Historical Studies (Chinese Edition)

No.5, 2015

The Atrocities Committed by the Japanese Army in Nanjing and Roosevelt’s Response

(Abstract)

Yang Xiaming and Wang Weixing

Shortly after the climax of the bombing of Nanjing by the Japanese naval air service in late September 1937, Roosevelt made his famous “Quarantine Speech,” hinting at sanctions against Japan. Inspired by this speech, the League of Nations General Assembly passed a resolution accusing Japan of violating its obligations under the Nine-Power Treaty and the Kellogg-Briand Pact. Roosevelt then took the opportunity presented by the USS Panay Incident to formulate a strategy of imposing a blockade and a trade embargo on Japan. In January 1938, after receiving cables reporting the Japanese atrocities in Nanjing, he decided to reveal this news to the media, and considered freezing Japan’s assets in the US in an attempt to reverse American isolationist tendencies. In spite of his personal response to the Japanese outrages, Roosevelt was cautious, restrained and slow to move in implementing these measures. This was mainly because of the constraints of isolationist trends and Congressional opposition, as well as the important factors of tactics influencing American public opinion and Roosevelt’s own leadership style. One reason for the outbreak of war between the US and Japan was the gradual intensification of the US embargo on exports of oil, scrap iron and steel and other goods and raw materials to Japan and the freezing of Japanese assets in the US. This was, in effect, the implementation of Roosevelt’s “quarantine” strategy, which largely derived from Japan’s invasion of China, and especially from the Japanese atrocities in Nanjing.