What if the war against Japan could have been avoided or delayed?

100,000 Americans died in the Pacific theater of WWII. James Bradley proposes it didn’t need to happen. Maybe the Korean and Vietnam wars could have been avoided as well.

He describes the disaster that happened and explains how it could have been avoided.

In the 1800’s the opium trade began to reverse the flow of money into to China back to England and America. It was outlawed in China but England and America used their Navies and the unequal treaties China was forced to sign to keep the trade open. Many north eastern American’s made their fortunes from the trade, including the Delano family, FDR’s Grandpa made a fortune while young, lost it all and then went back in his 50’s and made a bigger one.

Surprising how much of the money used to industrialize and create the northeast was from fortunes made in the opiate trade.

Americans began to believe that a New China would arise led by a Noble Peasant. Chinese who believed in Democracy and were big fans of America. This idea was fed and created by the Christian Missionaries who in reality had little success, then Mr Luce from the times magazine who fabricated many ‘facts’. And the New China Lobby. The Soong family who was educated in America, and particularly Chiang who was portrayed as the new leader of China. They ended up getting more funding then America spent on getting the bomb.

Cutting off oil to Japan led to them attacking us in Pearl Harbor. FDR’s freezing of Japan’s assets and limiting them to octanes below 87 should have allowed them access to oil from California still, but Acheson and others from the new china lobby bounced the Japanese from one bureaucracy to the next and effectively the subordinates of FDR cut them off from oil. Something FDR had said he did not want to do, but when he found out he didn’t reverse it.

Mao led the people rebellion taking land from corrupt landlords, giving it to the peasants and creating schools including schools for women. He was very popular among the people and made several overtures to the US. Stillwell in the military from the US was convinced that America was backing the wrong man by helping Chiang and ignoring Mao. Ambassador Hurley got Stillwell fired and a voice of reason was lost. As was an opportunity to have normal relations with China.

Chiang lost battle after battle with Mao, and in 1949 Mao won. America wouldn’t have normal relations with china until Nixon’s visit. What a lost opportunity to open a dialogue, to communicate and work together.

The book re-emphasized that you can’t trust the press, you can’t trust lobby groups, and you can’t trust officials or bureaucracy to truly have America or the worlds best interests at heart. Maintain your skepticism about everything you read and if you decide to create an opinion on a subject, support that opinion with facts from sources that can be trusted. Easier said than done.