American's and Japan's relationship in WWII!? Help!!?

Question

What was the relationship between the American's and Japan during the second world war (WWII)? Initially, before they were at war they were getting along, but not allies at all. How long before the war did this occur, and when? Why were they pretending to get along?

Answer 1

they have an uneasy relationship at that time because when Japan started to attack China, US cut off their shipping of supplies to Japan. with no enough resources, Japan will not succeed. japan decided to attack Southeast Asia but they also need to attack US because US has naval bases in the Philippines. of course, US have some negotiations with Japan to stop its aggression but Japan just tricked and pretended to have good relations with US.

Answer 2

at the beginning they were both neutral- with japan leaning towards the Axis and US towards the Allies

Both competed for influence in the pacific

a lot of the competition was in China- with japan waging a war there and the US supporting (indirectly) the Chinese. That war was (on and off) since the 1920's

they were getting along because no sane man wishes for war if they can get what they want by diplomatic talks. War happens when they run out of options- (unless they're communist, in which case war comes sooner or later anyway)

Answer 3

The US began mistrusting Japan when Japan began it's imperialist expansion in 1937. We were never allies, but we did have diplomatic ties before the war.

Answer 4

Actually, in a very real sense the USA and Japan were allies. In WWI both nations fought against the Central Powers.