On The U.S. Policy Toward Far-East In The Early 1930s

The Great Depression of 1929-1933 caused Japan fall into the hopeless situation. in order to overcome the crisis, the Japanese ruling class needed to seek for sources of raw materials and consumer markets urgently, and the rich resources of Manchuria just satisfied this condition exactly. More importantly, Washington "Nine Power Treaty" didn't make the explicit stipulation to Manchuria, so Manchuria can be said the weakest link in the Washington system, and Manchuria became the breach for the Japanese militarism to break through the Washington Treat System.The time of launching Mukden Incident was the result of carefully selected, since The Great Depression, the U.S. government was busy in the domestic economy. Therefore, it couldn't raise the interest to the world affairs besides the economic exchanges. The U.S investment in China was relatively small. (in all of its investment, the investment in Manchuria was minimal) So, the Japanese judged that the possibility of the U.S. inferring was small. Therefore, under the impetus of various factors, Japan launched Mukden Incident. To meet the Japanese aggression in Manchuria, and also to divert the international attention, to suppressive the civil anti-Japanese movement in China, the Japanese launched Shanghai Incident. After that, Japan tried to separate North China from China.After Mukden Incident happened, the United States'Far-East policy was erratic because of the following causes. First of all, the peace movement rised in 1920s, various international treaties was signed, which caused the rulers' of the United States thinking paralysis, they immersed in the illusion of peace, lacking preparation for the sudden incident. Furthermore, after the incident occurred, the U.S. government once had the miscarriage of justice; they thought it was only a common conflict. The Japanese government has not premeditated, It was Kwantung Army which adopted action arbitrarily, They hoped Japan's civilian government to take measures to stop Japan's military adventures. So, the U.S government did not take any action which made it lost the best opportunity of intervention. The different opinions for this incident also delayed the intervention, too. After the Japanese forces bombed Jinzhou, the attitude of the United States to Japan began to become tough, but the measure of economic sanctions had not been adopted. After the Japanese capturing Jinzhou, the United States government sent the non-recognition note to Japan and China. It stated that the U.S. government did not recognize the change in the Far-East by force.Strictly speaking, Shanghai Incident was a part of the Mukden Incident. To divert the attention of the world, Japan launched Shanghai Incident. When Shanghai Incident happened, the strong powers responded rapidly and strongly, especially the United States government. On the one hand, it protested to Japan immediately, On the other hand, it mobilized troops in case of emergency, to put pressure on Japan. In addition, the United States and the Great Britain reach agreement promptly, and in conjunction with other countries and the League of Nations, to bring strong international pressure on Japan. In short, the United States response and action was clear, decisive, direct and initiative, but not enough tough, no economic sanctions.After Shanghai Incident, Lytton's report was released; China and Japan struggled in the League for the report. When the UK wanted to compromise with Japan, the world's eyes focused on the U.S. With the approval of the agreement of the new Present Franklin D. Roosevelt, Stimson delivered a declaration of supporting China, which caused the intense reaction in the world, the risk of compromise with Japan was overcomed.Since then, the Japanese stepped up their aggression in northern China, resulting in the North China Incident, During this period, the United States also steped up to support China, for instance cotton and wheat loan, which helped China to win the Anti-Japanese War finally. But the United States is egoism country, in 1934, despite China's opposition,the Congress passed "The Silver Purchase Act",that inflated the price of silver,and caused a serious outflow of Chinese silver, brought greatly harm to the Chinese economy.in1933, President Roosevelt came to power, he concentrated on solving the problem of civil economy. in the far east issues, the U.S government continued carrying on "non-recognition" policy, under the premise of trying to avoid head-on collision with Japan. In Roosevelt's first term, American Far East policy was quite conservative. Conservative contained change, in order to strive for Far East and Pacific hegemony with Japan, the U.S. on the one hand, strengthened its military power, especially naval power, on the other hand,in order to delay the arrival of the Japan-US conflict,the U.S government adopted the good-neighbor policy to improve the relationship with Japanese including Soviet Russia.