The alliance of Japan with the Axis powers was a bombshell to their opponents. Senator [[Nye Committee|Gerald Nye]] declared the Administration "policy has succeeded in driving Japan into the arms of those who were the last ones we wanted her to associate with." Japan claimed it was due to the blundering of the U.S. State Department. "'We knew it all the time' was the refrain of the statement the Secretary of State gave the press, a statement which managed to achieve prolixity though but three sentences long. . . . It is impossible to take these words at their face value without passing a harsh verdict on our diplomats . . . . It is more charitable to assume that Secretary Hull's statement was a bold front on a diplomatic defeat."<ref>[[I.F. Stone]], ''[[The Nation]]'', October 5, 1940, quoted in Porter Sargent, ''Prodding Japan into War'', Bulletin #95, Boston, 1941, [http://americandeception.com/index.php?action=downloadpdf&photo=/PDFsml_AD/Getting_Us_Into_War-Porter_Sargent-1941-640pgs-POL.sml.pdf&id=218&PHPSESSID=03d3557b41f249f71349e6d730cc8498 pg. 539] pdf</ref>
With the making of the Hitler-Stalin pact, the Soviet Union was at war on the side of Germany. The [[Communist Party of China|Chinese Communists]] (CCP) stopped fighting the Japanese in the ongoing [[Second Sino-Japanese War]], and resumed [[guerrilla]] operations against the [[Nationalist Party|Chinese National Government]] (KMT). The CCP devoted their energies to fighting the Chinese government for the portions of eastern China between the railroad lines, held by the Japanese.
==See also==