On January 1, 1942, two major events happened in the United States on this day. The first thing was that China, the United States, Britain and the Soviet Union signed the "United Nations Declaration" in Washington, and used the word "United Nations" for the first time. The World Anti-*** Alliance was officially established, and the "five major hooligans" of the United Nations came into being on this day in the future.
Another thing is related to the people's livelihood in the United States. The White House signed a new decree to prohibit the sale of new cars in order to save steel.
This law has no impact on automobile manufacturers. They have received a large number of orders from the US government to produce military jeeps, military trucks, armored vehicles and tanks for the government. All production lines are open, and automobile workers are also working overtime.
However, for ordinary people, the impact is really great.
As we all know, the United States is a country on wheels. For Americans, they can buy a good new Ford or Buick car for $300. Nowadays, if new cars cannot be sold, they can only buy used cars.
This law also led to the prosperity of the used car industry in the United States. In the future, buying used cars is the mainstream in the American car culture. Young people in the United States basically have used cars. Only those successful people with successful careers will consider buying new cars. If ordinary people buy cars, the first thing they consider is to buy a used car. This car culture also originated from the law promulgated in 1942. Just imagine that there are no new cars to buy for several consecutive years, and the entire used car industry chain will inevitably develop greatly. Merchants will only sell used cars, and people will gradually get used to buying used cars. Once a complete industrial chain is formed and the people have developed habits, it will be difficult for this industry to decline.
A few hours after the establishment of the World Anti-*** Alliance, the Japanese army captured Manila in the Philippines, which was another bad news for the Americans, and the stock market fell sharply again.
January 3 and January 4 are Saturday and Sunday, and the stock market is closed. On the day when the market opens on January 5, the Soviet army surrounded by Moscow finally began to launch a counterattack against Germany. The news spread to Wall Street, and the stock market finally stopped falling. Some optimistic investors even believed that the turning point of the stock market has finally come, and the stock market will recover in the next period of time.
However, the news that Japan declared war on the Netherlands and attacked the Dutch East Indies caused a plunge in the Dow Jones Index. Then the Japanese army occupied Kuala Lumpur, occupied Malacca, invaded Myanmar, and Singapore. This series of news spread to the United States, and Wall Street was wailing again.
In the Southeast Asian region occupied by Japan, India in South Asia became important. At this time, the allies certainly hoped that India could join the ranks of war against Japan, but the "Mahatma" of India obviously cared more about India's independence. Gandhi continued to adhere to his "non-cooperationism", and Nehru, the leader of the Congress Party, was unwilling to give up on political struggles with Britain.
India was a contradiction at this time. Since it had not yet been independent, India, as a British colony, naturally had to stand on the side of the allies. Therefore, the Indian Governor at that time recruited many Indians and joined the Indian garrison to defend India.
At the same time, India's largest Congress party was pursuing India's independence. Gandhi and Congress leader Nehru were engaged in political struggles with British colonists. The way of struggle was still the same as "non-cooperation". It was like a child. If you don't buy me candy, I would sit on the ground and cry. So at that time, Gandhi and Congress party refused India to participate in the anti-*** alliance. To a certain extent, Gandhi and Congress party even hoped that Japan could drive away the British so that India could become independent. Gandhi also planned to launch the fourth "non-violent non-cooperation movement" when Britain was at its weakest, and to give Britain a greater blow to seek India's independence.
The UK obviously could not tolerate Gandhi's dragging behavior, so Gandhi and many important members of the Congress were arrested and threw them into prison by the UK, and were not released until 1944.
After the Japanese captured Southeast Asia, Thailand also announced war on the United States and Britain. On the same day, the first batch of US troops arrived in Europe and landed in Ireland. Of course, except for the British Isles, the US military had no place to stay. At this time, the entire Western European continent was in the hands of the Germans.
Because Japan launched an attack on Myanmar and cut off the lifeline of the Yunnan-Burma Highway, Chongqing had to set up a Chinese expeditionary force and enter Myanmar to fight against Japan.
At this time, the entire Western Pacific had become the territory of the Japanese army, and the US military could only hide in Hawaii. Even if it was staying in Hawaii, it was not peaceful. Japanese fighters often visited over Hawaii and engaged in several small-scale air battles with the US Air Force.
In this case, President Roosevelt signed an Executive Order No. 9066, which included the deportation of Japanese people in the United States, detaining Japanese Americans, and confiscating their property.
At that time, the Americans easily opened the country's doors with several warships, and then the Japanese opened the road to immigration to the Americas. From the era of Emperor Meiji to the later Emperor Taisho era, about 200,000 immigrants in Japan went to the Hawaiian Islands to plant sugarcane, of which 180,000 eventually went to mainland America. Most of them settled on the west coast of the United States and worked in California for agricultural work. This phenomenon continued until 1924, when the US half-step immigration ban was effectively stopped by the Japanese.
After the outbreak of the Pearl Harbor incident, these Japanese immigrants, or the remaining "second generation" and "third generations" in the United States, obviously became a factor of uneasiness in the United States. The United States suspected that among these Japanese immigrants or Japanese Americans, there were Japanese spies, and they stayed on the West Coast of the United States, and they were also insidious for Japan to launch an attack on the West Coast of the United States.
The sentiment of Japanese aggression has become increasingly intense in the United States. Whether it is the Japanese immigrants that year or the Japanese-Americans born in the United States, they have become unpopular. However, at this time, the outbreak of the Niho Island incident accelerated the hostility of Americans toward Japanese residents.
A Japanese pilot's plane was shot down and fell on Niho Island in Hawaii. He was then arrested by residents of Niho Island. However, Japanese residents living on Niho Island rescued the Japanese pilot and attacked the American residents of Niho Island.
In fact, the Japanese resident who rescued the Japanese pilot was born in Hawaii. According to the law, he has American nationality and is an American. Therefore, in the eyes of Americans, his behavior was Japanese Americans who rescued the enemy and attacked his compatriots. This kind of "American traitor" behavior is simply intolerable.
So Americans feel that those Japanese residents are unreliable. If one day Japan really attacks the United States, these Japanese residents will never protect the United States, but will stand on the side of the Japanese invaders to attack the Americans.
The uneasiness must be cleared in advance. Roosevelt signed Executive Order No. 9066. Although this order encountered some opposition during the discussion of the US House of Representatives, after all, this order targeted not only Japanese immigrants, but also Japanese-Americans born in the United States. However, under the rising anti-Japanese sentiment in the United States at that time, Executive Order No. 9066 was successfully approved by Congress.
Subsequently, the United States established many concentration camps in the inland areas, some even established in desert areas. They sent all 120,000 residents of Japanese descent who lived on the west coast of the United States to the concentration camps and confiscated their property. Among the 120,000 residents, about 80,000 were the "second generation" or "third generation" born in the United States. They had American nationality and had never left the United States in their lifetime.
In fact, as early as 1936, Roosevelt had ordered the naval intelligence department to monitor the Japanese communities in the United States. Roosevelt had been guarding against the Japanese and arresting and detaining Japanese residents. It was not Roosevelt's intention, but something he had planned for a long time.
Many people only know that during World War II, Germany established concentration camps to detain Jews, and the Japanese also established concentration camps to detain Chinese. In the late World War II, the Allied forces also built concentration camps to detain German and Japanese prisoners. However, few people know that the United States also established concentration camps on its own land. However, the concentration camps established by the Allied forces in Europe were to detain the enemy, while the concentration camps established by the United States in the land were to detain their own citizens.
According to the Executive Order No. 9066, as long as you have one-sixteenth of Japanese descent, that is, your great-grandfathers are Japanese, you will be locked up in concentration camps, including babies and orphans. At that time, a US colonel named Carl Bendson was also locked up in concentration camps for this reason, and he later became the deputy secretary of the US Army. In order to prove that he had nothing to do with Japan, this deputy minister also became the most determined anti-Japanese faction in the United States in the future. After World War II, he took the lead in opposing several plans for aid to Japan.
The Germans and Italians who lived in the United States had no good results. After the US military announced its participation in the war, they arrested about 5,000 Germans and 3,000 Italians and confiscated their property.
Many wealthy people in the country tried every means to transfer their property to the United States, and even used illegal means. Many so-called public intellectuals were also promoting everywhere, saying that private property in the United States is sacred and inviolable, etc., and there were really a bunch of fools who believed it.
If you look at the things the United States did during World War II, you should understand that in the face of national interests, all "private property is sacred and inviolable" is bullshit! Even if you have obtained American nationality, become an American, or even the second or third generation born in the United States, the United States can still confiscate your property and lock you up in concentration camps just because you are not a white person.
If one day war breaks out between China and the United States, those Chinese living in the United States may be the first to suffer.
...
Chen Qiang passed by a little nervous for more than a month. Fortunately, the CIA agents did not come to him again, so Chen Qiang breathed a sigh of relief.
At this time, Chen Qiang also felt that his operation to make money from the United States was a bit too careless.
Chen Qiang made a profit of 20 million US dollars by using the stock market crash, which was an astronomical figure at that time, and there were no rich people with assets of 20 million in the United States. It is definitely not an exaggeration to say that 20 million US dollars at that time were comparable to 2 billion US dollars in later generations.
In the future, if someone makes $2 billion by selling short stocks, the securities regulatory authorities will definitely investigate whether this person has conducted some insider trading. What's more, this stock market crash was caused by Japan's air strike on Pearl Harbor. Chen Qiang made a fortune from the US national disaster. If the Americans don't investigate it, that would be strange!
Fortunately, Hu Shi had been promoting Japan's attack on the United States before, so that Chen Qiang could temporarily justify himself. The key is that in order to protect himself, those members of Congress who were very close to Yoshisaburo Nomura came out to block Chen Qiang at this time. They terminated the CIA's investigation, and Chen Qiang could also put the 20 million US dollars in his pocket with peace of mind.
The situation was worse than expected. Japanese bombing cargo planes had even appeared over Australia. The most serious thing happened on February 23. A Japanese i-17 submarine appeared in California's waters and fired 17 high-explosive shells to an oil refinery in California. The submarine's attack ability to land was very limited, and these 17 high-explosive shells did not cause much damage. However, for the United States, this is the first time that the United States has been attacked by foreign countries since the War of Independence.
Japanese submarines appeared outside California and attacked the United States, which was a shocking thing for the United States, which meant that the West Coast was no longer safe, and there were even rumors on the market that Hawaii would soon be unable to be saved. Countless Americans were worried that when they woke up tomorrow, they would see Japanese soldiers holding plaster flags appearing in their neighborhoods.
Affected by this incident, the US stock market fell to a trough. At this time, Chen Qiang also chose to close his position and took away his $20 million profit.
...
Although Chen Qiang is an investment novices, he also knows that too much cash in his hand is not a good thing. He can basically not escape inflation by depositing money in the bank. If you have money, you should invest. Using money to make money is the best way to prevent money from depreciating.
So Chen Qiang found the securities broker Charlie again, and he planned to take advantage of the stock market crash to buy some American stocks at the bottom.
But Chen Qiang didn't understand stock investment, and he didn't know which stocks to buy. Finally, after thinking for a long time, Chen Qiang planned to pick up some famous companies to buy, preferably those in the world's top 500 in the future. It would be impossible to buy their stocks.
However, in 1940, there were not many companies in the world's top 500 companies in the future.
Look at the list of the top 500 in the future, there are only 1230 American companies, Walmart, ninthly ranking Walmart, Apple, and Amazon, Costco, HP, Boeing, etc., these well-known brands were not yet born in 1942.
Moreover, the United States was an oligarchical economy at that time, and many industries were monopolized by big capitalists. For example, the "Seven Sisters of Oil" were behind Rockefeller; behind several large banks was Morgan. These industries were controlled by economic oligarchs, so they did not need to go public to make money, but directly monopolized their operations. If they monopolize, profits were all their own, and if they went public, they had to share the profits to shareholders. For oligarchs, sharing profits from them was like killing their whole family!
Therefore, Chen Qiang doesn't have many stocks to choose from. In his memory, few of the top 500 in the world appeared on the Dow Jones list. However, he dared not buy those companies that Chen Qiang didn't know, for fear that he would lose money if he bought them.
"It's so difficult to spend money!" Chen Qiang sighed helplessly, and then left the securities company.
Chen Qiang had just returned to his office and before his butt was hot, the phone rang.
Chen Qiang picked up the phone receiver, and Little Beckland's voice sounded inside.
I heard Little Beckland say impatiently: "A batch of hula hoops appeared on the market, but they were not produced by our company! Our products were counterfeited by others!"
Chen Qiang was slightly surprised, and then immediately realized that the hula hoop was finally copied from someone else.
Chapter completed!