Japan during World War I Army budget and expanding the fleet. The Navy thus gained significant political influence over national and international affairs. In the first week of World War I Japan proposed to the United Kingdom, its ally since 1902, that Japan would enter the war if it could take Germany's Pacific territories. On 7 August 1914, the British government officially asked Japan for assistance in destroying the raiders from the Imperial German Navy in and around Chinese waters. Japan sent Germany an ultimatum on 23 August 1914, which went unanswered; Japan then formally declared war on Germany on 23 August 1914 in the
German military administration in occupied France during World War II prime minister in 1942-44. Marshal Pétain, "Chief of the French State" and Verdun hero, was also condemned to death (14 August 1945), but his sentence was commuted to life three days later. Thousands of collaborators were summarily executed by local Resistance forces in so-called "savage purges" ("épuration sauvage"). German military administration in occupied France during World War II The Military Administration in France (; ) was an interim occupation authority established by Nazi Germany during World War II to administer the occupied zone in areas of northern and western France. This so-called ' was renamed ' ("north zone") in November