General George C. Marshall

The President of the United States had a strategic dilemma throughout the start of World War II. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was secretly aiding the British in their war against Nazi Germany. He did not want war with Japan, because it would prevent the full weight of the United States military and industry from being brought to bear on Germany.

As Japan was opened by the Admiral Matthew C. Perry in 1854, the United States was a nation of contradictions. As Perry's black ships were landing in Edo Bay, his nation was growing bitterly divided over the issue of state's rights versus national interests. Japan seemed very far off, especially to a nation that was centered on the Atlantic.