Henry L. Stimson and Japan, 1931 - 33

To many observers of the international scene, the Japanese conquest and occupation of Manchuria was, as the London Times noted, "the fons et origo of the whole catastrophe" which subsequently engulfed eastern Asia and led to the great war in the Pacific. Why the United States and Great Britain did nothing effective to halt Japan is a crucial question which has troubled students of international history from that day to this. In the following pages I have tried to answer the question as far as the United States is concerned by examining the policies of the principal decision-makers and the moods of the people. To a lesser degree, I have tried to do the same for Britain, although my efforts were necessarily limited by the paucity of official documents and private papers. I have tried, also, to include some account of Japan's position. In a subsequent volume I plan to carry the narrative to the end of the decade.

I am indebted to many people who smoothed the path of my research in libraries and archives at California, Harvard, Columbia, Swarthmore, Yale, Newberry, the Library of Con gress, the National Archives, and the Department of State. I am especially grateful to the Honorable William R. Castle, who graciously made his diary available to me in the scholarly surroundings of his own study. Special thanks go also to Mrs. Corliss Lamont for collecting the scattered papers of the American Boycott Association for my use, and to the Honor able Stanley K. Hornbeck for reminiscing aloud for my bene fit, to E. Taylor Parks for sharing his matchless knowledge of the Department of State Archives, and to McGeorge Bundy for permission to use the Stimson material in Yale University Library.