Fateful Choices: Ten Decisions That Changed the World, 1940-1941

  and France: Alpine offensive

  effect of French defeat on

  war against

  and Germany: alliance with

  anti-German feeling in

  role in

  German naval strategy

  industry

  influence of Church

  inter-war foreign policy

  invasion of Abyssinia

  and invasion of Greece

  offensives against British territories

  pre-eminence of state

  public opinion

  rearmament

  structure of government

  switch of allegiance (1943)

  territorial claims

  and Tripartite Pact

  and war with United States

  see also

  Albania; Italian armed forces; Mussolini, Benito

  Ito Seiichi, Japanese navy vice-chief of staff

  Jackson, Robert H., US Attorney General

  Jacomoni, Francesco, Ciano’s deputy in Albania

  Japan

  alternatives to war

  and Britain

  decision for war with

  cult of Emperor

  decision-making

  economy

  dependence on United

  States

  imports of raw materials

  shortage of oil and steel

  support for autarky

  ‘Essentials (Plan) for Carrying out the Empire’s Policies’ (plan for war)

  foreign policy: 1930s

  ambitions for empire

  effect of European war on

  ‘new order’ in East Asia

  opportunities in Far East

  perceived need for territorial expansion

  reaction to

  Nazi–Soviet Pact (1939)

  southern expansion policy

  ‘Fundamental Principles of National Policy’

  and Germany

  and military alliance with Axis powers

  ‘no-separate-peace’ agreement with Germany

  Tripartite Pact

  (September 1940)

  government

  constitution (1889)

  Imperial

  Conferences

  Liaison

  Conferences

  political parties

  powers of emperor

  resignation of government (1939)

  role of Privy Council

  weakness of democracy

  international standing membership of League of Nations

  invasion of Indochina

  isolationism in

  national character: fatalism

  importance of concept of honour

  militarism

  occupation of Manchuria (1931)

  ‘Outline of a Basic National Policy’(July 1940)

  public opinion

  mass politics

  rise of nationalism

  and Soviet Union

  change of policy considered

  loss as potential ally

  and United States

  commitment to war

  and deadlines for negotiation

  decision to attack

  diplomatic demands

  economic dependence on

  embargoes

  fear of war

  final reply to

  Washington

  growing intransigence

  possibility of war with

  possible concessions

  and pressures of time

  reaction to ‘Hull Note’

  and reaction of US to alliance with Axis powers

  Japan–cont. war with China (1894–5)

  war planning

  war with Russia (1904–5)

  see also

  Japan, war with China;

  Japanese army; Japanese navy;

  Manchuria

  Japan, war with China (‘China incident’)

  ‘Basic Terms of Peace’

  Konoe’s view of

  and negotiations with America

  possibility of ending war

  see also

  Chiang Kai-shek

  Japanese army

  and inevitability of war with

  America

  influence in government

  and need for mobilization

  and negotiations with America

  ‘Outline of the Main Principles for

  Coping with the Changing World

  Situation’

  strategy

  support for alliance with Axis powers

  and war with Soviet Union

  Japanese navy

  commitment to war

  and ‘Essentials for Carrying out the

  Empire’s Policies’

  fear of war with United States

  influence in government

  and negotiations with America

  reluctance for alliance with Axis powers

  strategy

  Jewsin America

  blamed for world wars

  death toll

  development of policy against

  emigration from Germany

  equated with Bolshevism

  ‘final solution’ (annihilation)

  gas chambers

  genocide

  first phase

  in soviet Union

  ghettos

  impracticability of deportation

  Nazi demonization of

  Nuremberg Laws

  persecution of (from 1933)

  plans for mass deportations

  pogroms

  and Reichskristallnacht

  (1938)

  reservation for (beyond Vistula)

  and Wannsee Conference

  wearing of ‘Yellow Star’

  in Weimar Republic

  Jodl, General Alfred, head of Wehrmacht Operations Staff

  and declaration of war on United

  States

  and ‘peripheral war’ plan

  Johnson, Hiram

  Kan’in Kotohito, Prince, chief of

  Japanese imperial staff

  Katowice, deportation of Jews from

  Kaya Okinori, Japanese Finance

  Minister

  Kearny, USS, torpedo attack on

  Keitel, Field Marshal Wilhelm

  Kelly, Edward J., mayor of Chicago

  Kennedy, John F.

  Kennedy, Joseph, US ambassador in

  London

  Kenya

  Khrushchev, Nikita

  Kido Koichi, Marquis, Japanese Lord Privy Seal

  and alliance with Axis powers and negotiations with America Kiev

  King, Admiral Ernest J., US Atlantic

  Fleet

  King, W. L. Mackenzie, Canadian

  Prime Minister

  Kirov, Sergei, Leningrad party boss

  Kirponos, Lieutenant-General

  Knox, Frank, US Secretary of the

  Navy

  and aid for Britain

  and Atlantic convoys

  on German invasion of Soviet

  Union

  Knudsen, William, General Motors

  Kondo Bobutake, vice-chief of Japanese navy staff

  Konoe Fumimaro, Prince, Japanese Prime Minister

  and alliance with Axis power

  and ‘Essentials’ plan for war

  first administration (1937–9)

  and ‘Four Pillars Conference’

  meeting with Grew

  and negotiations with America

  opposition to war with America

  proposal for meeting with

  Roosevelt

  second administration (1940–41)

  resignation

  Korea, Japanese occupation

  Krüger, Friedrich-Wilhelm, SS chief

  Kube, Wilhelm, Commissar of Belorussia

  Kurusu Saburo, Japanese special envoy to Washington

  Kvaternik, Marshal Sladko, Croatian minister

  Lagarde, Paul de

  Lammers, Hans Heinrich, head of the Reich C
hancellery

  Lateran Pacts (1929)

  Latvia

  League of Nations

  German withdrawal from

  and Italian invasion of Abyssinia

  Japanese withdrawal from

  and Mukden Incident

  Soviet membership of

  United States and

  LeHand, Marguerite, secretary to

  FDR

  Lemkin, Raphael

  Lenin, V. I.

  Leopold, King of the Belgians

  Libya

  Italian defeat by British and Italian expansion in north-Africa

  Lindbergh, Charles A.

  Lithuania

  shooting of Jews

  Litvinov, Maxim, Foreign Commissariat

  Lloyd George, David

  Locarno, Treaty of (1925)

  Lo ´ d$$$$, Poland, ghetto

  Lohse, Hinrich, Commissar for Eastern Territory

  Loraine, Sir Percy, British ambassador to Rome

  Lothian, Marquis of, British ambassador to Washington

  on Britain’s ability to pay for aid

  Lublin, German advance on

  Ludendorff, General Erich

  Lueger, Karl, mayor of Vienna

  Luftwaffe

  and long-range capability against United States

  Lytton, Lord, Commission on Manchuria

  McCormick, Colonel Robert R., isolationist

  Mackensen, Hans Georg von, German ambassador in Rome

  Madagascar as potential colony for deported Jews

  Madeira

  Maginot Line

  Mährisch-Ostrau, deportation of Jews from

  Maisky, Ivan, Soviet ambassador in London

  Malay peninsula

  Japanese attack on

  Malenkov, Georgi

  Malta

  Italian air raids

  Italian demands for

  Manchuria Chinese nationalism in

  clash with Soviet troops

  (‘Nomonhan Incident’)

  Japanese occupation of (1931)

  (‘Mukden Incident’)

  Kwantung Army

  and state of Manchukuo

  Manstein, Lieutenant-General Erich von

  Mao Zedong, warning to Soviet Union on Germany

  Marshall, General George C., US army chief of staff

  Matsuoka Yosuke, Japanese Foreign Minister

  and alliance with Germany

  brinkmanship of

  and costs of alliance with US

  expectation of German victory

  and Greater East Asia

  meeting with Hitler

  neutrality pact with Soviet Union

  proposed attack on Soviet Union

  and prospect of war with Britain and US

  Mauritius

  Mediterranean German army view of

  and German naval strategy

  Italian ambitions in

  significance to Britain

  Meiji, emperor of Japan

  Mekhlis, L. Z., Red Army Political Directorate

  Meretskov, General K. A., chief of Soviet General Staff

  Merkulov, Vsevolod, head of NKGB

  Mers-el-Kebir, destruction of French fleet at

  Mersa Matruh, Egypt

  Metaxas, Ioannis, Greek dictator

  Middle East

  British influence in see also

  Suez Canal

  Midway, battle of

  Mikoyan, Anastas, Soviet foreign trade expert

  Minsk German advance on

  massacre of Jews

  Molotov, Vyacheslav, Soviet

  Commissar for Foreign Affairs

  discussions with Hitler

  and German invasion

  and intelligence reports

  and possible alliance with France and Britain

  Morea, Greece

  Morgenthau, Henry, US Treasury Secretary

  and lend-lease scheme

  Morocco