Japan's Imperial Dilemma in China: The Tientsin Incident, 1939-1940

by Swann,Sebastian

• ISBN13: 9780415297158
• ISBN10: 041529715X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2020-01-07
• Publisher: Curzon Pr

Summary

The blockade by the Japanese occupying army in China of the British and French settlements in the North China Treaty Port of Tientsin in June 1939 originated as a minor administrative dispute and escalated into a major international issue. This book examines why the incident was not resolved locally, the reasons for escalation and why a solution continued to be elusive. In charting the development of the crisis, emphasis is put on the interaction of a broad range of local, regional, national and international factors. These include the hostility engendered by Japan's occupation of China; the role of Tientsin in Japan's narcotics trade; a growing tendency within Japan to utilize any opportunity to blame western powers and particularly Britain for Japan's Chinese occupation woes; and British and French efforts to take advantage of the incident to pressure the United States to shore up their waning imperial interests in Asia by adopting a more overtly anti-Japanese stance. A major theme of the study is theextent to which the course of this incident was affected by both Japan and Britain's insensitivity towards China and their inability to contain a determined and creative popular Chinese movement to reclaim a greater control over the course of their national destiny.