The Manchurian crisis and after

Japan's foreign policy thus became increasingly assertive. The 'Manchurian crisis' of 1931 demon­strated this, and is sometimes regarded as the open­ing shot of the Second World War. Japan used a minor skirmish between Japanese soldiers and Chi­nese 'bandits' as a pretext to occupy a greater portion of Manchuria. Despite Chinese protests to the League of Nations, Japan was unrepentant, and by 1932 had established a puppet state in the whole of Manchuria, called Manchuguo. The League's response to the first blatant act of aggression by one of its member states against another was insipid: a Commission under the British Earl Lytton was dis­patched to investigate the initial Sino-Japanese inci­dent which had sparked the crisis. Its Report was a year in the making, and even then recommended moderation—urging both non-recognition of Man­chuguo and international mediation of Japan and China's differences, but not any forcible action against Japan for its violation of international law.

Box 3.6. The origins of the war in the Pacific: a chronology

18 Sept. 1930 Mukden incident in Manchuria between Japanese troops and Chinese 'bandits'. Marks the start of Japan's conquest of Manchuria.

24 Feb. 1933 League of Nations adopts the Lytton Report, which recommends international mediation in the dispute between Japan and China, and urges League members not to recognize the Japanese puppet state in Manchuria (Manchuguo), but does not seek to impose sanctions on Japan.

27 March 1933 Japan announces her withdrawal from the League.

29 Dec. 1934 Japan denounces the 1922 Washington naval treaty.

15 Jan. 1936 Japan withdraws from London naval conference.

25 Nov. 1936 Germany and Japan sign the Anti-Comintern Pact

7 July 1937 Outbreak of war between Japan and China.

6 Nov. 1937 Italy joins the Anti-Comintern Pact.

14 June 1939 Japan begins a blockade of the Chinese city of Tientsin.

26 July 1939 America retracts 1911 trade treaty with Japan.

30 Aug. 1940 Japan occupies northern Indo-China.

13 April 1941 Japan signs neutrality pact with USSR.

21 July 1941 Vichy France permits Japan to occupy the whole of Indo-China.

26 July 1941 America freezes Japanese assets.

7 Dec. 1941 Japan attacks the US Navy at Pearl Harbor.

8 Dec. 1941 Britain and America declare war on Japan.

11 Dec. 1941 Germany and Italy declare war on the US.

Would Hitler's aggression in Europe and Mus­solini's in East Africa (where he tried to capture Abys­sinia, the last independent African state) have been deterred had the League acted decisively over Man­churia? The answer seems almost certainly not. Nei­ther dictator had much regard for the niceties of international law, and most historians agree that both had long-term territorial ambitions which would scarcely have been deflected by a firmer League response to the Manchurian crisis. However, the League's abject failure to check Japanese aggression did perhaps help create a permissive atmos­phere, which emboldened the European dictators to disrespect international law in the expectation that they would not incur international sanctions. Cer­tainly, in East Asia, Japan's rulers were not deterred from further aggression by the upshot of the Man­churian crisis. The puppet state of Manchuguo con­tinued to exist until the end of the Second World War, and the fact that most states chose not to rec­ognize its existence made little odds to the Japanese government, and doubtless was of small comfort to the Manchurians themselves.

By 1937, Japan was involved in full-scale war with China, and this too lasted until 1945. But Japan's mounting incursions into neighbours' territory—the so-called 'New Order' in East Asia—were not altogether ignored by the Western powers. In 1939, the US government cancelled its 1911 trade agree­ment with Japan, thus restricting the letter's ability to import raw materials necessary to its war machine. Not surprisingly, relations between the two states deteriorated rapidly and dramatically, culminating in Japan's bombing of the US navy at Pearl Harbor in December 1941. As a result, Britain and the US declared war on Japan on 8 December, while Germany and Italy reciprocated with a declar­ation of war on the USA three days later. The Second World War was now unquestionably global in scope. However, for many months there had been no doubt as to where the main lines of division lay in Asia, nor that an axis was emerging between Japan, Germany, and Italy. A Three-Power Pact was con­cluded in 1940, which was transformed into a mili­tary alliance in 1942. Thus while the German army overran huge swathes of continental Europe, Japan occupied large parts of Asia hitherto colonized by European states. The Dutch East Indies and French Indo-China fell to Japan, just as Holland and France lay under Nazi rule. And although Britain itself repelled German invasion, the same was not true of its South-East Asian colonies, Burma, Ceylon, and Malaya.