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Fear of the Rising Sun
In an ominous prelude to World War II, Japanese forces surged through eastern China in 1937 and laid waste to Shanghai and Nanking. Japan's leaders proclaimed this the first step in creating a "new order." Japan had annexed Korea in 1910 and taken control of Manchuria in 1931. By 1941 Japan occupied resource-rich French Indochina (now Vietnam), then set its sights on Western colonies across the Pacific and Australia. Japan's advance threatened European and U.S. ambitions in the Pacific and fueled American fears of the "yellow peril."
Political cartoon depicting Imperial Japan's desire for power, 1935 |