Before the Storm

When you first hear about Japan’s 1940 invitation to U.S. table tennis players, your natural thought is, “Hmm, Pearl Harbor was 1941.”

When you first hear about Japan’s 1940 invitation to U.S. table tennis players, your natural thought is, “Hmm, Pearl Harbor was 1941.”

Certainly storm clouds were gathering, fed by increasing Japanese aggression in Asia. In July 1940 the U.S. restricted exports of iron and certain other raw materials to Japan. By October, the U.S. was urging citizens to evacuate Japan and much of Asia.

A little sports background: Japan was originally chosen to host the 1940 Summer Olympics (right). But its 1937 military incursions in China led to boycott threats from Western nations, which wanted no repeat of the 1936 Berlin nationalist propaganda. So Japan relinquished the Games, which were then given to Finland but later canceled due to world turmoil. As a modest substitute in June 1940, Japan hosted the six-country East Asian Games, part of the 2600-year anniversary celebration of its mythical first emperor.