As a result of a treaty that we were a party to in the early 1900's. They hated us for it, which lead to WWII.
The history books have been re-written re dumbdown, but the ones I read when I was going to HS and College said exactly that.
Down deep the Japs still hate us, so we need to watch what we give them.
Instead, let them arm themselves with conventional weapons, and let them pay us for them, so they can fight the North Koreans when the time comes.
The Japanese know where their bread is buttered. They benefited from our getting their heads right.
Look at them now, 50% of the cars in America are made in Japan.
You're right, most of our history books don't teach this, but I was also fortunate to have some good history teachers. The Japanese didn't bomb us for the heck of it, it was partly due to built-up resentments. I doubt they hate us, any more than they hate the Russians (who they whipped real good at the turn of the century (previous one). But they do remember that we and the Russians held them back from being all they could be, so we must be careful how we arm them.
True enough. Teddy Roosevelt bears as much or more responsibility for WWII as does Franklin Roosevelt.
The Russians and the Japanese were disputing over the territory of Manchuria in 1905. Russia had poured troops in there, and the Japanese had planned to keep it within the Japanese Empire. After Russia promised to leave the area in 1902, and didn’t leave, the region quickly escalated into war. Japan had for the most part been winning the war, and were also financially strung out, but when Roosevelt had a conference with the leaders of both nations, he conceived a peaceful solution. He declared Japan the victor, and Manchuria would be handed over to Japan. But, Russia did not have to pay reparations for the losses of Japan. This extremely angered the Japanese and threw them into a deep depression. They never forgot this and is commonly thought to be the act that set in motion the events that led to the attack on Pearl Harbor.
I don't know where you get your misinformation, but I lived with them for 15 years. Yes, there are the arrogant kool-aid drinking types who think that Japan could've won World War II and been better for it.
But for every one of these kooks, there are 100 who praise America and McArthur for the help we gave them after the war, grumblings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki notwithstanding.
We are Japan's best customer by far and in a business and merchantilist economy which values customers that, alone, means a lot.
While Nations do not have friends, but only interests, I don't think the Japanese still hate us. Like an aspiring bully that gets the snot beat out of him by one of his would be victims, and becomes good friends with him later, the Japanese know they got the snot beat out of them, fair and square. Our post war reconstruction and re-work of their government didn't harm matters either. On top of all that, we're their best market. Of course many Japanese didn't hate us even before the war. Unlike Admiral Yamamoto, they mostly didn't know us. It's really a shame we had to kill him, but he was their most competant leader.