Abstract
Japan had been in open war with China since July 1937 and was continuing occasional advances against Chinese resistance. ‘Japan expands its war with China’ describes how German victories in the West in early 1940 suggested an opportunity to close off much of China's outside aid. In July 1941, Japanese forces occupied the southern part of French Indo-China, moving away from war with China to prepare attacks on territories controlled by the Netherlands, Britain, and the United States in East and Southeast Asia as well as the South Pacific. Japan's attack on Pearl Harbour in December 1941 brought the United States fully into the war, in both the Pacific and in Europe.
