International Response

• The league of nations lacks any kind of enforcement without the consensus of league members
• The Kellogg-Briand Pact does not have any kind of enforcement protocol
• The League of Nations response to the Manchurian Crisis


  1. Send a fact-finding mission (the Lytton Commission) to investigate

  2. The Lytton Commission reported that Japan's use of force was unacceptable and unjustified

  3. The Lytton Commission called for Japan to withdraw its forces

  4. Japan refused to accept the report and withdrew from the League of Nations
• The League of Nations could not enforce its decisions against Japan because no member states wanted a wider war in the region
• Democratic countries like Britain and France had to respond to public sentiment, which did not favour war against Japan
• The Great Depression made economic concerns more pressing than international conflicts for League members
• The United States, not being a member of the League of Nations, was not compelled to support any League actions in China
• The United States initially saw Japan as more of an "irritation" compared to the greater threat of communism
• The United States' response to the Manchurian Crisis


  1. Adopted the Stimson Doctrine, which did not recognize any agreements that violated China's territory

  2. But the US did not commit to any action against Japan
• As Japan's aggression against China escalated


  The United States saw it as a threat to its own interests
• The United States' actions against Japan leading up to WWII


  1. Imposed a moral embargo on Japan, restricting sale of goods like planes and aviation parts

  2. Froze Japanese assets in the US and expanded the embargo to include oil and steel

  3. This led Japan to attack the US at Pearl Harbor in 1941
• After the Pearl Harbor attack, the US public strongly supported entering the war against Japan
• On December 8, 1941, the United States declared war on Japan, officially bringing the US into World War II