The Sino-Japanese war and the Anglo-American response

This article examines the Anglo-American response to the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War in 1937 and the Panay Crisis later that December. Drawing on both American and British sources, it demonstrates the failure in Washington and London to reach a consensus on the most effective way to mitigate hostilities and exposes clear disagreement on orchestrating any form of Anglo-American cooperation. Shifting the focus to a study of the interplay between the State Department and the Foreign Office towards the Far East during 1937, it provides an example of the effect, or lack thereof, that international responses had on the early development of the war.