The South Manchuria Railway Zone and the Korean Peninsula had been under the control of the Japanese Empire since the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905. Japan's ongoing industrialization and militarization ensured their growing dependence on oil and metal imports from the US.[3] The US sanctions which prevented trade with the United States (which had occupied the Philippines around the same time) resulted in Japan furthering its expansion in the territory of China and Southeast Asia.[4] The invasion of Manchuria, or the Marco Polo Bridge Incident of 7 July 1937, are sometimes cited as alternative starting dates for World War II, in contrast with the more commonly accepted date of September 1, 1939.[5]
With the invasion having attracted great international attention, the League of Nations produced the Lytton Commission (headed by British politician Victor Bulwer-Lytton) to evaluate the situation, with the organization delivering its findings in October 1932. Its findings and recommendations that the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo not be recognized and the return of Manchuria to Chinese sovereignty prompted the Japanese government to withdraw from the League entirely.
^Walker, Michael (2017). The 1929 Sino-Soviet War: The War Nobody Knew. Modern War Studies. ISBN978-0700623754.
^Meyer, Michael (9 February 2016). In Manchuria: A Village Called Wasteland and the Transformation of Rural China. Bloomsbury USA. ISBN978-1620402887.
^Simkin, John (February 5, 2007). "Sterling and Peggy Seagrave: Gold Warriors". The Education Forum. Archived from the original on June 13, 2008. Retrieved June 13, 2008. Americans think of WW2 in Asia as having begun with Pearl Harbor, the British with the fall of Singapore, and so forth. The Chinese would correct this by identifying the Marco Polo Bridge incident as the start, or the Japanese seizure of Manchuria earlier.