I’m no apologist for the Japanese, but Theodore Roosevelt’s deal with the Japanese after the Russo-Japanese War in 1905 has to be included with any discussion regarding the Panay (and even Pearl Harbor). Japan never imagined they could beat the US in a war; they had to hope for a diplomatic resolution before they were destroyed by us.
“I’m no apologist for the Japanese, but Theodore Roosevelt’s deal with the Japanese after the Russo-Japanese War in 1905 has to be included with any discussion regarding the Panay (and even Pearl Harbor). Japan never imagined they could beat the US in a war; they had to hope for a diplomatic resolution before they were destroyed by us.”
That is a false statement. The individuals responsible for promulgating Japan’s strategic policies did imagine and specify the conquest (invasion and occupation) and defeat of the United States as one of its strategic objectives. This strategic objective was simply not envisioned by most Japanese war planners as a realistic objective for the immediate step of capturing and defending the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. The conquest of the United States was planned to be the step to be taken after the conquests of Manchuria, China, the Soviet Union, and Oceania or Oceania and Soviet Union had been accomplished. The negotiated peace with the United States following the successful defense of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, its defensive lines, and reorganization was to be followed by an assault upon North America. The assault upon North America and South America was to be with or without cooperation with Germany. Asia was to be divided between Germany and Japan along a treaty line in Siberia.