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  • Essay / The Japanese invasion of Manchuria - an example of the ineffectiveness of League of Nations policy

    Hawaii as an opportunity to subsequently dominate the Pacific. After the Sino-Japanese War, the League of Nations condemned Japan's invasion of Manchuria, alienating it from the rest of the league and alienating it from the major European powers. With a growing population on an isolated archipelago of Japan, not only wanting to gain more land for its military power, but also to gain natural resources that Japan lacked. Japan then invaded Manchuria to help accommodate its growing population. The rest of the world, however, saw it as a threat and feared that Japan would seize valuable resources and then use them to its advantage, strengthening its military in order to become an imperial power. To curb Japanese expansion, the United States began supporting China, while declaring an embargo on natural resources such as oil and other vital war materials. Japan was furious at American support for China and knew the embargo would cause major problems if it did nothing. The decision was made preemptively to strike America and that day quickly became the day of infamy. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay During the interwar period, Japan felt constantly excluded and mistreated. This could be the result of racism or exclusion linked to their unequal participation in the First World War. Journalist Josh Axelrod states that "Japan requested, and almost received approval for, a clause in the treaty that would have affirmed the equality of all nations, regardless of race." The unproven clause, however, was one of the main incidents that made Japan unhappy with the treatment it was receiving and made it feel isolated from the other League powers. Following this, after Japan invaded Manchuria, China demanded that Japan be investigated and even removed from the league. A commission of inquiry was created by the League and historian Chris Trueman informs us that the League "concluded that Japan should leave Manchuria." With this demand and the exclusion that Japan faced in the Versailles Peace Treaty, Professor Yaw Yeboah of Pennsylvania State University asserts that "after being reprimanded for its actions by the Society of Nations, Japan left the League, rejected liberalism, capitalism and democracy. as drivers of weakness. After years of mistreatment due to racial discrimination or participation in the Great War, Japan took matters into its own hands by leaving the League so that it could begin building an empire to gain power in the Pacific. For Japan to rise to imperial power they desperately needed land to support their rapidly growing population and army. They wanted to dominate Asia and the Pacific, but Japan, at this point, was also trying to resolve the demographic struggle, as well as the economic difficulties it had faced in the wake of the Great Depression. Axelrod also states that Japan "attempted to gobble up more land and assert more of its power globally." In this case, Manchuria was their main target. With their increasingly restricted access to international markets and with Manchuria featuring over 200,000 square kilometers of rich soil offering many natural resources, it is clear why Manchuria was so valuable to the Japanese. Regarding the invasion of Manchuria, Yeboah suggests that "there has been a push in Japan to take full control of the area which some have described as "Japan's lifeline", in terms of raw material supply, accommodation and security . Japan was consumed with nationalism and militarism and saw the invasion of Manchuria as its ticket to the top, not stopping or second-guessing itself even after the reaction of the rest of the world. When Japan invaded Manchuria, most of the world was pretty much taken. back. The world population was not fooled by this act and felt threatened especially when it was realized what Japan aspired to and its objectives in pursuing Manchuria. The League of Nations, after China demanded that Japan withdraw its army, offered numerous verbal warnings to Japan to withdraw its army from Manchuria, but this only served to further aggravate Japan. The League of Nations launched a thorough and thorough investigation into Japan's threatened invasion of Manchuria, coming out on the other side concluding that Manchuria should be run as a semi-dependent country and that Japan should withdraw its navy . In this event, historian Chris Trueman suggests that "the League was unable to assert its authority." Japan paid little attention to what the League was saying and in response decided to resign from the League and continued to occupy Manchuria until 1945, 14 years after the initial invasion. The United States of America noticed the lack of difference the world made in Japan's rise to power and felt that it was in its interest to curb the expansion of the Japanese empire itself. Once Japan officially left the League of Nations, the United States took matters into its own hands to prevent the Japanese from expanding into other Asian nations. Yaboah informs that “in the late 1930s, Japan produced only 7% of the oil it consumed. It imported the rest, 80% of which came from the United States and 10% from the Dutch East Indies. Realizing this, as historian Sarah Pruitt states, "the United States hoped that embargoes on oil and other key commodities would cause Japan to end its expansionism." Embargoes were imposed by the American government and Japanese assets in the United States were frozen, including their valuable oil. In addition to imposing embargoes on Japan, when the Japanese bombed China during the Sino-Japanese War, the United States offered financial and military aid to China in order to lessen the effect and scale of the attack launched against them by Japan. America also banned the export of iron and steel, two valuable war materials, angering Japanese leaders. In response to this, the day after the United States banned iron and steel exports, Japan signed a tripartite pact with Germany and Italy to gain more control and control. 'expand their empire again. However, by this time, Japan was expected to become the number one military in the Pacific, but as Dr. Chris Mann pointed out: "In the face of American and British sanctions, Japan had to neutralize American naval power in the Peaceful, at least temporarily. , in order to seize British and Dutch resources in the region, particularly oil. Thus Pruitt argues that "for Japan, war with the United States had become inevitable, in order to defend its status as a great world power." America's involvement with China, imposing embargoes and freezing Japanese assets was the final straw for Japan and they saw that the only way to get revenge as well as opening.