Because of Roosevelt, we had interests in the Phillipines and other Pacific Islands. If we had stayed on our own continent, we probably wouldn't have given a flip what Japan did in the runup to WW II.
Okay, at least now I understand how you got to there from your statement. I think that this is a bit of an excessive extrapolation from too little data.
It might be correct, but I would have to give it a great deal more thought before I would agree that it was.
Yes, the Spanish American war gave us the Philippines, but if that was such a big thing to us, why did we give them up voluntarily?
Maybe our interest in stopping Japan hinged on our interests in the Philippines, but I'm not certain we wouldn't have intervened anyways.
I still don't see how you blame Teddy for us getting into WW1. I still see that as Wilson's blunder.