[buwaya]

The other way of looking at it is the US would not have presented an implied threat to Japan, which would not have had occasion for a naval expansion.
A US-Japanese alliance was a reasonable idea in its time, had the US stayed within implied spheres of influence.

[knarf]

All of course, as implied in the essay ... up for speculation and no one can EVER know.

For me ... it is history I never knew.

I'm happy to read the replies of FReepers ... yuze guys are the BEST !

[T-Bird45]

A US-Japanese alliance was a reasonable idea in its time, had the US stayed within implied spheres of influence.

The isolationists of the time would have been given a lot of ammunition for their argument had that choice been made. Also, all this required was what was already government policy of ignoring various bits of barbarism in the name of imperial conquest in China and exterminating undesirables in Europe.