china was fighting the empire of japan in world war 2.
china was fighting the empire of japan in world war 2.
who was china fighting in world war 2?
the empire of japan
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late in 1938, britain made a series of loans to china-which as the british historian victor rothwell noted britain "could ill afford"-which were intended to keep china fighting against japan. by this time, it was accepted in whitehall that it was better to keep china fighting-even at the risk of antagonizing japan-for as long as japan was embroiled in the war with china, it was less likely that japan might attack britain's asian colonies, which thereby freed up british forces for europe. the british foreign office was strongly pro-chinese and as rothwell noted, sir robert craigie, the british ambassador in tokyo was "...slapped down when in late 1938 he advocated what, in effect, would have been a far eastern equivalent of munich". the pro-chinese sympathies of the foreign office were reflected in the greater respect given to the sinophile ambassador to china sir archibald clark kerr, despite the strait-laced japanophile craigie being a far more traditional british diplomat than the flamboyant, hard-drinking and very actively bisexual clark kerr. britain could not risk a war with japan as that would divert british military force to the far east, which would thereby encourage germany and italy to engage in aggressive actions, but at the same time, the british government would not accept a japanese conquest of china, hence the financial support of china. in late 1937, chiang kai-shek lost shanghai, the business capital of china from which 85% of chinese tax revenue came, to the japanese. after the fall of shanghai, chiang was hard pressed to find the money to continue the war with japan. the chamberlain government had its version of the "domino theory" where if japan conquered china, then inevitably japan would extend its ambitions to britain's asian colonies and to the dominions of australia and new zealand. chamberlain and the rest of his cabinet would never accept a japanese conquest of australia, new zealand, india and the rest of the british colonies in the far east, and were resolved to fight to uphold britain's position in the asia-pacific region if worse came to worse, and the japanese made unacceptable demands. when japan confiscated british-owned railways in china or seized british-owned ships in chinese waters without compensation, the british government presented only notes of protest as war with japan was regarded only as a worst-case scenario. during the same time frame, money was still committed to the singapore naval base and to fortifying hong kong to deter japan from further aggression. the chamberlain government would have liked to have enlisted the united states to present an anglo-american front intended to stop the japanese war against china, but the unwillingness of the roosevelt administration to take such a step precluded a more active british policy in the far east.
european foreign policy of the chamberlain ministry