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WWII Home / Pearl Harbor Home
In 1937, China and Japan went to war. Although Chinese forces resisted,
Japan advanced farther and farther into China. The conflict brought great
suffering to the Chinese people. In December, Japanese troops captured the
city of Nanking (Nanjing). In the month that followed, they massacred as
many as 300,000 Chinese civilians. Photographs of the death and destruction
in Nanking caused worldwide anger against Japan.
The U.S. felt it had a special relationship with China and often acted as that nation's protector. But most Americans in the 1930s didn't want the nation to get involved in foreign wars. President Franklin Roosevelt felt he could only protest Japan's actions. Besides, Americans were more concerned with the rising tensions in Europe. There, brutal dictators like Adolf Hitler in Germany and Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union had risen to power.
In September 1939, Germany and Russia attacked Poland.
France and Britain declared war in return. World War
II had begun. When Germany defeated France the following
year, Japan moved quickly to seize military bases in
Indochina, France's Southeast Asia colony (now the
nations of Vietnam, Laos, and Kampuchea).
This action helped Japan continue its assault on China.
It also put the U.S.-ruled Philippines within range
of Japanese warplanes. President Roosevelt felt he
had to act. In the summer of 1940, Roosevelt outlawed
the sale of some American goods to Japan. At the same
time, Congress also approved a program to build new
military ships and planes. The Japanese government
considered this a threat. They believed that ships especially
aircraft carriers could give the U.S. and its allies
an edge in any war fought in the vast Pacific Ocean.
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