Western Civilization - History Of European Society

586 Chapter 29

began the expansion of the co-prosperity sphere into

Southeast Asia, where they hoped to obtain war materi-

als. The further expansion meant a collision with the

British Empire, which stretched across Asia from India

to Singapore to Australia. Japanese expansion similarly

menaced American territories in the Pacific, stretching

from Hawaii to the Philippine Islands.

Britain and the United States were both drawn into

the Asian war by Japanese attacks in December 1941.

Japanese-American relations had deteriorated during

the war in China. American sympathies for the Chinese

government of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek led to

the prohibition of exporting war materials to Japan.

Protests, warnings, and recriminations crossed the Pa-

cific Ocean in 1940–41. In July 1941 the military dicta-

torship of Japan resolved to establish the Greater East

Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere “no matter what interna-

tional developments take place.” A few weeks later, all

armed forces in the Philippine Islands were placed un-

der the command of General Douglas MacArthur to

ready them for war, and President Roosevelt froze

Japanese assets in the United States. Trade between the

two countries ceased. In August 1941 Roosevelt warned

Japan against any further expansion in Asia saying that

the United States would “take immediately any and all

steps necessary” to protect its interests. Japan re-

sponded with a surprise attack on the home base of the

U.S. navy at Pearl Harbor (near Honolulu, Hawaii) on

Aleutian

Islan

ds

ALASKA

MANCHUKUO

IWO JIMA

MIDWAY

HAWAIIAN

ISLANDS

GUADALCANAL

TINIAN

OKINAWA

ATTU IS.

Solomon

Islands

Marshall Islands

Saipan

Guam

Bonin Islands

Mariana Islands

Kurile Islands

Ryuku Islands

Caroline Islands

Sakhalin

Pacific

Ocean

Indian

Ocean Coral

Sea

SOVIET UNION

INDIA

BURMA

THAILAND

FRENCH

INDO-

CHINA

AUSTRALIA

PHILIPPINE

ISLANDS

KOREA

MONGOLIA

CHINA

CANADA

JAPAN

MALAYA

D

UT

CH

EAST INDIES

Tokyo

Nagasaki

Hiroshima

Chungking

Nanking

Singapore

HongKong Honolulu

Anckorage

0 500 1000 Miles

0 500 1000 1500 Kilometers

Allied powers and area under

Allied control

Japanese empire, 1937

Japanese conquests, 1937–1944

Japanese satellite areas, 1941

Farthest Japanese advance

Allied offensives, 1942–1945

Japanese offensives, 1942–1945

Main bombing routes

Naval battles

MAP 29.3

World War II in Asia and the Pacific