For centuries, Japan had remained relatively inactive as Western imperialists acquired possessions in India, the East Indies, and Indochina. She pursued her own imperialistic initiatives in the 1930s by invading China and French Indochina. In 1941, the Western powers sought to stifle her ambitions by cutting off exports to Japan of oil and other critical materials. The Japanese harbored grievances over perceived humiliations by the West in the past. Rather than withdraw from her conquests as demanded, she chose to acquire access to oil by further conquest, knowing that this would involve war with America, Britain, and others. Japan's view was that, if Germany prevailed in Europe, Japan's only serious enemy would be America, where public opinion was decidedly against war. Japan's confidence was buoyed by her perception that she had never lost a war.