To hope we stayed out of it. For awhile, their plan worked, too.
Both Japan and Germany believed the US was too soft to fight. We were all brains and no brawn. In some ways, it looked that way early on. Kasserine Pass and the Philippines for instance. But the brains is what ended up winning the war. The massive industrial power of the US just overwhelmed the Axis. There was no limit to our capacity. Two years after the wart began, German tanks dare not move in daylight. Axis cities were in ruins. We ruled the skies everywhere. The Axis ruled the world for 5 years and in just two years, we had them all but beaten.