Historical Dictionary of United States-Japan ... - Bakumatsu Films

64 • CHINA INCIDENT
Minister Fumimaro Konoe in January 1938 announced that the Japanese
government would deal with Chiang only on the battlefield and at
the surrender table. Washington responded by extending loans to Chiang
in an attempt to keep him in the fight. In 1941, President Franklin
D. Roosevelt allowed American airmen to resign from their service to
form a “volunteer” air force in China known as the Flying Tigers.
Chiang, who had long nursed visions of a Sino–American alliance,
was understandably elated when in December 1941 the Japanese attacked
Pearl Harbor. He also could not help but be impressed by
Roosevelt’s repeated statements to the effect that China would
emerge as one of the postwar world’s great powers. Chiang became
disillusioned, however, as it soon became obvious that the United
States had little in the way of concrete assistance to provide China.
As one observer has noted, China received all of the praise and some
of the loyalty due an ally, but little of the substance.
It should be noted that Chiang did nothing to help his cause. Determined
to keep his forces intact for a future clash with the Chinese
Communists, Chiang throughout 1943–1944 turned a blind eye as
Japanese troops launched offensives in Burma and China. This led
one American Foreign Service officer in late 1943 to suggest that the
United States could “accomplish [its] immediate objective in Asia—
the defeat of Japan—without him.” By mid-1944, if not earlier, Roosevelt
agreed with this prognosis.
CHINA INCIDENT. See SINO–JAPANESE WAR.
CHINESE EXCLUSION ACT (1882). Passed by the U.S. Congress
in response to labor unions, farmers, and politicians from Western
states complaining that Chinese immigrants were taking too many
jobs from American citizens and white immigrants. Initially set for
10 years, the act was modified in 1892 and then made permanent in
1902. It was finally repealed during World War II. The Chinese Exclusion
Act did not affect Japanese; but in 1924, the U.S. Congress
passed the Oriental Exclusion Act that prohibited nearly all Japanese
immigration.
CHOSHU DOMAIN (YAMAGUCHI PREFECTURE). A warriordominated
domain on southern Honshu Island led by the descendants