million casualties along with many more dying  of famines and disease. As such, the world had  

suffered enough, so another major conflict like  that one was strictly avoided by the main Western  

powers. But in the 30s, all of this would change  with the rise of fascism and nazism in Italy and  

Germany. While the war between Japan and China  intensifies and reaches a stalemate in 1939, a new  

conflict is brewing in Europe; a conflict that is  destined to change the course of history. Join us  

as we take a look at the start of the Second World  War and the effects it had on the Japanese Empire  

and the United States. By the way, don't forget  to check out our podcast on the Pacific War – it  

has all the episodes in a longform format with  extra details, the link is in the description!

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At the end of the Great War, the balance  of power was drastically changed with  

the downfall of the German Empire and the  rise of the United States as a world power.  

Because of the humiliating Treaty of Versailles,  the newborn Weimar Republic was in a very  

difficult situation at the start of the Roaring  Twenties, having to pay immense war reparations  

to their former enemies and suffering a heavy  military restriction upon its armed forces.  

Both of these problems would then lead  to hyperinflation and economic crisis,  

as well as a lack of unity and political extremism  plaguing the nation. The Germans also lost a big  

portion of their homeland and all of its overseas  territories, giving rise to a national sense of  

irredentism and revanchism, which would be key  to the rise of ultranationalism in the country.  

Concurrently, the Treaty of Versailles would  also fail to concede to the Kingdom of Italy  

all of the territories that they had been  promised for their participation in the war.  

This was seen as a great humiliation by the  Italian nationalists, leaving the way open for  

the rise to power of Benito Mussolini and his  fascist movement. From 1922 to 1934, Mussolini  

would go on to impose a totalitarian rule and  to build a solid groundwork for his dictatorship  

and his future expansionist prospects. Meanwhile in Germany, the far-right  

National Socialist German Workers' Party rose to  prominence under the leadership of Adolf Hitler,  

with ultranationalism, radical antisemitism  and anti-Bolshevism, as well as a complete  

rejection of the Treaty of Versailles , as their  core principles. Amidst the political chaos of  

the Weimar Republic and the deterioration  of the economy due to the Great Depression,  

Hitler's oratory skills promising a strong  central government, a racial cleansing and  

an economic recovery would earn immense  support for the Nazi Party in the Reichstag.  

In 1932, the Nazis thus won the national elections  and subsequently started a campaign of political  

pressure and intimidation against the other  parties that would allow Hitler to establish a  

dictatorship and to become Führer by 1934. Hitler  would then start a massive rearmament programme,  

directly repudiating the Treaty of Versailles  and remilitarizing the Rhineland by 1936.  

It's at this point that the mutual hatred for  Bolshevism prompted the Japanese Empire and Nazi  

Germany to sign the Anti-Comintern Pact, directed  against the Communist International and the Soviet  

Union in particular. Japan hoped that this would  become a military alliance against the Soviets,  

but Hitler surprised them by signing the  Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact with Stalin, this was  

not an option anymore. Relations between Germany  and Italy also improved during this period,  

resulting in the creation of the Berlin-Rome Axis. As the United Kingdom and France couldn't contain  

the rise of Nazi Germany, and as they didn't  want a second world war that would be even more  

devastating for their empires, an approach  of appeasement was taken towards German and  

Italian aggression. In this way, Austria, Memel  and the Sudetenland were annexed and Ethiopia,  

Albania and Czechoslovakia were invaded by  the Axis powers without any retaliation.  

Wary of the growing conflict that was brewing in  Europe, the Congress of the United States passed  

a series of Neutrality Acts in the 30s that  promoted isolationism and non-interventionism,  

trying to assure that the US wouldn't be entangled  in European affairs yet again. And as the Axis  

powers were becoming ever more aggressive, the  UK and France had no other choice but to prepare  

for war, guaranteeing the independence  of Poland, Romania and Greece in 1939.  

In response, Germany and Italy formalised  their own alliance with the Pact of Steel;  

thus, the war was now inevitable. Meanwhile in China,  

after two years of bloody fighting, the Chinese  were completely demoralized and the Japanese  

continued to press their advantage. In February,  Hainan Island fell to the Japanese, hoping to  

use it as a base for future naval invasions  and bombing operations in Southern China.  

Furthermore, the long Nanchang campaign concluded  with the occupation of the city by early May  

and the consolidation of their presence in the  Jiangxi and Hunan regions. At the same time,  

conflicts with the UK would erupt because  of the foreign aid that was flowing to China  

through Hong Kong and Indochina, consequently  straining the British-Japanese relationships. 

But the Japanese momentum would be interrupted  by the escalation of border conflicts with the  

Soviet Union. As we've already covered, a big  portion of the IJA command desired war with  

the Russians with the objective of destroying  communism and securing the resources of Siberia.  

This expansionist doctrine, known as Hokushin-ron  , drove Tokyo to sign the Anti-Comintern Pact  

in 1936, thus threatening the position of the  Soviet Union in the East. But, while the Soviets  

continued to reinforce their Manchurian border due  to the threat that posed the Japanese Empire, the  

Kwantung Army saw some of their most elite forces  redirected to fight in the ongoing war with China,  

leaving them in a weaker state along the border.  Already in 1938, the Japanese had been defeated  

at the Battle of Lake Khasan, and the humiliation  of this defeat prompted them to intensify a border  

conflict with the Mongolian People's Republic, a  puppet state under the Soviets. In the resulting  

Nomonhan Incident, the Kwantung Army was defeated  yet again, and the plans for a northward expansion  

were finally revised due to the Soviet strength in  the region. If you want a more in depth coverage  

of this incident, don't forget to check out our  video on the Battle of Khalkhin Gol, we know  

you'll absolutely love it. What is important  from this battle is that the Hokushin-ron was  

finally dropped in favor of the Nanshin-ron,  a doctrine backed by the IJN that sponsored  

a southward expansion into the rich and strategic  regions of Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands. 

Concurrently, the Japanese launched a new  offensive directed against the cities of Suixian  

and Zaoyang , after their successful capture  of Wuhan. Although Zaoyang had been captured by  

early May, the NRA managed to stop the Japanese  advance towards Suixian at the Tongbai mountain  

ranges. The success in the defense of Suixian gave  confidence to the NRA to counterattack Zaoyang,  

expelling the Japanese divisions that  held the town by the end of the month.  

Taking advantage of the successful defense and the  Japanese difficulties at the Manchurian border,  

Chiang Kai-Shek would continue to build  up the military capabilities of the NRA  

army and would start to contemplate  a possible major counteroffensive.

Returning to Europe, the growing tensions between  the Allies and the Axis would culminate on  

September 1 with the German invasion of Poland,  triggering the start of the Second World War.  

On September 27, Warsaw fell to the Germans  and the last elements of the Polish army  

surrendered by October 6. The Germans would  then occupy western and central Poland,  

preparing themselves for a general offensive  against France, while the Soviets occupied eastern  

Poland, as per the agreement between Molotov  and Ribbentrop . And back in China, the Japanese  

wanted to restore morale after their last defeats  and the general stalemate on the Chinese front,  

so they started a new offensive south of the  Yangtze River aimed at the major city of Changsha.  

The campaign was bloody, but General Xue Yue  cunningly started to execute magnetic warfare,  

in which the advancing Japanese  soldiers were attracted to ambushes,  

flanking attacks and encirclements, thus  inflicting heavy casualties on the IJA . 

The loss of life finally forced the Japanese  to withdraw across the Laodao River by late  

September, making Changsha the first major city  to successfully repel Japanese advances, and  

Xue would press his advantage with a counterattack  that decimated the retreating invaders. By October  

10, the success of Xue's counteroffensive meant  that the Chinese had recovered much of Hunan,  

southern Hubei and northern Jiangxi. Nonetheless,  another Japanese offensive in November was highly  

successful at occupying South Guangxi and  its capital, Nanning, thus cutting off  

Chongqing from the ocean and effectively severing  foreign aid to China's war effort via the sea.  

Now Indochina, the Burma road and the "hump " were  the only remaining effective trade routes.". But  

at the same time, Chiang's Winter Offensive was  finally ready to be launched. The NRA planned  

to conduct multiple attacks on all fronts to  tie down the Japanese forces and prevent them  

from preparing new offensives. In late November,  the Winter Offensive commenced and the Japanese  

braced themselves to withstand the NRA onslaught,  seeing major fighting until late March, 1940.  

In the north , despite tying down and causing  heavy damage to Japanese forces, the objective of  

seizing all major towns in southern Shanxi was not  met and thus the operation was seen as a failure.  

Yet the Japanese invasion of West Suiyuan  and Ningxia was also defeated by Warlord  

Ma Hongbin and his Hui Muslim troops, forcing  the invaders back to the town of Baotou during  

the Battle of Wuyuan. Meanwhile in central  China , Japanese soldiers were successfully  

tied down south of the Yangtze River with  relentless attacks, although the objective  

of recuperating Nanchang and Wuchang didn't  come into fruition; while north of the Yangtze,  

Chinese forces would be completely defeated by the  Japanese defenders, suffering heavy casualties.  

And in the south , the Japanese advance at  South Guangxi and Yunnan was finally stopped  

and a counterattack by General Bai Chongxi managed  to recapture the cities of Longxian and Yingde,  

getting near Guangzhou . While the NRA failed  to meet many most of their prime objectives,  

overall the winter offensive was very successful  at cutting down the Japanese strength in China,  

inflicting more than 20000 casualties  on the invaders. It also demonstrated  

to the British and Americans that the KMT  were capable of tying down the Japanese,  

thwarting them from aiding Nazi Germany  of Fascist Italy. From this point on  

Britain and American began loaning greater  amounts of money to the Chinese war effort 

At the same time that the Winter Offensive was  ending, Nazi Germany was preparing for their  

major offensive against France. But first, the  Nazis would invade Denmark and Norway in April,  

conquering the two countries within  two months. To circumvent the strong  

Maginot Line on the French border, Germany then  decided to invade Belgium, the Netherlands and  

Luxembourg to blitzkrieg through the Ardennes  and cut off Allied defenses in the north.  

On May 10, the Battle of France began, and in two  weeks, the Benelux nations had already been deeply  

penetrated. Pushed to the sea, the surrounded  British, French and Belgian soldiers fiercely  

resisted the German assaults until June 4, when  the evacuation from Dunkirk was finally completed. 

The next day, the Nazis started the general  offensive through the Somme and Aisne Rivers,  

decisively defeating Allied forces with their  superior tanks and airplanes, and occupying  

Paris on June 14. The ensuing collapse of the  French Army successfully terminated the campaign,  

and the Axis powers would go on to occupy France  and to establish a puppet government in Vichy led  

by Philippe Pétain. In July, the Germans then  prepared to start a naval and air blockade of  

the British Isles. A battle for air supremacy  over the islands ensued, and the Nazis would  

start night-bombing operations on Britain with the  objective of forcing them to surrender. The UK was  

now alone, under bombardment and suffering  the threat of a possible naval invasion;  

this was the darkest hour for the Allies. The  Japanese knew the battle of Britain would see  

large numbers of British forces leaving Asia to  help the home front, leaving places like Hong Kong  

vulnerable to attack. Hong Kong remained a  major trade route for foreign aid to China. 

Furthermore, since the start of World War Two,  President Franklin Delano Roosevelt had announced