Japanese expansion: Manchuria to Pearl Harbor
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Flip to reveal answersWhen and what was the Mukden (Manchurian) Incident?
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All 12 Flashcards — Japanese expansion: Manchuria to Pearl Harbor
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Question
When and what was the Mukden (Manchurian) Incident?
Answer
18 September 1931 — the Kwantung Army staged a railway explosion near Mukden, blamed China, and used it as a pretext to invade Manchuria.
Question
What was Manchukuo and when was it created?
Answer
The puppet state Japan set up in Manchuria in 1932, fronted by the former emperor Puyi but controlled from Tokyo.
Question
What was the Kwantung Army?
Answer
Japan's army stationed in Manchuria, which often acted on its own initiative to drive expansion ahead of the Tokyo government.
Question
What started the Second Sino-Japanese War?
Answer
The Marco Polo Bridge Incident on 7 July 1937, a clash near Beijing that escalated into full-scale war.
Question
What was the Rape of Nanjing?
Answer
Mass killing and atrocities committed by Japanese troops after the fall of Nanjing in late 1937.
Question
What was the Tripartite Pact?
Answer
The September 1940 alliance of Germany, Italy and Japan, forming the Axis and alarming the United States.
Question
What did the US do to Japan in 1941?
Answer
Restricted scrap metal from 1940, then cut off oil and froze Japanese assets in 1941, creating an oil crisis that pushed Japan toward war.
Question
When and why did Japan attack Pearl Harbor?
Answer
7 December 1941 — to deliver a knockout blow to the US Pacific Fleet before its oil ran out, hoping to secure a southern empire.
Question
Why did the conflict in China widen after 1937?
Answer
Japan became bogged down in an unwinnable war, deepening its need for oil and resources and driving it to expand southward.
Question
Long-term vs immediate cause of Pearl Harbor
Answer
Long-term: the China quagmire and resource hunger trapping Japan. Immediate: the 1941 oil embargo, the final trigger to gamble on war.
Question
Memory hook for the sequence
Answer
MAN-SIN-AXIS-OIL-PEARL: Manchuria 1931, Sino-Japanese War 1937, Axis pact 1940, oil embargo 1941, Pearl Harbor Dec 1941.
Question
What kind of question is Paper 1, and the key trap?
Answer
Source-based, including a 9-mark essay needing sources plus own knowledge. The trap is narrating dates instead of weighing causes into a judgement.
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Full study notes for Japanese expansion: Manchuria to Pearl Harbor
Topic 3.1 hub
Japanese expansion in East Asia (1931–1941)
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