PACIFIC WAR TIMELINE

1941


12 March: America: Lend-Lease Act.


3 April: Iraq: Pro-Axis regime set up in Iraq.


6 April: Greece and Yugoslavia: Nazis invade.


27 May: Germany: British Navy sinks Germany’s super battleship Bismarck in the Atlantic.


22 June: America: Hitler reneges on the Nazi-Soviet Non Agression Pact and invades the Soviet Union in Operation BARBAROSSA.


14 July: America: Roosevelt refuses to ratchet up pressure on Japan in spite of pressure from the hawkish members of his cabinet particularly Treasurer Morgenthau.


July: America: Roosevelt authorizes 821,000 tons of supply for Britain and 16,000 tons for China.


Japan: Soryokusen Kenkyujo (Institute of Total War Studies) concludes that Japan cannot sustain a war with China for more than five years and that a war with America would become unsustainable after 1943 because of a shortage of cargo ships.


22 July: France: Vichy Prime Minister forced to accept Japan’s request to occupy North Vietnam.


25 July: America: Roosevelt signs an executive order effectively freezing Japan’s financial assets and denying it access to oil from California. Japanese dollar bonds fall to 20-30 per cent of their par value. The oil embargo of Japan begins.


29 July: Vietnam: Vichy government in Hanoi signs Protocol Concerning Joint Defense and Joint Military Co-operation which allows for Japanese troops to occupy South Vietnam – an essential staging post for any attack on Singapore, Borneo and the Dutch East Indies.


August: Japan: Japan’s Human experimentation units (the equivalent if Dr. Mengele at Auschwitz) in China are reorganized and put under command of General Ishii from which time they became know collectively as Unit 731.


1 August: Japan: Foreign Minister Arita calls for a Japanese controlled Great East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere – the first time this expression has been used.


6 August: Japan: Prime Minister Tojo puts forward Outline for Execution of National Polity that puts economic autarky at its heart.


9 August: Newfoundland: Roosevelt and Churchill meet aboard USS Augusta in Newfoundland.


14 August: Newfoundland: Atlantic Charter agreed between Roosevelt and Churchill in Newfoundland advocating the right of self determination of countries, free trade, and the renunciation of acquisition of new territories by America and Great Britain.


5 September: America: Roosevelt lunches with Secretary of State Cordell Hull. No action is taken to reverse the complete oil embargo of Japan even though that was not the original intention on 25 July. But time has passed on with opinion polls showing that a majority Americans now favored strong action to prevent Japanese expansion.


6 September: Japan: An imperial conference to get Hirohito’s approval for a war plan against the United States ends with the Emperor giving reluctant agreement.


16 October: Japan. Prince Konoe resigns as Prime Minister and is replaced by General Tojo, formerly head of the Kwantung Army who is now War Minister.


October: America. Major Albert Wedemeyer produces Victory Plan, detailed study of the military resources needed to win a war in Europe for Roosevelt and the General Staff.


16-24 October: Ukraine. Nazis take cities of Kharkov and Odessa.


5 November: Japan: Emperor Hirohito formerly approves the plan of attack on Pearl Harbor at an Imperial Conference.


20 November: Japan: Japan makes final proposal to the United States while at the same time moving its troops to prepare for war.


26 November: America: Secretary of State Cordell Hull sends a trenchant 10-point note, which demands Japan’s withdrawal from Indochina and China.


November: America: Roosevelt establishes a joint Army-Navy Munitions Board with Eberstadt as Chairman.

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