Eighty Years Ago: Asia Pacific, Sep 12 – 18, 1940

Sep 12, 1940: Japanese delegation headed by Kobayashi Seizo, governor general of Taiwan, arrives in Dutch East Indies for talks on economic cooperation

Sep 13, 1940: About 300,000 partisans reported to take part in offensive against Japanese Army in northern China

Sep 14, 1940: Thai Prime Minister Plaek Phibunsongkhram calls for return to his country of areas currently under control of French Indochina

Sep 15, 1940: Canadian passenger liner Empress of Asia damaged by bombs accidentally dropped by Japanese naval plane near the island of Oshima

Sep 16, 1940: US President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Selective Training and Service Act, creating the nation’s first peacetime draft

Sep 17, 1940: US Navy disbands Special Service Squadron, an instrument of gunboat diplomacy since the early 20th century

Sep 18, 1940: Japanese General Nishihara Issaku warns that whether French authorities approve or not, Japanese forces will march into Indochina on September 22

Categories: War

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