Reply #127: The War in the Pacific began long before December 7, 1941

[Art_from_Ark]

Its origins can be traced directly to Matthew Perry's completely unprovoked bombardment of Yokohama in 1853. This act led to a civil war in Japan that pitted the old-time shogunate (who just wanted to be left alone but were forced to capitulate to Perry and the United States) versus the modernists who did not want Japan to suffer another humiliation at the hands of the West and end up being carved up like China. Eventually (in 1867), the modernists won, and Japan immediately set about on a course of modernization and militarization (the latter being a relatively easy feat considering that 1 out of 6 males in the country at the time had been samurais).

Thus, in addition to creating a viable national military, Japan launched ambitious programs of railroad building (they completed their first transnational railroad in the 1880s), industrialization, and agricultural improvements (originally relying on the British for assistance but, becoming dissatisfied with the English ways, looked to the Germans, who helped them develop the fertile lands of Hokkaido).

By 1890, Japan had become a force to be reckoned with. The West, which was very prejudiced against Oriental peoples at that time, looked upon Japan with both awe and loathing. After all, Anglo-Europeans liked to believe that white men were destined to rule the world, and this new upstart Japan was challenging their concepts of what a world order should be.

For its part, Japan was looking beyond its borders for its needs. Since imperialism for resource-poor but technologically advanced societies was the order of the day, Japan felt that it, too, had the right to start an empire, so in 1894 the country declared war on China and ended up with Taiwan a year later.

This caused a calamity among Western nations, particularly the United States, which was beginning to have its own dreams of a Pacific empire (Hawaii, for example, had been overthrown but not yet annexed). What was particuarly shocking to the United States was that Japan appeared to have eyes on Taiwan's southern neighbor, the Philippines.

The Philippines, of course, were controlled by a very weak Spain at that time. But lo and behold, three years later, the US found itself in a war with Spain. And wouldn't you know it, the US gained possession of the Philippines as a result of this war. And while the US was eager to grant Cuba its independence in 1902, when the Filipinos sought theirs in the same year, they were brutally repressed.

In the meantime, Japan saw the writing on the wall, and turned its attention northward and eastward, toward Korea and mainland China. Back in the United States, newspapers started screaming about the "yellow peril" (used for Chinese but most likely directed at Japanese. To make matters "worse", Japan's incursions in China had placed it in confrontation with Russia, which also wanted a piece of the Chinese pie. The czar sent his mighty navy to punish the Japanese, but, like the Spanish Armada before it, the czar's navy was soundly (and humiliatingly) defeated at the Battle of Tsushima.

With the end of the Russo-Japanese War in 1905 came a rising anti-Japanese sentiment in the United States. How dare heathen Orientals defeat the great navy of a God-fearing caucasian nation!! The next year, San Francisco passed an ordinance banning the integration of Asian (Japanese and Chinese) children in the schools. The next year, President Theodore Roosevelt signed a "Gentleman's Agreement" with Japan that placed severe restrictions on Japanese immigration to the US (effectively ending it). Immigration from Japan was completely prohibited in the 1920s. In addition, California and other states prohibited interracial marriages between Japanese and Caucasians. Thus, the stage was set for Pearl Harbor long before 1941.