[norton]

Ireland was quite hopeful of Germany at least beating England into a position in which they could not overcome a mauser armed IRA.
(Ulster was different than Ireland then, now, and long into the past.)
At the time WW2 was building up, the 'two largest minorities' in the USA were British and German and then came Italians.
We had a pro-allies neighbor to the north and a generally pro-axis neighbor to the south.
(The one lonely mexican AF contribution to WW2 went to the Pacific - late.)
The US populace did not have just 'many who were anti-war' but virtually half who were pro German. (Kennedy family for one example and there is still debate over Lindberg)

If Hitler had been clearly winning in 1940 we'd very likely have remained much more neutral than your parents told you and likely would have turned to a poorly constructed Fortress America.

The Japanese did Churchill and FDR a great service (regardless of any conspiracy tales out there).

[AveMaria]

>>>>The US populace did not have just 'many who were anti-war' but virtually half who were pro German. (Kennedy family for one example and there is still debate over Lindberg)<<<<

That is one ugly aspect of the pre-war American right. There were many rightists who shared the view of Charles Lindberg, that the greatest threat to Western Civilization came from the Soviets and the Orientals (as Asians were then called).

They viewed Hitler's Germany in the same way they viewed Franco's Spain, as allies of the West against the spread of Communism and the so-called "Yellow Peril".

Such rightists would have sought detente with Nazi Germany.

[elbucko]

The Japanese did Churchill and FDR a great service (regardless of any conspiracy tales out there).

They certainly did. Can anyone imagine invading Afghanistan and Iraq without 11 September, 2001.