the Rape of Nanking and the rising tide of Japanese militarism in East Asia generally led the American government to take steps to block further Japanese expansion in the Far East. The refusal of the Japanese to withdraw from China and America's retaliatory embargo on aviation gasoline exports to Japan served as the casus belli for the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
The policy of the United States during World War II was to render Nationalist China such financial and military assistance as was needed to keep China fighting. The closure of the Burma Road and the logistic problems of supplying China over the Hump (the Himalaya Mountains) limited direct American military support. Nevertheless, American Lend-Lease aid to the Chinese Government during 1941-1945 was substantial -- approximately $1.5 billion (Chi, 1982, p. 64). President Franklin Roosevelt attempted to elevate China to the status of a postwar great power, one of the Four Policemen (together with America, Britain and the Soviet Union) which would ensure peace and stability in East Asia after the
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