The Japanese attacked China when it was weak. They invaded Manchuria on September 18th, 1931. China was going through a depression, like the United States, so they were an easy target for the Japanese. During this time, Russia is a strong alley with China and so they are outraged at the attacks against China. The United States was an alley with Russia so therefore, they wanted to protect China as well.
This showed the world that the actions of this group should not be taken seriously. Instead of America taking militar action they responded with the Stimson Doctrine. With this doctrine the US would not recognize “Manchuko” because it was taken by force. Only slightly stronger than what the League of Nations did it had the same result; it did nothing to stop the aggression. The actions in Italy, Germany, and Japan just pushed the isolationist movement even more, to not be dragged into another foreign war.
Many reasons were behind the Japanese attacking Pearl Harbor. Once the Japanese decided they were going to war with the US, they wanted to cripple the US naval forces. Japan was very upset that President Roosevelt cut off the oil, scrap iron, steel, as well as many other goods to Japan. Japan also attacked Pearl Harbor first because the geographical location to Japan. Japan wanted to acquire their oil and other resources from Indochina (peninsula containing Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam.)
Another reason to why America is to blame is after the success of the atomic bomb the members of the Grand Alliance began to see changes in Truman’s behaviour as he started to control the meetings they had and Stalin refused to be bossed around so arguments between Stalin and Truman started, they started. The USSR is to blame for the breakdown of the Grand Alliance for many reasons. One reason is that the USSR wanted to impose big respirations on Germany but America and Great Britain refused as they knew how it would affect Germany and could cause another war. A second reason is that Stalin wanted most of Europe to become communist, Roosevelt and Churchill didn’t agree. After Truman became Americas new President there was a lot of tension at the Potsdam Conference.
Germany established a submarine war zone around the British Isles and said they would sink any enemy war ships that entered that proximity. Innocent American trading and merchant ships were being shot down and sunk by ruthless German warfare at sea. Germany refused to let the neutral America trade goods with their enemy countries. This dramatically impacted America because much of the American economy was controlled by trade with Britain and France, and moving forward America knew it would be impossible to keep an expanding economy without GB and France. America, despite its efforts, could not remain neutral and was forced to enter World War 1.
First and foremost, there was the controversy surrounding his invasion of the Philippines. Many officials believed that such efforts were useless and led to unnecessary bloodshed. However, on the other hand, some believed that this battle helped to end World War II. Next was the controversy surrounding his exoneration of Japanese hierarchies such as Emperor Hirohito from being punished for the attack on Pearl Harbor and, instead, placing the blame on Hideki Tojo. Finally, the largest controversy surrounded his public outcries to invade Japan against the orders of President Truman.
Mao criticised Khrushchev for his policies such as de-Stalinisation and his secret speech. He was also very critical of the policy of Peaceful Coexistence as he believed it was a way of being friendly with the United States (the enemy) and also Mao saw it abandoning millions of comrades struggling to free themselves of capitalist and imperialist oppression. This, therefore, made the USSR an ‘enemy’. How could two countries work together if they had such differing beliefs about how to run their countries? This problem had a big contribution to the split as they couldn’t agree on anything, and if they did, it was because their national interests were at risk.
These feelings of hatred arose when the Japanese began to move into the United States in search for work industries on the West Coast. Upon there arrival, they encountered racist reactions from many Americans. The Americans believed that the Japanese were stealing jobs and lowering wages. Many laws were passed that openly discriminated against Asians, Japanese in specific. Many of these laws stated that Japanese could not become citizens of the United States and could not hold basic rights.
The war between the two countries could not be contained to just them alone due to an alliance system that linked certain countries together by pledge to back each other in time of war. This caused a chain reaction forcing Russia, France, and Great Britain to go to war with Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy. During this time the United States remained neutral because they believed it was a European matter and we wanted to continue trading with those nations at war. The United States became less neutral in the war and more supportive of the allies side following several events with Germany. German U-boats sank British passenger liners killing Americans.
Yes, Hitler's aggressive foreign policy between 1933 and 1939 inevitably led to WWII. While other factors such as appeasement and the failure of the League of Nations might have encouraged Hitler to test the boundaries and to slowly bring about the start of the war, it was his foreign policy that was the root cause of the problem, as it triggered his motivation to expand German territory and thus angering Britain and France, both eventually declaring war on Germany. Hitler had stated in Mein Kampf, as early as, in 1924, that he wished to expand German territory, and his foreign policy was centered on that. Hitler also resented the Treaty of Versailles and he began to challenge its terms and slowly went about its destruction; this too contributed to the start of the war. The first step of Hitler’s foreign policy was to remove the limitations, which had been placed on Germany by the Treaty of Versailles.