Why was manchuria important

The United States, along with other countries, criticized Japanese aggression but shied away from any economic or military punishments. Relations between the U. Responding to this threat, the United States placed an embargo on scrap metal, oil and aviation fuel heading to Japan and froze Japanese assets in the U.

Furthermore, the U. Japan, sensing conflict was inevitable, began planning for an attack on Pearl Harbor by April, The alliance systems of Japan, Germany and Italy were put into action by this time, but Russo-Japanese relations were cordial. In the surprise attack, Japan sunk several ships, destroyed hundreds of planes and ended thousands of lives.

The Japanese goal was to cripple the U. Pacific fleet, and they nearly succeeded. The ensuring war was costly. Years of fighting brought the U. The Japanese were vicious fighters, however, and every victory cost more time, material and lives. The last major battle, the fight for Okinawa, lasted almost three months and took more than , Japanese and American lives. The thought of invading Japan gave Truman and his advisors pause.

The war had shown that the Japanese were fighting for the Emperor who convinced them that it was better to die than surrender. Women and children had been taught how to kill with basic weapons.

Japanese kamikaze pilots could turn planes into guided missiles. The cost of invasion, they knew, would be high. Upon becoming president, Truman learned of the Manhattan Project, a secret scientific effort to create an atomic bomb.

However, the army did not listen and it launched a full-scale invasion of Manchuria and by the end of , it had occupied the whole of the province.

But how could this succeed when the government had no control over the army which was the cause of the problem? The League could introduce three sanctions.

Verbal warnings clearly did not work. However, the impact of the Depression meant that those nations that traded with Japan did not want to risk losing this trade. Would Japan attack them if Britain sided with those who wanted to carry out economic sanctions on Japan? How did the League deal with this problem of aggression? This Commission, after a lengthy visit to the Far East including Manchuria, reported in October Lytton concluded that Japan should leave Manchuria but that Manchuria itself should be run as a semi-independent country instead of returning to Chinese rule.

The report was accepted and approved by the League in In response to the report and the League accepting it, Japan resigned from the League and occupied a region around Manchuria called Jehol, which it claimed gave the Japanese army the ability to defend Manchuria. The League could not enforce its authority. A major power could get away with using force An issue so far from Europe was not likely to attract the whole-hearted support of the major European powers in the League — Britain and France.

The affair had indicated that Britain was more concerned with her territories in the Far East than in the maintenance of law and order. Other powers would almost certainly see this episode as a sign that they too could get away with the use of force The League also lost its most powerful member in the Far East and ultimately Japan was to unite with the two other nations that broke League rules — Germany and Italy.