In Historical Scene--World War II Johnson articulated the threat that prompted the Cairo Conference in November 1943. Japan and China had been at war for almost a decade, and Japan was poised to invade the Chinese mainland. For Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, the threat was real and imminent. Standing tall, he surveys a landscape filled with machines of war. At the lower right, he sits with U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Madame Chiang Kai-shek, who served as interpreter, after Roosevelt committed to providing Allied support for China and battling Japan's rapid advances in Asia.
Johnson made multiple sketches of these world leaders individually and as a group, working from photographs that appeared in the press. Flags above their heads indicate their nationalities, although each is a clearly recognizable portrait.
