Do you think the US would have entered the war?

Question

If the Japanese had not bombed Pearl Habour, do you think the Americans would have entered the war? How would they have entered the war?

I also noticed a lot of things in this world today is pre dominantly American. PC, aircraft, finance,movies, television, space travel, etc.

Do you think it would be like that if the Americans did not enter the war?

Answer 1

Wotan, please check your history. WW2 did start years earlier - maybe in late 1931 with the Japanese invasion of Manchuria. This is sometimes referred to as the Mukden Incident. The major invasion of China by Japan was in 1937. Germany invaded Poland in 1939. But the US was NOT at war with any country until we declared war on Japan on Dec 8, 1941. Germany and Italy were allies of Japan and declared war on the US, and so we declared war on Germany and Italy on Dec 11, 1941.

If the Japanese had not bombed Pearl Harbor, they still would have invaded the Philippines, which was US territory. They still only had a 3 year supply of oil, since the US had imposed an embargo on them following their invasion of China. They had to confront the US at some point, or they would run out of oil and steel.

There are many "alternate history" science fiction books that are set in a world where the US did not enter the war. In 1962, Philip K. Dick published The Man in the High Castle, an alternate history in which Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan won World War II. In some versions, the Nazis conquer the entire world; in others, they conquer most of the world but a "Fortress America" exists under siege. Fatherland (1992) by Robert Harris, set in Europe following the Nazi victory, has been widely praised for portraying a more believable society and series of events than most other novels set in a Nazified world or Nazified Eurasia. Several writers have posited points of departure for such a world but then have injected time splitters from the future or paratime travel (for instance, James P. Hogan's The Proteus Operation (1986) and Michael P. Kube-McDowell's Alternities (1988)). Norman Spinrad wrote The Iron Dream in 1972, which is intended to be a science fiction novel written by Adolf Hitler after fleeing from Europe to North America in the 1920s. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and William R. Forstchen have written a novel, 1945, in which the U.S. defeated Japan but not Germany in World War II, resulting in a Cold War with Germany rather than the Soviet Union. Gingrich and Fortschen neglected to write the promised sequel; instead, they wrote a trilogy about the American Civil War, starting with Gettysburg, in which the Confederates win a victory at Gettysburg.

Answer 2

I think if you check your history, you will find that America had already entered the war: the war started in Europe, remember, not with Pearl Harbor.

The second part of your question is really rather academic: we were really drawn into the European theater reluctantly. And to have not then responded to the attack on Pearl Harbor, would have been unthinkable.

Again, remember, the Atomic Bomb did not become available until the wars end; so there was no real threat of global annihilation. We had to enter the Pacific war with Japan: we had no choice.

Wotan

Answer 3

Bush had to finsh what his father all started. This conflict is so stupid and has brought about many youthful harmless lives on the two facets. As an adolescent i will say that there is many non violent conflict protest taking place like in the 60's and 70's, that i've got seen on television. the drawing near adults are rejecting this conflict. good success on protection stress recruits, because of the fact there wont be many. We youngsters dislike this conflict plenty, I stay in Texas! the main republican state there is.Peace.

Answer 4

Eventually maybe, but it would have taken a similar event to draw us in...the germans had already attacked us shipping and even sank some of our warships ,by accident ,that were escorting convoys (U-boat captain and crew involved,recalled to germany and severely punished),britain was doing everything it could to make something happen to draw the US in against germany,but most americans favored isolationism,let europe sort out its own mess,we'd been in one of their world war messes and didnt want another..even after Pearl harbour ,we only declared war on the empire of japan immediately.

Answer 5

It was only a matter of time before FDR pulled the trigger and entered the war. The US was already shipping so much ammo and supplies to Britain and China, even supplying old warships. Pearl harbor only gave him an excuse.

Answer 6

It is pretty obvious that we wouldn't have entered the war unless we were attacked.

Yes America is obviously a large world power and influence at this point in time, but time changes everything.

The problem is that no one knows what it would have been like. I prefer not to think too much on things we cannot change or learn from.

Answer 7

Possibly not.
At that time one third of Americans had German ancestry and there was a lot of opposition to getting actively involved although Roosevelt was sympathetic to the British.
The American ambassador to Britain, Joseph Kennedy , who was the father of JFK was a well known Nazi sympathiser and expected Britain to be defeated.
Big American corporations like Standard Oil were happy to do business with both sides and of course G. W. Bush's grandfather was also trading with the Nazis.