Without an American presence in the West Pacific, Japanese aggression would have been a threat to China and the European powers that held a colonial presence in the Pacific. Annexation of the Philippines (and Guam, for that matter) from Spain put the USA sufficiently far forward in the WestPac that it was ultimately threatend by Japanese expansion.
Even if we weren’t in the Philippines, Japan would have attacked us... They where upset is that we wouldn’t have given them oil and other materials. Plain and simple.
Oh bullcrap. The Japanese had designs on the Panama Canal for crying out loud. But I guess in your alternative world that would have been our fault too since we had no business building that canal in the first place, right?
The Japanese were not worried about US presence in the Philippines or Guam. They were worried about the US Pacific Fleet. Which, I guess in your world was also our fault because we shouldn’t have had a Pacific Fleet...
The Paulestinians are as bad as the Obamunists in your own way.