International Crisis #3: Japan Invades China, July 1937
Japan had successfully invaded Manchuria in 1931, facing little military resistance from the Chinese and only token resistance from the League of Nations. Now, in the Summer of 1937, Japan began an invasion of the five northern provinces of China.
The current world attitude towards Japan’s decision was not positive. The League of Nations did not see the Japanese conquest of Manchuria as “necessity” for Japan to survive.
The Japanese armed forces were surprised by the level of Chinese resistance that preceded the fall of Shanghai and took out their frustration on the civilians and soldiers who surrendered the city of Nanking in December of 1937. Realistic estimates indicate that 300,000 Chinese civilians and soldiers were killed and that Japanese soldiers raped tens of thousands of the city’s women. The Japanese also captured the key cities of Shandong and Beijing, but the Chinese (both Communists and Nationalists) continued to fight.
The international community as a whole are appalled at the Japanese use of airplanes to bomb civilian targets in Shanghai. Graphic pictures of the human toll of this policy led US Senator George Norris to denounce the Japanese actions as “disgraceful, ignoble, barbarous, and cruel, even beyond the power of language to describe.” Similar denunciations came from other quarters of the international community.
On 12 December 1937, Japanese planes sank the American gunboat, the Panay, near Nanking as it sought to evacuate American officials. Two Americans died and 30 others were injured. Japan claimed its pilots had mistaken the ship for a Chinese vessel, apologized for the raid, and promised to pay indemnities. Secretary of State Cordell Hull learned that the ship had been clearly marked as a U.S. naval vessel and did not believe the Japanese claims.
A German business that is officiated with the Nazi party did confirm the event. He stated that he wrote a letter to Hitler to help stabilize the situation in Nanking. As of now there has been no response.
The world economic situation has shown slow growth but it is still in a pretty dismal place.
What would you do? Can you capitalize on American indignation about the Panay incident and on the horrors of Japanese atrocities in Shanghai and Nanking? Could expanding your military presence and capability in Asia and the Pacific help kick-start the economy once again?