Japan's national policy has always aimed at the domination
of Asia and mastery of the Pacific. For more than four years China has
resolutely resisted Japan's aggression, regardless of suffering and
sacrifice, in order not only to maintain her national independence and
freedom but also to uphold international law and justice and to promote
world peace and human happiness.
China is a peace-loving nation. In taking up arms
in self-defense, China entertained the hope that Japan might yet realise
the futility of her plans of conquest. Throughout the struggle all the
other powers have shown the utmost forbearance likewise in the hope
that Japan might one day repent and mend her ways in the interest of
peace in the entire Pacific region.
Unfortunately Japan's aggressive capacities prove
to be incorrigible. After her long and fruitless attempt to conquer
China, Japan, far from showing any signs of penitence, has treacherously
launched an attack on China's friends, the United States and Great Britain,
thus extending the theater of her aggressive activities and making herself
the arch-enemy of justice and world peace.
This latest act of aggression on the part of Japan
lays bare her insatiable ambitions and has created a situation that
no nation which believes in international good faith and human decency
can tolerate.
The Chinese Government hereby formally declares war
on Japan. The Chinese Government further declares that all treaties,
conventions, agreements and contracts regarding relations between China
and Japan are and remain null and void.
(The Chinese Government's Declaration of War on Germany
and Italy.)
Since the conclusion of the Tripartite Pact of September
1940, Germany, Italy, and Japan have unmistakably banded themselves
into a block of aggressor states working closely together to carry out
their common program of world conquest and domination. To demonstrate
their solidarity Germany and Italy successively accorded recognition
to Japan's puppet regimes in northeastern China and at Nanking. As a
consequence, China severed her diplomatic relations with Germany and
Italy last July. Now the Axis powers have extended the theater of their
aggressive activities and thrown the whole Pacific region into turmoil,
making themselves the enemies of international justice and world civilization.
This state of affairs can no longer be tolerated by
the Chinese Government and people. The Chinese Government hereby declares
that as from midnight, December 9, 1941, a state of war exists between
China and Germany and between China and Italy. The Chinese Government
further declares that all treaties, conventions, agreements, and contracts
regarding relations between China and Germany and between China and
Italy are and remain null and void.