Japan Invades China!

1. Japan Invades China! Objective: Students will examine Japan’s aggressive behavior toward China before WWII to determine China’s role in leading USA into WWII through text, video, group activity, and writing assignment.

2. In this speech to Parliament, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain explains why he favored a policy of appeasement in dealing with Hitler . • “With a little good will and determination, it is possible to remove grievances and clear away suspicion… • We must try to bring these four nations into friendly discussion. • If they can settle their differences, we shall save the peace of Europe for a generation.” • “And, in The Times (London): I shall not give up the hope of a peaceful solution. • We sympathize with a small nation faced by a big and powerful neighbor. • But we cannot involve the whole British Empire in war simply on her account. • If we have to fight, it must be on larger issues than that… I am a man of peace… • Yet if I were sure that any nation had made up its mind to dominate • the world by fear of its force, • I should feel that it must be resisted… But war is a fearful thing.” • Copy statements. Write 507 sentences judging why Chamerlain might have favored the policy of appeasement. You can go back to article: “ Our Government is Much More Afraid of Communism than Fascism”.

3. Essential World HistoryWWII

4. Videos to accompany texts. • Carefully watch as the line of Japanese aggression moves and changes in North China as well as SE China. • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAoNunlBbXg • Discuss with your team: What does this mean to Japan and how does this affect China? Write answers in notebook. • Before the next video make a graphic organizer in your notebook. • This is a video that gives a lot of history and facts of why Japan was so aggressive. • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qnhwd0vvj78

5. History.com • Read as a class or individually…some explanation will be necessary as to ‘freezing assets’. • On this day in 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt seizes all Japanese assets in the United States in retaliation for the Japanese occupation of French Indo-China. • On July 24, Tokyo decided to strengthen its position in terms of its invasion of China by moving through Southeast Asia. Given that France had long occupied parts of the region, and Germany, a Japanese ally, now controlled most of France through Petain's puppet government, France "agreed" to the occupation of its Indo-China colonies. Japan followed up by occupying Cam Ranh naval base, 800 miles from the Philippines, where Americans had troops, and the British base at Singapore. • President Roosevelt swung into action by freezing all Japanese assets in America. Britain and the Dutch East Indies followed suit. The result: Japan lost access to three-fourths of its overseas trade and 88 percent of its imported oil. Japan's oil reserves were only sufficient to last three years, and only half that time if it went to war and consumed fuel at a more frenzied pace. Japan's immediate response was to occupy Saigon, again with Vichy France's acquiescence. If Japan could gain control of Southeast Asia, including Malaya, it could also control the region's rubber and tin production—a serious blow to the West, which imported such materials from the East. Japan was now faced with a dilemma: back off of its occupation of Southeast Asia and hope the oil embargo would be eased—or seize the oil and further antagonize the West, even into war. • Give 3 reasons why Roosevelt would do this.

6. A Date Which will live in Infamy • World War II • AAA • Cite This • RSS • Dec 7, 1941:"A date which will live in infamy" • Previous Day December 7 CalendarNext Day • 0 • On this day, in an early-morning sneak attack, Japanese warplanes bomb the U.S. naval base at Oahu Island's Pearl Harbor—and the United States enters World War II. • President Roosevelt and Secretary of State Cordell Hull knew a Japanese attack was imminent. Having received intelligence reports of intercepted coded messages from Tokyo to the Japanese ambassador in the United States, the president anticipated Japanese reprisals for his government's refusal to reverse economic sanctions and embargoes against Japan. The Roosevelt administration had remained firm in its demand that the Japanese first withdraw from China and French Indochina, which it had invaded in 1937 and July 1941, respectively, and renounce its alliance with fascist Germany and Italy. • But Japan refused, demanding that the United States first end the embargo on oil shipments vital for Tokyo's war machine. Although negotiations between the two nations continued up to the very last minute, Roosevelt was aware of a secret November 25 deadline, established by Tokyo, that confirmed military action on the part of the Japanese should they not received satisfaction from the negotiations. While forewarned, Washington could not pinpoint the time or place of an attack. • Despite initially objecting to war with America, Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto believed that if Prime Minister Hideki Tojo was determined to go to war, it was Japan who had to make a preemptive strike. Yamamoto studied the devastating November 1940 British attack against the Italian fleet at Taranto, and planned and led the sneak attack against the United States. Approximately 360 Japanese warplanes were launched from six aircraft carriers, reinforced by battleships, cruisers, and destroyers. The first dive-bomber was spotted over Pearl Harbor at 7:55 a.m. Hawaii time. It was followed by 200 aircraft, which decimated the American ships anchored there, most of which were only lightly manned because it was Sunday morning. Among the 18 U.S. ships destroyed, sunk, or capsized were the Arizona, Virginia, California, Nevada, and West Virginia. More than 180 planes were destroyed on the ground and another 150 were damaged (leaving but 43 operational). American casualties totaled more than 3,400, with more than 2,400 killed (1,000 on the Arizona alone). The Japanese lost fewer than 100 men. • In the short term, the Japanese goal of crippling U.S. naval strength in the Pacific, and thereby giving Tokyo free reign to gobble up more of Southeast Asia and the South Pacific in its dream of imperial expansion, was successful. But the war had only just begun. • Discuss in group the events that happened in this lesson. Then write 5 steps in this material from 1937 to 1941 that led to Roosevelt declaring war on Dec. 8, 1941.

7. Key Question: Can you explain the steps in history that led from Japan’s aggression in China to America’s entering WWII?