Part 3, Chapter 16 Summary

In 1923, private citizen FDR wrote an article entitled "Shall We Trust Japan?" He observed that before World War I, an American-Japanese war had been considered inevitable and would have been a military deadlock, determined by economic factors. Nevertheless, FDR called on Americans to trust Japan and continue trades with the island-nation. The Pacific afforded ample room for both. FDR's analysis held true for the 1920s, but as the military began dominating the Japanese government, it sought to exclude the West from its "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere." The minor "Manchurian Affair" in September 1931 gave the Japan a pretext for invading China, which offered a vast source of raw materials and living space. The Great Depression caused intense hardship in resource-poor Japan. Pro-Western Osachi Hamaguchi won a smashing electoral victory in 1930, but his assassination by an ultranationalist brought to an end any...