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[[File:USS_SHAW_exploding_Pearl_Harbor_Nara_80-G-16871_2.jpg|thumbnail|left|350px50px|The USS Shaw exploding in Pearl Harbor]]
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Between 1937 and 1941, the escalating conflict between China and Japan influenced U.S. relations with both nations and ultimately contributed to pushing the United States toward full-scale war with Japan and Germany. Why did the relationship deteriorate during the 1930s? Why was the United States concerned by the Japanese occupation of China? Why did Japan ally itself with Germany?
At the outset, U.S. officials viewed developments in China with ambivalence. On the one hand, they opposed Japanese incursions into northeast China and the rise of Japanese militarism in the area, in part because of their sense of a longstanding friendship with China. On the other hand, most U.S. officials believed that it had no vital interests in China worth going to war over with Japan. Moreover, the domestic conflict between Chinese Nationalists and Communists left U.S. policymakers uncertain of success in aiding such an internally divided nation. As a result, few U.S. officials recommended taking a strong stance prior to 1937, and so the United States did little to help China for fear of provoking Japan.
U.S. likelihood of providing aid to China increased after July 7, 1937, when Chinese and Japanese forces clashed on the Marco Polo Bridge near Beijing, throwing the two nations into a full-scale war. As the United States watched Japanese forces sweep down the coast and then into the capital of Nanjing, popular opinion swung firmly in favor of the Chinese. Tensions with Japan rose when the Japanese Army bombed the U.S.S. Panay as it evacuated American citizens from Nanjing, killing three. The U.S. Government, however, continued to avoid conflict and accepted an apology and indemnity from the Japanese. An uneasy truce held between the two nations into 1940.
====Japan's escalation encouraged the U.S. sent aid to China====
