U.S. Public Opinion Toward Japan

This research examines public opinion in the United States toward Japan in the period prior to the beginning of the Second Word War. Secondarily, Japanese public opinion toward the United States is also examined.

The thesis of this examination is that the actions of the Japanese nation in the pre Second World War period account entirely for the negative character of American public opinion toward Japan prior to the beginning of the war, and, in turn, these Japanese actions led inevitably to war between the two countries. In the conduct of this examination, the policies of the government of Japan that attempted to extend Japanese economic hegemony in Eastern and Southeastern Asia while simultaneously promoting Japanese political dominance in the Pacific region are considered as motivators for actions by the Japanese nation that were found offensive by the American public. Economic interests were a major causal factor of the Pacific War in the 1940s between the United States and Japan, and the influence of Japanese economic objectives on Japanese political decisions that affected American public perceptions of Japan in the prewar period are considered in this research. AntiAmerican attitudes in Japan were strong in the prewar period, and these attitudes increased in intensity throughout the 1920s and 1930s. While these attitudes did not make have a direct impact on American publ

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rity with the United States and the United Kingdom, but the Roosevelt Administration rebuffed the Japanese overtures, while the American public demonstrated little interest one way or the other in the matter. The Naval treaties had never generated much public interest in the United States. In December 1936, the Chinese Nationalist leader Chiang Kaishek was captured in Sian where he had been leading a military campaign against Chinese Communists. The Communists agreed to release Chiang only if the Nationalist government would cease its attacks on the Communists and agree to a campaign against Japanese imperialism in China. The Nationalist government accepted the terms for Chiang's release, and almost at once embarked on an aggressive policy against Japan. War broke out again between Japan and China in July 1937. Chiang Kaishek issued a proclamation urging the Chinese people to resist Japanese aggression, and ordered military forces of the Nanking government to northeast China to engage the Japanese. Chiang had based his policy on an assumption that the Japanese would avoid a military confrontation; an assumption that proved to be dreadfully wrong. The Japanese pushed the Chinese army southeastward, and on the day before t
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Approximate Word count = 2650
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page)

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