The China War and the origins of the Pacific War, 1937–41

The Pacific War grew out of Japan’s China War renewed in 1937. It was essentially the future of China that four years later led Japan to war with the US. The decision for war was taken in Tokyo in September 1941 because the US was seen as the enemy unalterably opposed to Japan’s concept of its right to a dominant role in China and eastern Asia. The only chance for peace was a change in the course of American policy as perceived by the Japanese, and this did not happen. The Japanese leaders believed that the choice before them was to fulfil the task of conquest or to acquiesce in Japan’s national decline.