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subsequently condemned Japan for its aggression. Therefore, Japan withdrew from the League of Nations in
March 1933. The Japanese army had successfully expanded its control of Northern China.
As early as 1932, the Japanese government established a system of military sexual slavery, the so-called
“comfort-stations” where thousands of women, particularly from Korea, China, Japan, and the Philippines,
but also women throughout Asia, were tricked or forced into prostitution and used as sex slaves by the
Japanese soldiers. Some were girls as young as twelve years old. Of the approximately, 200,000 victims, about
150,000 perished during or immediately after the war.
Japan’s government also sponsored the development and experimentation of biological and chemical
warfare. Under the leadership of Major Shirō Ishii, a physician, in 1932, Unit 731 fi rst began to research and
test the production of biological weapons at Zhong Ma Prison Camp (whose main building was known locally
as the Zhongma Fortress), a prison/experimentation camp in Beiyinhe, a village 100 kilometers south of
Harbin on the South Manchurian Railway. In 1935, Major Shirō Ishii built a larger facility in Pingfang, twentyfour
kilometers south of Harbin, and in other locations in China. Many Chinese citizens (including men,
women, and children), U.S, POWs as well as Soviet and European POWs (from the POW camp at Mukden
(Shenyang), Manchuria, were murdered in the experiments. Bacteria and chemical bombs were used against
Chinese civilians. It is estimated that between 600,000 and two million shells fi lled with poisonous chemicals
remain buried in China.
On July 7, 1937, at the Marco Polo Bridge near Beijing, Japanese Imperial Forces (JIF) continued its
invasion of China by launching an all-out-war against China—The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945).
From Beijing the JIF moved south attacking Shanghai. Despite intense Chinese resistance that lasted for over
three months during the Battle of Shanghai (August 13, 1937 – November 26, 1937), Japanese forces
captured Shanghai as well as the Chinese capital Nanking in December 1937. In Nanking, in six weeks, the
Japanese Imperial Army slaughtered approximately 350,000 Chinese prisoners of war and civilians. Women,
men, and young girls were raped, and children were likewise brutally treated. The Japanese soldiers’ policy, the
Three Alls: Kill all! Burn All! Loot all! effectively destroyed much of Nanking.
The “Rape of Nanking,” as it became known, is considered one of the worst atrocities in history.
Although both China’s nationalist and communist armies continued the war of resistance against Japan,
few countries, including the United States, came to their assistance.
In 1936, Japan allied with Germany in the Anti-Comintern Pact, joined later by Italy. This, along with
Japan’s decision in 1937 to invade the rest of China, put it on a collision course with other world powers,
especially Great Britain and the United States. Once the war in Europe commenced in 1939, Japan began to
look to the rest of Asia to secure independent supplies of natural resources, particularly from the Dutch East
Indies. Japan rationalized its expansion by propagating the idea of “liberating” the people in Asia from the
domination of Western Imperialism and by creating a “Greater East Asian Co-prosperity Sphere.”
By the end of 1941, when the Imperial Japanese forces (IJF) had attacked French Indochina
(Vietnam), Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand as well as Malaya, Burma, and Singapore in late 1941 and
early 1942, other countries began to act. The United States and Canada imposed economic sanctions against
Japan; for example, on July 26, 1940, the U.S. government passed the Export Control Act, cutting oil, iron
and steel exports to Japan. At that time, 80% of Japan’s oil came from the U.S. In July 1941, the U.S. imposed
an embargo on aviation gasoline and high-grade scrap iron to Japan and froze its assets. Japan decided that
to win control over Asia, it would have to confront the United States, which had interests in the Asia-Pacifi c
arena, and had its Pacifi c Fleet based at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.
On December 7, 1941, Japanese forces attacked U.S. bases at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and the
Philippines, striking the U.S. Navy and Army Air Corps. At the same time, Japanese forces began a massive
assault against Commonwealth forces in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaya, Burma, and the Dutch East Indies
(Indonesia). Subsequently, Japan succeeded in establishing control throughout Southeast Asia. However,
although the U.S. Fleet was severely damaged, it was not completely destroyed. The aircraft carriers which
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