed the Japanese military and more in the Japanese political leadership to feel the need to acquire their own raw materials

      • Did not want to rely on a country like the US for steel, oil, etc.

    • Japan sees Manchuria as the place they can get these materials

      • Manchuria is a massive tract of land north of Korea in East-Asia

    • Manchuria is seen as living space for an ever-growing Japanese population

    • Quangtong Army based in Korea and Manchuria moves to seize the Manchuria land against the Japanese Emperor’s wishes

• Event: The Manchurian Crisis

  • Begins with the Mukden Incident of 1931

    • Happens outside of this Manchurian town called Mukden

    • There is an explosion at a Japanese-owned railway (September 18)

      • Placed there as a concession gained from China after the First Sino-Japanese War in 1894

      • Japan already had business interests in Manchuria, Japan already had armies stationed around China and Asia to defend their business interests

    • The Kwangtung Army claims this attack on their railways was committed by the Chinese

      • Used this as a causes belli (a reason for war), opportunity to move against Manchuria under the guise of protecting themselves and their interests

    • The Army thus moved against Manchruia and attacked to seize the land

  • By early 1932, Manchuria was completely under Japanese control

  • Fighting also broke out in the city of China’s Shanghai, as prompted by The Manchurian Crisis

    • Japanese air forces bombed the city

  • Ultimately, China (through Jiang and the GMD) ceded control of Manchuria to Japan with the Treaty of Tanggu in May 1933

    • This made Manchuria essentially a puppet state of Japan within China

    • Renamed it Manchukuo (Japanese name to establish presence)

    • Pu Yi was placed as the Emperor of Manchukuo

      • Pu Yi was the last Qing Dynasty Emperor in China, a young boy back then

      • In charge of the puppet government for the Japanese

      • To give a local ruler that had some notoriety gave a positive public face to what Japan was doing

  • Jiang ceded Manchuria in hopes that it would be enough for Japan and that they would not push any further

    • Also because it would be really difficult for Japan to actually hold on to Manchuria → hoped it would eventually force them to back out

    • Jiang’s thinking at this point was that his rivalry with the CCP was more important to deal with in the immediate than Japan

      • Said: “Japan was a disease of the skin while communism was a disease of the heart”

  • Results of the crisis

    • Deepened tensions between Japan and Western powers

    • Japan and its action in Manchuria was condemned by the LoN

      • (More part of the results curriculum)

    • It was an abandonment of Japanese internationalism where they complied with the West and worked together in unity

    • The GMD focused on defeating the CCP and let Japan run somewhat loose

    • Japan largely benefited economically from the resources Manchuria provided

    • Definitely see that Japan’s military was pulling the strings of the democratically elected government and even the Emperor

• The Dark Valley in the 1930s

  • Years of political and military division in Japan

    • Questioning the authority of the Japanese democratic government compared to the power of the Japanese military

    • Recognize the two major factions that are growing in the military

  • The Imperial Way → a faction in the military that pushed for military dictatorship in Japan

    • See the Soviet Union and Communism as Japan’s biggest adversary going forward

  • The Control Faction → second military factions that is calling for more military influence on the government and pushing for conquest of China

  • Both on these factions are imperialist powers

    • Difference is whether to focus on Russia with a full dictatorship or focusing on China with large military influence

  • In February 1936 Imperial Way attempted a coup of the Japanese government

    • Following an assassination attempt on a Control Faction leader

    • 1500 Imperial Way officers marched into Tokyo (Japan’s capital), attempting to seize power

    • Tried to seize power of the country

    • The Coup failed and the Imperial Way was consequently discredited

      • This left the Control Faction in charge of Japan

  • General Hideki Tojo of the Control Faction became the Chief-of-Staff of the Kwangtung Army following the failure of Imperial Way

    • Within weeks, he moved Japan to attack mainland China for the Second Sino-Japanese War

• Event: The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1941)

  • Begins in July of 1937 with the Marco Polo Bridge Incident

    • When Japanese soldiers moved across the Marco Polo Bridge outside Beijing and began attacking the Chinese

  • The ground war was supported by absolutely devastating air raids

    • A sign of what modern war was going to be looking like (WW2)

  • One of the most disastrous events in this conflict was known as the Rape of Nanjing

    • The GMD government moved to the city of Nanjing from Beijing as the attacks there began

    • So Nanjing became the new prime target for Japanese attacks

    • Atrocities and crimes against humanity were committed by the Japanese military against Chinese civilians in nanjing

      • Hundreds of thousands murdered

      • “One of the ugliest scenes that we will see coming out of the Second World War”

  • Results of the 2nd Sino-Japanese War

    • Japanese hopes of a quick surrender of the Chinese were never realized

    • Strong Chinese nationalism

      • Jiang of GMD and Mao of CCP actually joined forces during this war to defeat the Japanese

      • Chinese guerilla forces (unconventional fighters) were able to slow down Japanese advances

    • International outrage over the atrocities committed by Japan

    • The Japanese had hoped to build the “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere” → this failed

      • Japanese propaganda that said all the East Asian nations should work together to drive out Western forces

      • In reality it was just Japan’s attempt to dominate all these Asian nations and make China surrender

    • The military exerted even more control over the civilian government

      • In October of 1941, General Tojo became Prime Minister

• Events: Tripartite and Neutrality Pacts

  • Following this expansion into China, Japan moved their diplomatic negotiations to other fronts

    • Tried to further pave their way to the conquest of East and Southeast Asia

    • Meaning: Join the Axis part of WW2

  • The Tripartite Axis Pact war formed with Germany and Italy in September of 1940

    • Official alliance of WW2

    • Germany and Italy focused on European expansion, while Japan could focus on East Asian expansion

    • Japan gained the ability to move into European colonial holdings in Asia

  • In April of 1941, Japan signed a Neutrality Act with the USSR

    • This was right before the Soviet Union were attacked by Germany itself

    • As the Control Faction of the military won power of Japan as opposed to Imperial Way, Japan did not see Russia as the immediate threat

    • Decided that the two nations would not attack each other

    • Eased Japanese concerns on their Northern border of their expansion

      • As they did not have to worry the USSR would push into their (newfound) territories

      • Allowed Japan to again focus on South-East Asia instead of Europe

• Events: The outbreak of war and Pearl Harbor

  • In late 1941, Japan began moving troops into Indochina

    • Indochina was an area of China that was a colony of the French

      • Today this is Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar and Thailand

    • As the French in Indochina fall to the Nazis, Japan now has an open canal to move their armies

    • Resulted in the US putting an embargo against Japan

      • Embargo = an official ban on trade or other commercial activity, often a punishment

      • Restricted the sale of steel and oil → essential products for Japan’s military expansion

  • Negotiations between the US and Japan are unsuccessful at resolving the increasingly tense situation

    • While negotiations are taking place, Japan is preparing for an attack against the US

  • On December 7 1941 Japan made the first attack against the US that caused war between the nations → the attack on Pearl Harbor

    • Also attacked the British’s Hong Kong, Malaya and Singapore, the Dutch East Indies and the Philippines held by the US

    • These massive attacks had the goal of incapacitating (prevent from functioning in a normal way) the Western navies

      • Including the US’ with Pearl Harbor

      • 90% of the American mid-Pacific air and sea power was either destroyed or severely damaged

      • But Pearl Harbor was still not closed off

        • Despite the Japanese’s wishes of closing off the narrow harbor and the opening to the Pacific Ocean

      • American Aircraft Carriers was out to sea during the attack → the most important aspects of the US’ fleet

        • They were thus not damaged at all

    • In response to the attack on Pearl Harbor, the US declared war on Japan on December 8 1941

International Response to Japanese Aggression

• Response to the Manchurian Crisis

  • The involvement of the League of Nations (LoN particularly)

  • The first specific time the LoN failed to do precisely what it was created for

    • Which was provide collective security to all of its member nations

  • The LoN did not have the enforcement to punish Japan without the consensus of the members

    • They had no army or military or even economic sanctions to put onto Japan, unless all member states agree to do so

    • There was not enough agreement for that to be possible

  • LoN also did not have the necessary influence of the US

    • The US never joined the league back in 1920 as the American Senate did not want to approve the Treaty of Versailles

    • If the league acted on its own without bringing the US along, Japan could still do business with America and not be affected by the league’s punishment

      • This would thus impact the league more than it would impact Japan

  • Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928 also did not allow for any enforcement

    • Also called Pact of Paris (because it was signed in Paris)

    • Signatories included France, the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, Belgium, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Italy and Japan

    • An international agreements where the involved countries agreed not to go to war

    • Their protocol did not involve any enforcement → thus they could not realistically do anything to stop Japan

  • So what did they do?

    • Following the Mukden Incident, China appealed to the League for help

      • Meetings were held

      • They concluded with sending a fact-finding mission into China called The Lytton Commission

        • To go into Manchuria and investigate at the railway in Mukden to understand what went down

        • This would result in a report titled the Lytton Commission Report

        • This would take so long to finalize that by the time the report was provided, Japan had already taken over Manchuria and declared Manchukuo independent

Japan likely knew this, which is why they did not do anything about the League

• The Lytton Commission Report

  • What was in the report? What were their findings?

    • Reported that Japan absolutely had special interests in Manchuria, but that their use of force was unacceptable and unjustified

    • Called for Japan to give up its territory and withdraw its forces from China

    • Manchukuo was not recognized as an independent state by the LoN

    • These problems that Japan were having with China could only be solved through Sino-Japanese cooperation

  • Japan refused to accept the report

    • Withdrew from the LoN in protest in March 1933

    • This again was a display of the League’s weaknesses → all Japan, as the aggressor state, had to do was leave the League to not be affected

      • They simply chose not to listen and the League was not powerful enough to make them

  • Rationale of the League

    • Why were they not more stern with Japan?

    • No one wanted a wider war in the region

      • They all remembered WW1 and knew the consequences of modern warfare

    • No one was willing to ‘go it alone’

      • They did not want to deal with Japan on their own

      • If the entire League was not involved, individual states were not willing to give Japan consequences themselves

    • Countries like Britain, France and Germany were democratic states at this time → needed to do what the public wants

      • The public had no desire for a war in East Asia or to become involved

        • Partly due to understanding the consequences of war

        • But also partly due to racist sentiments → these are not European countries that are in danger

Why risk European lives to protect Chinese interests?

• Economic concerns were more pressing than Japan’s warfare

  • Due to the Great Depression, economics were prioritized

  • US were not compelled to support them and the League needed their help if they were to do anything

  • China’s response to the Japanese aggression in Manchuria

    • Jiang had previously focused on the Civil War rather than Japan → this resulted in him losing support in China

    • As Japan pushed into mainland China, Jiang was (literally) forced to prioritize the war with Japan

      • This change was caused by the Xi’an incident where two of his generals kidnapped Jiang and forced him to accept an alliance with the CCP to defeat Japan

    • The Second United Front was created → an alliance between the GDM and the CCP

      • The Civil War was put on hold for a war of national resistance against Japan

      • Wider war followed the Marco Polo Bridge Incident where all of China resisted together with joint forces

• US responses to Japan

  • Response to aggression

    • Throughout the 1930s, the US was continuing their policy of isolationism from international conflicts

      • WW1 was used as an excuse to discourage future involvement in foreign wars

      • This was strengthened in the 30s by the economic depression → it was more pressing and immediate to prioritize any foreign conflicts

    • Americans didn’t see their own interests directly impacted or threatened by the Manchurian Crisis

    • In the early 1930s, the US was trading more with Japan and more significantly with them than with China

  • Response to Manchuria

    • The American response to Manchuria came in the form of The Stimson Doctrine

      • A non-recognition of any agreement that violated China’s territory, international law or the Kellogg-Briand Pact

      • They did not recognize Manchukuo as an independent state

    • The Doctrine upheld a principle, but did not commit the US to any action

      • Sort of a slap on the wrist with no further consequences

  • Response to the Sino-Japanese War

    • The closest the US came to taking action against Japan

    • After 1937, Japan’s continued aggression against China wa snow seen as a threat to US interest

      • Not by everyone in the US, but by President Franklin D. Roosevelt

      • But Roosevelt was still restrained by the Neutrality Acts that Congress had passed and he had signed → Acts that kept the US out of any threat of foreign war

    • In December of 1937 the Japanese inadvertently (accidentally, without knowledge or intent) sunk an American navy ship in the Yangtze river called the Panay

      • This is called the Panay Incident

      • Japan immediately apologized and offered compensation to the US

      • This started to pull the US more and more against the Japanese and harbor anti-Japanese sentiments

    • By 1938, Roosevelt began to work around the Neutrality Acts by offering financial aid to the Chinese

      • A legal loophole, as the 2nd Sino-Japanese War was never actually declared a war

    • As the war escalated, the US launched a Moral Embargo against Japan in January of 1939

      • Started restricting the sale of goods like plane and aviation parts → goods Japan needed to fight a war

    • In 1941 with the passage of the Lend Lease Act of the US, they were enabled to get more involved in international conflicts

      • They began sending more money and fight planes to China

    • By July 1941, Japan was pushing even further and sending troops into South-East Asia

      • The US began freezing all Japanese Assets in American banks and began expanding the embargo against Japan to include oil and steel

  • Response to Pearl Harbor

    • Partly due to the previous responses, Japan eventually launches an attack on Pearl Harbor (and other nations) in December 1941

    • Following this, the US publicly strongly supported entering war against Japan

      • As they had been attacked and involved

    • Declared war on December 8 1941 → officially bringing the US into WW2