Its authenticity is not accepted by scholars today, but the "Tanaka Memorial" was widely accepted as authentic in the 1930s and 1940s because Japan's actions appeared to correspond with these plans. The authenticity seemed to be confirmed by the 1931 Mukden Incident, 1937 Second Sino-Japanese War, 1939 Battles of Khalkhin Gol, 1940 Japanese invasion of French Indochina, the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, and the subsequent Pacific War. Historian Barak Kushner states: