Why did the average American care about stopping Germany and Japan in WW2?

Question

I mean, its not like the average American lived over in those areas...

Answer 1

In early 1941, the USA placed severe economic sanctions on the Japan in order to leverage them into reducing their aggression in China. Japan and China had been at war in 1936, and there was a public outcry in the USA to do something to help the Chinese (much as there is an outcry today to help Darfur).

The USA imposed a ban on exporting petrochemicals and manufacturing goods to Japan. Since the main source of oil and raw steel for Japan at the time was the USA, it put a severe crimp in their military effort. I think the USA was content to allow sanctions time to work (sort of like they worked with Cuba?). Japan was faced with an oil shortage, and the naval fuel supply was down to weeks. The colonial powers had more or less abandoned southeast Asia and Indonesia because of the war in Europe. Japan needed to seize the oil wells in Indonesia to keep it’s fleet mobile, and knew that the USA would not allow it for a variety of reasons. It’s questionable whether the USA would have jumped into the war with both feet if not provoked by Pearl Harbor, but the destruction of the Battleship fleet at Pearl, followed by the loss of the Philippines, allowed the Japanese oil supplies to be relatively secure for at least a little while. If the Hawaii attack had gone according to plan, the USA would have lost three fleet carriers in the attack, which would have delayed our operations in the Pacific by at least 2 years, and given the Japanese plenty of room to solidify their position, and perhaps take out Australia. Fortunately, the carriers were not in port December 7. As it was, the Japanese guaranteed a strong, violent reaction from the USA.

In early 1942, England was hanging by a thread. German U-boats were strangling her. Russia was reeling from the first year of blitzkrieg, and was getting a break only because of atrocious weather. America had come to the conclusion that Hitler could not be trusted in any sort of negotiations, based on the outcome of the Munich Accords. Given that we do in fact speak English and not German (a near thing, I know), it seemed in our best interests to promote British survival. We had been sending supplies to England long before we went to war. England also owed us a lot of money, from WWI, which would have been a puff of smoke if England collapsed. Our banking industry had already taken a severe blow when the French debt was wiped out with the fall of France. To circumvent Congressional limitations on providing war materials to either side, Roosevelt invented the fiction that we weren’t giving military aid when he provided 50 destroyers to England. No, we were “lending” them; England was “leasing” them. This was the same fiction used to send war supplies to Russia, without which Russia may have collapsed in the first year, and England would have been facing the full might of the Wehrmacht (the German army was broken in Russia. Even at the height of fighting in France, 4/5ths of the German army were still fighting in Russia).

Hitler was quite upset with the Japanese for declaring war, because the last thing he needed was American industrial muscle making itself felt directly. Germany lived up to it’s treaty obligations with Japan and formally declared war on the USA on Dec 10, 1941.

The USA is a maritime power. To have German U-boats waging unrestricted warfare off our eastern seaboard would have terminated our commercial shipping industry, as well as shutting down the naval production capability of the eastern seaboard. It was vital to put that threat to rest. It was unknown if Russia could hold on, and opening a second front was essential. The allied powers correctly agreed that the major threat was Germany, and that the bulk of the US war effort would go towards defeating Germany before Japan.

Answer 2

Everyone has pretty much said it. the bombs were not ready when the European Axis was still fighting the war (Croatia was actually the last European Axis nation to surrender), and as John P put it, not even those two atomic bombs convinced the Japanese to surrender, it was the threat of a Soviet Invasion of the Home Islands that finally did the trick. Sure Japan brought the United States into the war, but had been at war with China since 1937, and attacked England and The Netherlands at the same time that they attacked the United States! I'm sure that there were more German, Italian, Croatian, Hungarian, Finnish, Romanian, and Slovakian-Americans fighting in the war than Japanese Americans, but it was more of a culture clash than racism in the conflict. Western soldiers would surrender to preserve their lives when a situation looked hopeless, but the Japanese had no such idea of self preservation (look at today's insurgents). So no, dropping the bomb was not racist at all.

Answer 3

Do you remember the line in "Spiderman" where the crowd says to the bad guy that if he messes with one of them, he messes with all of them?

Pearl Harbor.

That pretty much was the trigger for the average American.

edit - I thought the answer was self-evident, but from some of the other answers you are getting, perhaps what you were actually asking is the comparison between modern politics of war and the politics of those days. The "average American" still remembered the battlefields of World War I, or what they called the "Great War," since they didn't know they were going to have to be numbered in those days. As a result, many average Americans and the politicians they elected were reluctant to get involved in another European war. Many average Americans thought it was a European problem, and that we were better off tending our own problems. After all, the country was just coming out of the Great Depression. Pearl Harbor changed the thinking overnight because it was no longer a "European" problem. Americans were being attacked on American soil, and the public was incensed by it. When we declared war on Japan, it was a defacto declaration against Germany and Italy, since they were allies of the Emperor. However, another poster was correct in pointing out that our declaration was only against Japan. The next day, Germany and Italy declared war against the US, and we were in the war in a big way.
If you are really interested in learning about World War II there is a Ken Burns documentary on most PBS stations. It started airing last night, and the first episode talked about the feelings of "Average Americans" in quite a bit of detail.

The isolationism of the pre-WWII era was much more intense than the isolationism of the pre-9-11 world, because commercial globalism influenced contemporary policies, but like Pearl Harbor, 9-11 left Americans outraged and ready to "do something." What is best to be done has been a subject of debate since. I do hope that we don't go overboard into isolationism after the eventual withdrawal of American troops from Iraq. Whether the Democrats declare a stalemate due to civil war and withdraw or the Republicans declare victory due to reaching some yet cloudy milestone, we will bring them home. What we leave behind is going to haunt us for the rest of my life and much of the lives of my children.

Answer 4

The average American didn't care about stopping Germany and Japan until we were attacked. America was doing kind of a good business selling arms and food during the war. We were in something of an isolationist mode after the first war. Even after Japan attacked us we were not at war with Germany until they declared war on as they were allies with Japan.

Answer 5

Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. Germany sank American merchant ships to Europe with U-boats, or submarines. Otherwise, average Americans couldn't care less.


XR

Answer 6

Because we didn't want Germany to take over the world. The USA became part of WW2 after Japan attacked our Pearl Harbor.

Answer 7

1. The Japanese attacked the US.
2. Germany declared war on the US.

Two very good reasons for the people of the US to care about Germany and Japan in WW2.

Answer 8

Well with Germany it was to stop the Nazis who were trying to take over the world & with Japan it was the same thing including the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Answer 9

No, they just did what they were told. Times are different now. There are way more free thinkers now than there were then, that don't trust their government for apparently good reason. Remember Roosevelt knew the attack was coming at Pearl Harbor and Bush knew the attacks were coming on 9/11/01, he just didn't know where.

My father was drafted and served in Europe. He didn't want to go and wouldn't have if it weren't for the selective service (draft). He just wanted to stay home and farm.

Answer 10

They didn't care thats why it took Japan bombing them to enter the war but even then Hitler declared war on USA not the other way round.