P.S. Before you start sending nasty replies, you should know that I lived under Japanese occupation!
My dad remembered China as the Japanese took more and more territory, driving out all western influence and institutions well before the US cut off oil and scrap steel sales. He was a pilot for China National Airline Company, owned by American Airlines at the time. Many old CNAC pilots ended up in the China-Burma-India Campaign, as dad did. He knew what the Japanese were capable of from first-hand experience.