Pearl Harbor: The Seeds and Fruits of Infamy - Ludwig von Mises ...

6 Pearl Harbor: The Seeds and Fruits of Infamy
cut the British-American-Japanese navies down in size to a ratio
of 5:5:3 for capital ships. In the hope of maintaining peace in the
Far East, an “Open Door” agreement was reached, providing that
the participant nations have equal commercial rights of entry
into China. Although China was not then a united nation, she
was to have her integrity preserved. Japan was to be restrained
from mainland adventures and to have no military planes or ships
in the mandated islands. Japan resented the second-rate status
to which she had been reduced by the Naval Limitation Treaty,
and also the racial slur inherent when Japanese immigration was
banned by the U.S. Exclusion Act (1924) and by Australia’s antioriental
“Whites Only” policy. Moreover, Japan’s relations with
the rest of the world deteriorated in the 1920s. Her markets for
her chief export, silk, suff ered as a result of worldwide protectionism
and the Great Depression and yet her dependence on U.S. oil
and raw materials increased.
Th ere was an explosion on the Japanese railroad line at
Mukden on September 18, 1931, which was blamed on local
Chinese. One faction in the Japanese military had been pressing
their government to take a more expansionist role in Manchuria.
Th e Japanese responded harshly to the Mukden explosion, fought
the “bandits” and seized several of China’s northern provinces.
Manchuria gained its independence and then on September 15,
1932, became a protectorate of Japan, Manchukuo.
U.S. Secretary of State Stimson held that Japan’s intervention
in Manchuria was a violation of international treaties and proposed,
in place of the “Open Door” agreement, a “Nonrecognition
doctrine” which would deny recognition to any nation which had
acquired territory by aggression. Stimson wanted the U.S. to
impose sanctions against Japan for her aggression in Manchuria.
President Hoover vetoed the idea; he “was opposed in every fi ber
of his being to any action which might lead to American participation
in the struggles of the Far East. In this view he had the