The Origins of World War II in the Pacific: The Decline of China and the Rise of Japan

Americans generally consider World War II in the Pacific primarily a war between Japan and the United States, which started on December 7, 1941. The reality is that this war was an outgrowth of two centuries of China’s decline and seventy years of Japan’s rise. This lecture will discuss how and why China, once the unchallenged central power in Asia, became a cat’s paw of the Western powers and why Japan avoided that fate and grew so powerful that it dreamed of a Chinese empire. This event is also available virtually.