In 1900, with the approval of the Dowager Empress of China, a Chinese militia, the I Ho Chuan, (or “Righteous Harmony Fists,” hence “Boxer”) began, under the motto “Protect the country, destroy the foreigner!” to kill both Westerners and Chinese Christians. The German ambassador in Peking was murdered, as were thousands of Chinese Christians throughout China, and the Boxers laid siege to the Legation Quarter at Peking.
The ninety-day siege of Peking was relieved on August 14, 1900, by an international force made up of Russian, French, Italian, German, English, and American troops.
The Imperial Court fled to Sian. Although war had not been declared against China, the “Foreign Powers” nevertheless demanded a formal settlement. The Protocol of 1901 provided, among other things, for the punishment of those responsible for the Boxer Rebellion; the fortification of the Legation Quarter at Peking, to be manned by “Powers” troops; and the maintenance by foreign troops of communication between Peking and the sea.
As far as the Americans were concerned, this initially meant the stationing of U.S. Army troops and U.S. Marines in Shanghai, Peking, and elsewhere; and the formation of the U.S. Navy Yangtze River Patrol. The Navy acquired shallow draft steamers, armed them, designated them “Gun Boats,” and ran them up and down the Yangtze River.
The Russians, following their resounding defeat in the Russian—Japanese War of 1905, had for all practical purposes turned over their interests in China to Japan. Furthermore, the Versailles Treaty, which had set the terms of the peace between the Western Allies and the Germans and Austro-Hungarians at the end of The World War of 1914–1918, had also given the Japanese rights over the Shantung Province of China.
The reality of the situation in China in 1941 was that the lines had already been drawn for World War II. It was no secret that Japan’s ultimate ambition was to take as much of China as it could, into the “Greater Japanese Co-Prosperity Sphere.” It was also no secret that they intended to expel the British, the French, and the Americans when the time was ripe. And they most likely wanted the Italians out, too, although the Italians and the Japanese were on much better terms than either was with the French, the English, or the Americans.
The official hypocrisy was that all were still allies, in very much the same way they had been since the Boxer Rebellion in 1900.
It had been agreed then, when the international military force was formed to relieve Peking, that they were not waging war upon China, but rather simply suppressing the Boxers and protecting their own nationals from the savagery of the Chinese.
Thus the Japanese view in 1941, which no one challenged, was that their actions in China were nothing but extensions of what the “allies” started in 1900. The Japanese were prepared to protect all foreigners from Chinese savagery, and they expected the French, the Italians and the Americans to do likewise.
But because the Imperial Japanese Army’s tanks and artillery were doing nothing more than protecting their own, and other foreign nationals, they could logically raise no objection to the Americans or others protecting their nationals with token military forces.
The Japanese carefully restrained themselves, with several notable exceptions, from becoming involved in incidents involving an exchange of gunfire between themselves and troops of the neutral powers. They still paid lip service to international convention, because international convention condoned their occupation of Shantung Province. If an incident came before the League of Nations, it was likely to go off at a tangent into such things as the behavior of the Imperial Japanese Army.
Everyone understood that the Japanese prefer not to openlytell the League of Nations to go to hell. If necessary, of course, they would. But as long as they could avoid doing so, they would.
In January 1941, the American military presence in China consisted of the U.S. Navy Yangtze River Patrol; the U.S. Navy Submarine Force, China and the 4th-Regiment USMC (both based in Shanghai); and the U.S. Marine Detachment, Peking.