World War and the Growth of Global Power 243gram and the ultimate goal, not surprisingly, was to take control of China.
Japan had already established its “special relationship” with China but wanted
more formal authority there. In the first moves in what would become a
crisis and then war, in 1931 Japanese army forces blew up a section of the
Mukden Railroad in the northeast region of Manchuria, full of mineral and
coal reserves and a potential railway to the markets of Russia and Europe.
When the Japanese blew up the railroad, the U.S. Secretary of State Henry
Stimson devised the “Stimson Doctrine,” which was a refusal to recognize any
gains that Japan made through force, and an attempt to use “moral suasion”
to force Japan out. Much like the appeasement of Germany, persuasion failed
in Japan too, and the Japanese took over the entire region, giving it the name
Manchukuo and putting a “puppet” government, one that would do what
Tokyo told it to do, in place.
The U.S. was angry and anxious about Japan’s intervention, but could do
little about it other than denounce it, and the League of Nations, as in Europe,
did virtually nothing to deter Japan. With no one to stop it, Japan invaded
China in 1937, aiming to take control of the entire country, a move that again
incensed and alarmed the west. FDR called for a “quarantine” of the
Japanese—a plea for other countries to punish Japan for its moves—but he
could not back it up either. Japan in fact sunk an American gunboat off
Chinese waters in late 1937 and apologized for its “blunder,” but FDR did
not believe it was a mistake. The Americans began to consider their options,
including freezing Japanese assets, such as investments, in the U.S. but wanted
to avoid conflict in Asia and so continued trading with Japan [in 1940 U.S.
trade with Japan came to $227 million while with China it was just $78 mil-
lion]. Additionally, the U.S. saw Germany as the greatest global threat and
wanted to buy time in Asia.
Japan had a major weakness, however. It had no domestic source of oil.
To that end, it invaded the Dutch East Indies [home of Dutch Shell] in
September 1940, right after the U.S. had embargoed aviation fuel and scrap
iron—resources vital for warfare. Some members of FDR’s cabinet wanted
him to embargo oil too, but the president still hoped to maintain some cordial
relations with Japan in order to avoid a war in the Pacific. By 1941, however,
it was clear that Japan was intent on controlling Asia and denying the Open
Door, so Roosevelt stopped all trade, seized Japanese assets, and embargoed
oil. The American actions were damaging Japan’s ability to manufacture war