To What Extent Did David Low’s Cartoons Accurately Portray European Appeasement Policy Towards Japanese Aggression in the Manchurian Crisis?

The league of nations was created by the winners of WWI and was intended to prevent future world wars. The idea was created by the US president Woodrow Wilson. The League of Nations was supposed to be a council that included all the world nations to discuss topics and keep peace. This organization failed in stopping WWII. The League had multiple opportunities to stop the second world war, but failed miserably. The League of Nations had very limited authority on countries such as Japan, Italy, Germany and the USSR. “The main weapon of the League was to ask member countries to stop trading with aggressive countries”(Wheeler). The League of Nations was treated as a joke and could not enforce any of the rules that they set. The League had no authority because they had no army to threaten the aggressive countries. Additionally, countries such as Italy and Germany were not part of the League and therefore had no obligation to listen to them or make peace talks. If the League was set up in a better format and way to work it would not have failed and they could have been able to stop the second world

Japan wanted to remain isolated from Great Britain and British colonies, including America. They did this because

In document (B) the cartoon it was informing how the countries were against each other.

In the beginning of this time period, around 1931, Japan disregarded our international treaty agreements. America did not approve of this and drew a cartoon criticizing Japan for these actions. This was shown in Document A. The same type of action happened between Europe and America in the year 1932. Europe could not pay their war debts and America reacted by saying Europe could not agree on anything else. This was shown in Document B. America could have handled this differently by being neutral and helping rather than being aggressive and saying they could not agree on anything else.

On March, 1854, after weeks of tiring talks, Perry received a treaty with Japan. The treaty had a variety of effects. It brought in a large amount of foreign money. This interrupted the Japanese currency.

During the Imperial Conference of December 1, 1941, Prime Minister Tojo announced that “The United States not only refused to make even one concession” but that “At the same time, the United States, Great Britain, the Netherlands, and China increased their economic and military pressure against us” (87). This gave Japan no choice but to begin a war with the U.S., Japan, and the Netherlands. Additionally, Foreign Minister Togo emphasized that Japan could not accept the proposal made by the U.S. because the conditions would hinder and put at risk the success of the Japanese Empire. In order for Japan to not only continue working towards establishing a New Order for East Asia, but to also maintain their position on an international level, war was the necessary step to take because if they continued to try to negotiate then they would most definitely have regressed.

Jones, Sam J. "Japan, China, the United States and the Road to Pearl Harbor, 1937–41 -

Japan acted on this new order when it had completed occupation of Manchuria in 1932 (Doc

Leading up to 1941, many countries are in all-out war because of World War II. One of these countries, Japan, is seeking to “dominate Southeast Asia for political and economic reasons” (Bruce and Cogar 1). They want to take revenge on the Allies and the rest of the world because of how they were treated at the peace negotiation after World War I. They felt they were ignored and taken lightly by the other super powers of the

After World War I, defeated Germany, disappointed Italy, and ambitious Japan were anxious to regain or increase their power; all three eventually adopted forms of dictatorship (see National Socialism and fascism) that made the state supreme and called for expansion at the expense of neighboring countries. These three countries also set themselves up as champions against Communism, thus gaining at least partial tolerance of their early actions from the more conservative groups in the Western democracies. Also important was a desire for peace on the part of the democracies, which resulted in their military unpreparedness. Finally, the League of Nations, weakened from the start by the defection of the United States, was unable to promote disarmament (see Disarmament Conference); moreover, the long economic depression sharpened national rivalries, increased fear and distrust, and made the masses susceptible to the promises of demagogues.

The growing tension between Japan and the west stemmed from a conflict of autonomy and responsibility. Japan saw its actions as part of a national quest for autonomy, self-sufficiency, and European rivalry. The United States and Europe, however, saw Japanese expansion as irresponsible. From their perspective Japanese imperialism violated treaties, which set down the acceptable code of conduct of nations. The United States in particular saw Japanese occupation of East Asian countries as a violation of those countries’ own rights to autonomous leadership and self rule.

The participation in the war commenced after the militarization of the government in 1930, contributing to the country’s poor economy. The situation deteriorated further forcing Japan to seek for other ways to uplift it from the backdrop position. Japan invaded Manchuria in China and kept the emperor but changed its name to Manchukuo as they named it a new state. The act was condemned by the League of Nations, which enraged Japan forcing them to withdraw their membership within the treaty. The Sino-Japanese war officially broke out in 1937 with the Japanese occupying the Chinese coast. During the post WWI period, military nationalists gained power as they considered aggressive nationalism and territorial expansion to be the best mechanisms from the economic constraints. Japan chose to develop as a colonial empire by conquering other states than relying on foreign imports. The activities of Japan on the violation of treaties paved way for imperialists like Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler, who monitored the Japanese activities and realized that they did not experience repercussions from their defection

Another more noteworthy example was the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895. All previous invasions from Asia came through the Korean peninsula. Korea was considered dangerous to Japan’s security if it were to be controlled by a third power (China). About ten years before the Sino-Japanese War, the German advisor to Japan’s army advised that they should be prepared to fight China if necessary. Yamagata Aritomo, the architect of the modern Japanese army, agreed. Oh argued that “since Japan had prepared carefully between 1885-1894, she was thus ready to respond unhesitatingly to the ‘various unexpected happenings’ in Korea early in 1894” (Wray 129). Even though the Triple Intervention forced Japan to return the Liaodong Peninsula to Russia after the war, Japan did not come out empty handed from their involvement in the war. According to Article II of the Treaty of Shimonoseki:

Abrstract: This essay will explore why Americans feel the need to censor Japanese Animation, how the Japanese culture differs from American culture, and how to solve the growing debate of the censorship of Japanese media.

Manchurian seems can fulfill the conditions of statehood in terms of declaratory theory. But actual practice implicates she cannot fulfill the conditions. Declaratory theory refers to the Article 1 of the Montevideo Convention on Rights and Duties of States. It stated that a state has permanent population, defined territory, government and capacity to enter into legal relations (Shen, 2014). At that period, Manchuria had about 37 million permanent populations. She consisted of about 1 million square kilometers of territory. It is formed by Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang province (Zhang, 1985). For structure of the government, republic system is adopted. Puyi is the leader. Before the establishment of Manchuria, the government was able to control the area effectively. After the establishment, she was effective to exercise foreign policies. For example, she built up diplomatic relationship with Japan and El Salvador. She was also capable to maintain political order (Zhang, 1985). For the capacity to enter into legal relations, she was able to enter into relations with other countries in the name of representative of Manchurian. There was no sovereign authority