Hsinking (Changchun), Manchukuo • February 18, 1932 The Meiji Restoration of Imperial rule in Japan in 1868 resulted in the downfall of that country’s powerful military commanders, the shoguns, and the Japanese samurai warrior class. Partly as a concession to the samurai, the Japanese government embarked on an aggressive foreign policy in Manchuria in Northeastern China…
Tokyo, Japan • October 13, 1940 On this date in 1940 Japan’s foreign minister Yōsuke Matsuoka, who had grown up in Oregon and California (1893–1902), invited the United States and other nonaligned nations to join the Tripartite Pact, which Axis powers Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Imperial Japan had initialed in Berlin the previous month…
Washington, D.C. • October 7, 1940 In the 1930s Japan’s statesmen and military leaders in China were acutely aware that their economy and armed forces were dependent on imports from the United States and its colonial friends who had holdings in the Asia Pacific region: the Americans in the Philippines, the British in Malaya (now…
Tokyo, Japan • September 18, 1931 The assassination of the Manchurian warlord Zhang Zuolin in June 1928 was the first in a daisy change of major Sino-Japanese crises faced by the new Japanese emperor, Hirohito (posthumously referred to as Emperor Shōwa), whose reign began 18 months before. Manchuria (sometimes referred to by its historical name Guandong)…
Moscow, Soviet Union • August 20, 1939 The Soviet Union and Japan, 2 expansionist powers that occupied portions of the Asian mainland, had butted heads as early as 1904–1905 (the Russo-Japanese War) over influence in China, Mongolia, and Manchuria, the latter country rich in coal, iron, and grains. In September 1931 soldiers in the Kwantung…
Moscow, Soviet Union • August 8, 1945 On this date the Soviet Union declared war on Japan, the last Axis hold-out after the Soviets and their Western Allies had vanquished Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill had long urged Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin to join…
Wanping, Near Beijing, China • July 7, 1937 The major turning point that ultimately led to Japan’s disastrous war with the United States and its European allies in December 1941 occurred late on this date, July 7, 1937, and into the next. Japanese and Chinese soldiers clashed at a bridge over the Yongding River near Wanping,…
Tokyo, Japan • June 30, 1941 On September 19, 1931, soldiers of the Kwantung Army (eventually the largest, most prestigious branch of the Imperial Japanese Army) invaded Manchuria in Northeast China from their Chinese base at Port Arthur (known as Ryojun in Japanese; present-day Dalian or Lüshun Port) and established a puppet state they called…
Moscow, Soviet Union (USSR) • March 23, 1941 On this date in 1941 Japanese Foreign Minister Yōsuke Matsuoka (1940–1941) arrived in Moscow after a 7‑day journey by train from the Siberian port city of Vladivostok. On this his first of 2 visits to senior Soviet officials, Matsuoka met Soviet Premier Vyacheslav Molotov. At the top of Matsuoka’s…
Tokyo, Japan • October 16, 1941 On this date in 1941 three-time Prime Minister of Japan Prince Fumimaro Konoe resigned from office. Konoe (also rendered Konoye) had lost the support of cabinet and Army minister Gen. Hideki Tōjō, who called for a firmer line with the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt over the U.S….