This week, we’ll delve into the origins of Japan’s war with China and the strain that conflict placed on Japan’s relationship with the US. In the course of the 9 years from the invasion of Manchuria to the second appointment of Konoe Fumimaro as Prime Minister, Japan will become bogged down in an unwinnable war and find itself facing a far more assertive United States.
The Lytton Commission in Shanghai as they prepare to investigate goings on in Manchuria.Matsuoka Yosuke addressing the League of Nations.Franklin Delano Roosevelt (right) with his predecessor Herbert Hoover on Inauguration Day in March, 1933. Roosevelt’s leadership style would prove the antithesis of the weak style of Konoe.Konoe Fumimaro at the time of his first appointment as Prime Minister in 1937.Massacre victims piled on the shore of the Yangtze River after the Japanese occupation of Nanjing.The USS Panay sinking in the Yangtze after being struck by Japanese fighters during the sack of Nanjing.Chinese troops counterattacking at Taierzhuang in Summer, 1938; such victories slowed the Japanese advance and gave the Chinese time to settle in for the long war.Yonai Mitsumasa addressing the Diet in early 1940. Yonai would attempt to defuse tensions between the US and Japan but be blocked by the army and hardliners in the navy.Konoe Fumimaro’s 2nd cabinet in 1940. Tojo Hideki is standing in the second row on the left side.
1 thought on “Episode 65 – An Unnatural Intimacy, Part 3”
At 17:25 you mention the high-ball Chinese number for deaths at Nanjing as being 300 million. I believe you meant 300,000 dead.
Thank you again for developing this incredible resource. The time you have invested in it must be incredible and my gratitude for it is equally immense.
At 17:25 you mention the high-ball Chinese number for deaths at Nanjing as being 300 million. I believe you meant 300,000 dead.
Thank you again for developing this incredible resource. The time you have invested in it must be incredible and my gratitude for it is equally immense.