The 1930s: Japan’s War with China and American Non-Recognition

Abstract

The Manchurian Incident of 1931 created severe discord in relations between Japan and the US. The Japanese government allowed the actions of the Japanese armed forces in Manchuria to drag it down a course which spelt the breakdown of Shidehara diplomacy and placed relations with the US in jeopardy. Chapter 5 looks at a chain of events which started with the onset of the Great Depression in 1929 and culminated in the outbreak of war between Japan and the US, addressing the introduction of the New Deal policy by the Roosevelt administration, the Manchurian Incident initiated by the Japanese Kwantung Army, Japan’s aimless expansion of war in China to the point of inevitable breakdown in relations with the US, and the subsequent failure of US–Japanese compromise and the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor by Japanese forces in December 1941.