The ensuring war was costly. Years of fighting brought the U. The Japanese were vicious fighters, however, and every victory cost more time, material and lives. The last major battle, the fight for Okinawa, lasted almost three months and took more than , Japanese and American lives. The thought of invading Japan gave Truman and his advisors pause. The war had shown that the Japanese were fighting for the Emperor who convinced them that it was better to die than surrender.
Women and children had been taught how to kill with basic weapons. Japanese kamikaze pilots could turn planes into guided missiles. The cost of invasion, they knew, would be high. Upon becoming president, Truman learned of the Manhattan Project, a secret scientific effort to create an atomic bomb. Both cities were leveled by the bombs, and shortly after the second bomb fell, Japan surrendered to the United States.
The war was finally over. Today, historians continue to debate the decision to use atomic weapons. President Roosevelt's "Quarantine" Address In a significant address delivered at Chicago on October 5, , President Roosevelt dwelt at length on the tense condition of international affairs. He declared that the political situation in the world was one to cause grave concern and anxiety; that the existing reign of terror and international lawlessness had reached the stage where the very foundations of civilization were seriously threatened.
He warned that no one should imagine that America would escape from this or that the Western Hemisphere would not be attacked. He called for a concerted effort by the peace-loving nations in opposition to the actions that were creating international anarchy and instability. The President declared that isolation or neutrality afforded no escape and that international anarchy jeopardized the security of every nation, large or small.
He cited the spreading of the "epidemic of world lawlessness", and drew the parallel that in case of an epidemic of physical disease the community joins in a "quarantine" of the patients in order to protect the health of the community against the spread of the disease. War, he said, is a "contagion" and can engulf states remote from the original scene of hostilities.
We were determined, he continued, to keep out of war, we were adopting measures to minimize the risk, yet we could not insure ourselves against war's disastrous effects and the dangers of involvement.
The President called upon the peace-loving nations to express their will for peace to the end that nations tempted to violate their agreements and the rights of others would desist. He concluded with: "America hates war. America hopes for peace. Therefore, America actively engages in the search for peace. On October 6, the Assembly of the League of Nations adopted 5 a report stating that the Japanese action in China was a violation of Japan's treaty obligations.
On the same day the Department of State issued a statement that the action of Japan in China was inconsistent with the principles which should govern the relations between nations and was contrary to the Nine-Power Treaty of February 6, regarding the principles and policies to be followed in matters concerning China, and contrary to the Kellogg-Briand Pact. Brussels Conference In November the United States participated with 18 other nations in a Conference held at Brussels to consider "peaceable means" for hastening the end of the conflict between China and Japan.
This Conference was held in accordance with a provision of the Nine-Power Treaty of Davis stated that the first objective of the foreign policy of the United States was national security, and that consequently we sought to keep peace and promote the maintenance of peace; that we believed in cooperative effort for the preservation of peace by pacific and practicable means; that this country as a signatory to the Kellogg-Briand Pact had renounced war as an instrument of national policy; and that "public opinion in the United States has expressed its emphatic determination that the United States keep out of war".
Davis was instructed to keep in mind the interest of the United States in peace in the Pacific and in the Far East as evidenced by the Washington Conference treaties, the statements relating to foreign policy made by the President in his Chicago address of October 5, and this Government's statement of October 6 on the controversy between China and Japan.
In the view of this Government the primary function of the Conference was "to provide a forum for constructive discussion, to formulate and suggest possible bases of settlement, and to endeavor to bring the parties together through peaceful negotiation". It was emphasized to the United States delegate that if we were to avoid an ultimate serious clash with Japan, some practical means must be found to check Japanese conquest and to make effective the collective will of the powers which desired the settlement of international controversies by peaceful means; that the Conference might be an agency for bringing to bear upon Japan every moral pressure directed toward bringing about a change in Japanese attitude and policy.
Finally, the delegate was to "observe closely the trend of public opinion in the United States and take full account thereof". Japan refused to participate in the Conference, maintaining that its dispute with China was outside the purview of the Nine-Power Treaty. On November 15 the Conference adopted a declaration affirming that the representatives of 15 states considered the conflict between China and Japan to be of concern to all countries parties to the Nine-Power Treaty and the Kellogg-Briand Pact.
In the presence of this difference between the views of the Conference and the Japanese Government, the Conference considered that there was no opportunity at the time for carrying out its terms of reference so far as they related to bringing about peace by agreement.
There were about Japanese present, some of whom were in sedan chairs. In the s, China was a divided country. Civil war between the Communists and Nationalists erupted in — the period of Mao's legendary 'Long March'. In , Japan, eager for the vast natural resources to be found in China and seeing her obvious weakness, invaded and occupied Manchuria. It was turned into a nominally independent state called Manchukuo, but the Chinese Emperor who ruled it was a puppet of the Japanese. The only real consequence of this was that an outraged Japanese delegation stormed out of the League of Nations, never to return.
In the 's the Chinese suffered continued territorial encroachment from the Japanese, using their Manchurian base. The whole north of the country was gradually taken over. The official strategy of the KMT was to secure control of China by defeating her internal enemies first Communists and various warlords , and only then turning attention to the defence of the frontier. This meant the Japanese encountered virtually no resistance, apart from some popular uprisings by Chinese peasants which were brutally suppressed.
In skirmishing between Japanese and Chinese troops on the frontier led to what became known as the Marco Polo Bridge Incident.
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