In 1941, the U.S. was shocked by Japan’s aggression with China, so they cut off trade and oil. Japan was outraged by the U.S. demand to abandon its empire.
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“The United States responded to Japan’s march into southern French Indochina by freezing Japanese assets in U.S. banks on July 26, 1941, effectively cutting off trade and oil...The US demand that Japan give up its empire to restore trade makes war inevitable.” |
Poland raided by Germany in 1939. (Star Advertiser, 2016)
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“The two dates most often mentioned as “the beginning of World War II” are July 7, 1937, when the “Marco Polo Bridge Incident” led to a prolonged war between Japan and China, and September 1, 1939, when Germany invaded Poland, which led Britain and France to declare war on Hitler’s Nazi state in retaliation. From the invasion of Poland until the war ended with Japan’s surrender in August 1945, multiple nations were at war with each other, some fighting for the ultimately victorious Allies (led by Britain, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the United States of America), and some for the Axis (Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Imperial Japan and their smaller allies).”
-World War II, 2016 |