Playing the Devil's advocate here, America did have alot of investment in China from WW1 and onward, in terms of them being an ally(despite China's history at this point in time being, shall we say, colorful.)
To put another way, America is the reason China didn't get turned into another Africa in terms of being split up by European powers and colonized. (See: Boxer Rebellion.)
Also keep in mind that Japan at this point was also a pretty heavy hitter on the international scene, and just a few decades previous had tangled with Russia, of all places, and fucking won.
So, yeah. America would be invested in the area, and China in specific, because sunk cost fallacy is a major, major bitch.
I find it more interesting that the majority of Americans were full-on isolationists that had to be dragged, kicking and screaming, into WW2. Which, y'know, given the time frame, makes utterly perfect sense.
Pity we can't go back to those times. That would be nice.
Playing the Devil's advocate here, America did have alot of investment in China from WW1 and onward, in terms of them being an ally(despite China's history at this point in time being, shall we say, colorful.)
To put another way, America is the reason China didn't get turned into another Africa in terms of being split up by European powers and colonized. (See: Boxer Rebellion.)
Also keep in mind that Japan at this point was also a pretty heavy hitter on the international scene, and just a few decades previous had tangled with Russia, of all places, and fucking won.
So, yeah. America would be invested in the area, and China in specific, because sunk cost fallacy is a major, major bitch.
I find it more interesting that the majority of Americans were full-on isolationists that had to be dragged, kicking and screaming, into WW2. Which, y'know, given the time frame, makes utterly perfect sense.
Pity we can't go back to those times. That would be nice.