Part of The Student Room Group

  • Join over 1.2 million students every month
  • Accelerate your learning by 29%
  • Unlimited access from just £6.99 per month

Why did tensions between the USA and Japan exist in the Pacific before 1940?

Extracts from this document...

Introduction

Why did tensions between the USA and Japan exist in the Pacific before 1940? In 1918 when the First World War was over, after which America had sent two million troops to help Britain and France, many Americans wanted America to withdraw from world affairs. At this time Woodrow Wilson president of the U.S.A wanted a League of Nations to prevent further wars but in 1920 congress rejected to join the League of Nations and so president Wilson lost the election. America now cut them selves of from any other country going into a period of isolationism. In 1935 congress passed a neutrality act which banned the sale of arms to a belligerent country, this meant that with war in Europe progressing, America could not get involved, ...read more.

Middle

So to make sure trade with china would grow the Americans developed a policy known as the 'open door' policy, this meant that china would stay independent. Japan had a large population living on four small islands; they were short of food and raw materials. But Japan wanted to be known as the Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere but to do this they needed to invade china. But it was Japan, and not Germany that brought the USA into the Second World War. In the 1930's Japan had gained control of parts of Northern China (Manchuria) and in 1940 Japan took over French Indo-China and now Japan had the largest fleet in the Pacific than the British and Americans together. ...read more.

Conclusion

Japan had remained neutral during the European war but now joined the side of the Germans. In July 1941 Roosevelt announced a total ban on U.S trade with Japan, this jeopardised her oil supplies. General Tojo demanded that the USA give Japan a free hand in Asia, so negotiations between the two countries continued throughout the autumn of 1941. Whilst the two sides talked a Japanese carrier force left islands of north Japan and was heading for Pearl Harbour. On the 26th of November 1941, Tojo broke of negotiations with the USA a clear signal for war, but a delay in decoding the message in Washington meant that Togo's message was only six hours before the attack was launched on the morning of 7th December 1941 - 'a day that will live in infamy' as Roosevelt called it. ...read more.

The above preview is unformatted text

This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our AS and A Level International History, 1945-1991 section.

Found what you're looking for?

  • Start learning 29% faster today
  • 150,000+ documents available
  • Just £6.99 a month

or


Not the one? Search for your essay title...
  • Join over 1.2 million students every month
  • Accelerate your learning by 29%
  • Unlimited access from just £6.99 per month

See related essaysSee related essays

Related AS and A Level International History, 1945-1991 essays

  1. Which Country Was Most To Blame for WWII - Italy, Germany or Japan?

    As it happened, Japan signed the Tripartite Pact with Germany and Italy in 1940 and so completely severed their relations with Britain and America. Japan didn't do a lot until they bombed Pearl Harbour in 1941 and brought America into the war.

  2. Account for the tensions between the Islamic World and the West

    It is hard to show how cultural tensions operate, but one visible example would be the hijab and treatment of women in Islamic cultures. The practice of veiling and treatment of women is hugely diverse within the Islamic world, to the West it is tantamount and characterises women of Islamic society.

  1. For what reason did Japan bomb Pearl Harbour?

    It was about war with GERMANY". They the Americans knew about the Japanese plans to attack Pearl Harbor, but did not do anything on purpose. The reason that America opted to stay quiet was because they knew that if Japan were to bomb Pearl Harbor, than the American Government would have an excuse to join the European War.

  2. Does Realism as a statist Ideology exist today?

    international politics, and help explain the way states act and conduct themselves. Realist thinkers of the cold war would argue that this event illustrated that the "...two great powers, the United States and the Soviet Union constituted the bi-polar international system."4 However, a counter argument has been put forward by

  1. In what ways was the Pacific war a racist conflict?

    In typical Capra style, it used elements of the Japanese's own propaganda and discredited it. In this instance, the commentary in parts of the film was Japans own rhetoric of co-existence and co-prosperity, while the pictures showed the mutilated corpses of Chinese men, women, and children.

  2. The history of relations' USA - Japan the War in the Pacific

    This was a good way to adapt to western ways and learn military tactics and engineering skills, these would be important for Japan if they were ever to fall out of good terms with the West, they could use their own tactics against the enemy.

  1. A Day of Infamy. pearl harbour

    Unfortunately, America was always one step behind the Japanese. The first wave of the attack was launched at approximately 6:00 AM on December 7th, 1941. It was made up of 183 aircraft, including dive bombers, horizontal bombers, torpedo bombers, and fighters that were to fly in from the north and

  2. Discussing Japan.

    This is not only creating more land in the ocean but it is getting rid of the mountains so more buildings can be built in their place. The only downside to this is that moving this dirt and transporting it is very, very expensive.

  • Over 160,000 pieces
    of student written work
  • Annotated by
    experienced teachers
  • Ideas and feedback to
    improve your own work