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

SOUTHWARD ADVANCE • 233
action to its inability to bring an end to the China Incident was curious:
it widened its sphere of military activities. Japanese forces in September
1940 moved into northern Indochina, and the United States responded
by slapping a virtual embargo on aviation gasoline, high-grade
iron, and steel scrap. The fighting in China continued unabated; in July
1941, Japanese forces occupied the remainder of Indochina. For its part,
Washington froze Japanese assets in the United States and established
an embargo on oil.
The Japanese Government was by no means united, although significant
voices—particularly within the army and navy—at this juncture
began positing the inevitability of conflict with the United
States. Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. This step
ensured that Japan would never emerge victorious over China, for the
enormous fighting capacity of Japan’s new enemy guaranteed that its
attentions—and resources—were concentrated not on the continent,
but in the Pacific. After Japan accepted the terms of the Potsdam
Declaration, it formally surrendered to Chiang Kai-shek on 9 September
1945. See also SHANGHAI COMMUNIQUÉ.
SOUTHWARD ADVANCE. The term southward advance refers to
Japan’s advance into the resource-rich colonial regions of Southeast
Asia. Long considered the prerogative of the Japanese navy, for many
years, it was conceived of as a peaceful, economically driven undertaking.
All this changed as German armies in the summer of 1940
overran the region’s colonial masters in Western Europe.
The navy’s hawkish middle echelons began trumpeting the opportunity
that German victories had given Japan to replace the European
colonial powers in Southeast Asia. Of particular interest was the oil of
the Dutch East Indies, which carried with it the tantalizing prospect of
reducing the navy’s dependence on the United States. For reasons of its
own, by mid-1940, the army had shelved its traditional emphasis on operations
against northern China and the Soviet Union, and turned its attentions
to a southward advance. Upon his assumption of the foreign
minister’s post in July 1940, Yōsuke Matsuoka revealed his receptivity
to this enthusiasm for a southward advance, stating that Japan should
take “positive measures” to incorporate British, French, Dutch, and Portuguese
colonies into Japan’s empire. By September 1940, Japanese
troops had marched into northern Indochina. If Japanese policymakers