U.S. policy changes at end of 1937

Nov. 24 - Japan troops land at Hangshow Bay near Shanghai

Chinese retreat to Nanking

Dec. 13 - fall of Nanking - 200,000 killed
Dec. 12 - U.S. gunboat Panay attacked by Japan planes

helping evacuate foreigners

2 killed, incl San Diego sailor Charles Ensminger

3 other Am. ships attacked; Brit ambass. car strafed in Nanking

Panay & Nanking cause FDR to act

Jan. 3 speech to Congress

proposes joint Brit-Am naval blockade of Japan, but rejected by Brit

Capt. Royal Ingersoll sent to London - beg. of coord bet. US & Brit navys

Jan. 10, '38 - House rejects Ludlow Amend. - victory for FDR

Feb. - Plan Orange revised
blockade of Japan planned
FDR transfers part of Atlantic fleet to Pacific

FDR asks how to freeze Jap assets - 1933 Trading w/ Enemy Act

but Ludlow Amend, Reorg Bill fights make FDR cautious

Welles plan for international meeting

Feb. 20, 1938 - Hitler announces support for Japan

new foreign minister von Ribbentrop

formal recognition of Manchukuo in May

China war becoming internationalized like Spain
U.S. public opinion more willing to take strong stand ag. Japan rather than Ger.

to be no appeasement in Asia like in Europe
May 17 - Vinson-Trammel Naval Expansion Act

this is second VT act - 1st was in 1934

$1B expansion of 2-ocean navy over 10 years - 69 new ships

auth'd increase of 40,000 tons for carriers (Hornet, Essex)

to join 3 existing carriers (Saratoga, Lexington, Ranger)

and 2 under construction (Yorktown, Enterprise) done by spring 1939

and 3000 planes

expansion of bases and ports - San Diego to become "Gibraltar of Pacific"

Aug - fortification of Midway, Wake, Guam

August 1938 - Korean border skirmish with Soviet troops

but truce ended potential conflict

by 1938, Japan conquered eastern third of China

Chiang moved to Chungking

puppet govt estab at Nanking by March 1940 under Wang Ching-wei

March 1938 - Japanese general mobilization law

total war to free Asia from colonization and communism
China Lobby emerges in U.S.

Henry Luce - made Chiangs Time "Man & Wife of Year" Jan '38

Stanley Hornbeck - in State Dept - impt of economic aid

Henry Morgenthau - loan of $25m to China as credit - approv'd Dec. 1938

T.V. Soong - head of Universal Trading Corp. - paid agents

Thomas Corcoran - (represented Tongsun Park in '70s)

James McHugh - U.S. naval attache in Chungking

Claire Chennault - retired AF 1936> Secret Air War in China

covert operations approved by FDR

Chennault organizes volunteer Flying Tigers

led to dev of more powerful P-40 ag more maneuverable Zero

his info sent War Dept, but not distib'd to pilots in Phil, to dive from above

1940 plan for 500 plane AF in China, bomb Japan with incindiaries

but this "sneak attack" plan not approved by Stimson, Marshall

Apr. 1941 - FDR secret Exec Order - created AVG

100 planes & pilots and loan of $50m

Chennault stayed in China - 14th AF, CAT - later became Air America

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