HISTORY 126B Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Attack On Pearl Harbor, Unequal Treaty, United States Pacific Fleet
Document Summary
Common view of how it started: japanese attacked pearl harbor out of the blue while us minding own business. Other narrative: "ten years of aggression" japanese policy of expansion. Us tried to stop them in 1930s first through diplomacy then through economic pressures >japanese responded by attacking >wwii about. Both narratives don"t show full story way more complicated + interesting. 1853: u. s. commodore matthew perry goes to japan and basically threatens attack if japanese don"t stop isolationism. Starting from then, japan forced to sign a bunch of unequal treaties w/ Had no other choice everyone else was technologically superior. Historian andrew gordon says that basically all of this made japan feel humiliated now japan was legally subordinate to a bunch of foreign governments. Helped to create modern japanese nationalism: it was a single nation, defended, and governed that way. Between 1900-45 nationalistic sentiments in japan spread like wildfire.
