Eighty Years Ago: Asia Pacific, Aug 14 – 20, 1941

Aug 14, 1941: US President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, meeting at Placentia Bay, Newfoundland, issue the Atlantic Charter, calling for a fairer post-war world. The statement strengthens fears in Japanese military circles of a US-British alliance detrimental to Japan’s interests.

Aug 15, 1941: Soldiers of the Australian Army’s 27th Brigade disembark at Singapore

Aug 16, 1941: Passenger liner Heian Maru arrives in Japan after the last visit to Seattle by a Japanese ship before the outbreak of war

Aug 17, 1941: Chinese government led by Chiang Kai-shek, above left, approves of the Atlantic Charter, issued by the US and Britain and calling for a fairer post-war world

Aug 18, 1941: Congressman John Dingell of Michigan suggests in letter to US President Franklin D. Roosevelt that the American government detains 10,000 Japanese American residents of Hawaii, keeping them hostage to ensure Japan’s ‘good behavior’

Aug 19, 1941: German-occupied Denmark recognizes Japanese-backed Chinese regime in Nanjing, led by defector Wang Jingwei

Aug 20, 1941: Nomura Kichisaburo, Japan’s ambassador to the US, reports home that US President Franklin D. Roosevelt is not anti-Japanese

Categories: War

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