1 - Rising Sun
from Part I - Axis
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 December 2012
Summary
The Japanese attack (7 December 1941) on military and naval installations in Hawaii shoved the United States into the general violence that had rocked international life since the late 1930s but Americans had heretofore avoided, at least in an immediate sense. In the absence of Pearl Harbor, followed by Berlin's obliging war declaration, US immersion in the fight against Germany would have been delayed, albeit not ultimately averted.
After France's June 1940 downfall, Washington officials looked anxiously at Germany's reconfiguration of Europe and pondered the problems, immediate and long-term, that they posed to New World safety. Japan's behavior in East Asia, especially aggression against China, had long unsettled FDR's cabinet officers. They had not placed Japan in the same category with Germany of menace to the Americas, however. Adroit diplomacy, some thought, notably Cordell Hull, would preclude Japanese–US hostilities. Failing that, war against Japan should be postponed as long as feasible while the main problem – surging German power – was checked and British survival, West European wellbeing, and US security thereby ensured.
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- FDR's Ambassadors and the Diplomacy of CrisisFrom the Rise of Hitler to the End of World War II, pp. 11 - 35Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2012