Mist Across the Bamboo Curtain

In examining the developments leading to the war between the United States and Japan, the latter's signing of the Axis Pact in September 1940 accelerated the already deteriorating relations between the two countries, a downward spiral that had been quickening since the Marco Polo Bridge Incident in July 1937. But from May to mid-July of 1940, the period when Admiral Yonai Mitsumasa was the Japanese prime minister, opportunities existed for Japan to gain American recogni tion of its hegemony in the Far East, including the recognition of Manchukuo. Because of Adolf Hitler's successes in Europe, President Franklin D. Roosevelt was willing to explore the possibility of a settle ment with the Japanese in the Pacific. Between May and July he per mitted official dialogues to consider a rapprochement between American and Japanese diplomats. During that time, the Japanese business community was orches trating a major effort to improve relations with the United States and obtain U.S. economic assistance for the industrialization of Japan and Manchukuo. Two projects were being carried out at the time, one by the Japan Economic Federation and the other by the industrialist who founded the Nissan business conglomerate, Ayukawa Yoshisuke, and his aides.1 These efforts reflected a strong support within the Japanese business community for a rapprochement with the United States by

China · Economic history · Hegemony · Political science · Politics · Quickening · History · Japanese History and Culture · Law

• Constructing the U.S. Rapprochement with China, 1961–1974

  Open Access•Evelyn Goh•Constructing the U. S.…•2004

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