A. Japan
B. Korea
C. Manchukuo
D. China - occupied by Japan
E. Philippines - USA
F. French Indochina
G. Dutch East Indies
H. British Empire - Asia
A. Japan
Newly industrialized Japan will no longer accept
the role of junior partner both on the world stage
and in running the affairs of their own back yard.
B. Korea
Korea entered the 20th Century when
Japan took control of the peninsula in 1910,
bringing with it modern industrial methods.
C. Manchukuo
The last emperor of China, Puyi, became
Emperor Kangde of Manchukuo, a puppet
state formed by Japan following its invasion
of Manchuria in 1934.
D. China
China's warring leaders, Chiang Kai-Shek and
Mao Zedong, set aside their differences in order
to focus on fighting their common enemy, Japan.
Civil war resumed with Japan's surrender and
Chairman Mao would go on to become founder
of the People's Republic of China.
E. Philippines
America had a naval presence in the Philippines,
meant to put the brakes on Japanese ambitions
for southeast Asia's wealth of strategic minerals,
petroleum and rubber.
F. French Indochina
Then too there are the strategic harbors along
the coast of French Indochina - a gift from Hitler
to the Japanese once Paris fell the summer of 1940.
G. Dutch East Indies
All that oil shipped from Asian shores to
who knows where, and all for the benefit
of wealthy Dutch investors. They have
little military to speak of, so what law is it
that enables them to haul off another
people's wealth?
H. British Empire - Asia
The colonial era ended late in 1941. An Asian
power beat the Western nations at their own game -
technological innovation and industrialization.
This from an island nation having none of the
natural resources needed to fuel a modern
economy.
All the while Roosevelt has committed
the US to a high-stakes bluff by moving
the Pacific Fleet three thousand miles
west from San Diego to Pearl Harbor -
chips now at the center of the table for
poker player Admiral Yamamoto to consider.
love
dad
© Tom Taylor
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