Sources of US-Japanese Conflict

Legacies of Racism– Immigration Restrictions

“Oriental” Exclusion Law, 1924

Japanese Resentments of Western Colonial Domination of the Pacific

Conflict Over Resources, Worsened by the Great Depression

Japan’s alliance with the Axis

US-Japan Negotiations, 1941

US insists Japan Break Axis Alliance, Withdraw from China, and promise no more aggression as price for resuming oil sales

Japan insisted US resume oil sales and force China to accept Japanese peace terms before it pledged non-aggression

Japan bet that Germany would defeat Great Britain and Russia

IMPACT OF PEARL HARBOR

Unites AmericansEnds IsolationismNow a grave military blowMobilizes US industry for war—key

factor in US victory

WWII AND THE CIVILIAN ECONOMY

Ended the depression, incomes of those at bottom improved substantially

Higher incomes, less spending power Military priorities created shortages in civilian

goods and services– Women expected to compensate with their unpaid

labor– Rationing of gasoline, food products– Price controls

WWII AND THE CIVILIAN ECONOMY

Labor shortages, esp. in heavy industry High wages, many jobs unionized Removal of millions of men from the civilian

economy New opportunities for women and minorities

(especially outside of the South) Rising workforce participation by women,

esp. married women and mothers

Citizenship Rights and the War

Internment of Japanese Americans -- sustained by court decisions, racial basis

Regarded as an enemy race

Citizenship Rights and the War

African Americans mobilized in Double V campaign – women led membership drives for NAACP, protests of various kinds

Veterans important in activism after the war – GI Forum

Japanese American Draft Resisters

1920

1924 U.S. “Oriental Exclusion” Law

1931 Japanese Invasion of Manchuria

1936 Anti-Comintern Pact

1937 Japanese Invasion of China

1938 U.S. Economic Aid to China; Restrictions on Japan

1940 Japan Aligns with Germany and Italy; U.S. Lend Lease Bill to Allies

1941 (July) – Japan Occupies Indo-China

US WARTIME STRATEGY

Aid Grand AlliancePriority of War in EuropeHeavy reliance on Soviets to do the bulk

of the fighting until D-Day—20-25 million Russian deaths

Use the atomic bomb against Japan to win war quickly, reduce American casualties, and prevent Soviet inroads in Asia