The Transnational Pastime

On September 18, 1931, Japanese troops bombed a section of the Japanese-operated South Manchurian Railway outside the city of Mukden, blamed it on Chinese troops, and then used the manufactured incident as a pretext to conquer all of Manchuria.1 Within a year Japan formalized its territorial aggrandizement by “recognizing” the puppet state of Manchukuo. The Japanese advance in Manchuria was an epochal moment in world history, widely regarded as the first salvo of World War II. Historian David Kennedy asserts, for example, “On the wind-scoured plains of Manchuria, Japan ... set the match ... to the long fuse that would detonate the attack on Pearl Harbor just ten years later.” Japanese scholar Saburo Ienaga similarly states, “The Pacific War began with the invasion of China in 1931,” adding that events at the time “are inseparable, all part of the same war.” Walter LaFeber meanwhile writes in his survey of U.S.-Japan relations that “World War II's roots ran back to September 1931, when the Kwantung Army struck to place all Manchuria under Japanese control.”2 In logical accordance with this interpretation, some historians claim U.S.-Japan relations soured irreconcilably in the aftermath of Japanese aggression. “From this time on,” writes Paul Schroeder, “the United States was to grow steadily more suspicious and hostile, until she finally stood militantly opposed to Japan's aggressive expansion.” Another scholar adds that Japan's popularity among the American public “declined rapidly” following events in Manchuria.3

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