JAPANESE INFLUENCE ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF BRITISH-AMERICAN RELATIONS BEFORE AND AT THE BEGINNING OF THE WORLD WAR II (1931 – 1940)

Abstract

The article examines the relationship between two leading countries – Great Britain and the United States, which had a significant impact on international political situation in the world in 1930s and still have nowadays. As a vector of research, the author takes the factor of the Japanese militaristic regime because of the rather similar current geopolitical situation due to the aggressive actions of Russian Federation. According to this, the author aimed to conduct a comprehensive analysis and his own assessment of the impact of Japan’s behavior in the international arena on the development of British-American relations in various fields. The chronological boundaries of the study are the period from the Mukden incident ‒ the beginning of Japanese invasion in the north-eastern part of China (September, 1931) to the conclusion of Berlin (Tripartite) Pact between Japan, Italy and Germany (September, 1940). Methodology: the article uses a comparative-historical method to compare and analyze the influence of Japan and Germany on the foreign policy of London and Washington, as well as descriptive method ‒ to identify the essence and features of British-American relations during 1931–1940. The use primarily of a wide base of diplomatic documents, archival sources from the F. D. Roosevelt Digital Library, cabinet papers of the British government allowed the author to apply the systematic approach and the principle of objectivity working with only verified facts and their comprehensive assessment. Scientific novelty: for the first time in Ukrainian historiography the author analyzed and rethought the process of how did Japan’s aggressive actions influence on US-British relations on the eve and beginning of World War II regarding the current geopolitical situation. The author concludes that the leadership of the United States and Great Britain did not realize the threat from Japan in time, that their inconsistent actions only contributed to the rapprochement of Tokyo with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, culminating in the formation of a tripartite military alliance («axis»). According to the author, the ambiguity of the position of London and Washington caused primarily by the struggle for spheres of influence in the Pacific area and trade conflicts between them in general. In view of this, the article emphasizes the need for modern leading states, especially Great Britain and the USA, to take into account the mistakes of the past in order to prevent a repeat of the Japanese scenario in the international arena in future.