Dec 5, 1940: The Hundred Regiments partisan offensive ends in China after months of vicious fighting

Dec 6, 1940: Occupied East Chinese city of Suzhou on high alert after unknown perpetrators kill senior official in pro-Japanese puppet government

Dec 7, 1940: Japan picks Honda Kumataro, its formers ambassador to Berlin, as its envoy to the new Chinese puppet regime in Nanjing

Dec 8, 1940: Thousands of Americans are ordered by their government to leave East Asia as threat of war grows ever larger

Dec 9, 1940: Japanese Foreign Minister Matsuoka Yosuke says he doubts there will be war with the United States

Dec 10, 1940: US military sets up Naval Air Station at Tongue Point, Oregon

Dec 11, 1940: As military expenditures balloon, the Japanese government prepares record budget for 1941