In the early 1930s, as Japan's aggressive actions against China increasingly threatened American interests in the Asia-Pacific region, the United States adopted a policy of appeasement towards Japan's invasion, a policy that persisted until the outbreak of war in 1941. This paper reexamines the U.S. policy of appeasement towards Japan prior to the Pacific War, exploring the motivations and impacts behind this approach. Despite the very close economic ties between the U.S. and Japan before the war, the U.S.'s non-interventionist stance towards Japan's aggression in China still attracted significant global attention. The paper argues that U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt's implementation of the appeasement policy was aimed at overcoming domestic isolationist tendencies in order to more effectively engage in the war. By appeasing Japan and stimulating its aggressive ambitions, the policy sought to reverse the domestic isolationist trend, thereby creating a more favorable domestic political environment for U.S. war preparations.
Research Article
Open Access