Before Pearl Harbor: Making the Pacific War by Robert Ditterich traces the subtle and peculiarly Japanese underpinnings of the war in the Pacific and challenges the “good war” tenets so prevalent in today’s historical analysis. Through scrupulous research and traditional narrative, Ditterich’s impeccable examination probes Western interpretations of the causes the war and offers a complex mix of cultural, historical, and geopolitical factors for the war that other viewpoints have missed. Ditterich masterfully negotiates the multifaceted chains of cause and effect that led to war in Asia, tracking Japan’s development as an industrial power and the Western impulses that played a major role in the creation of a militarist Japan. Told with a breadth of understanding rare in historical nonfiction, Before Pearl Harbor: Making the Pacific War challenges old assumptions and offers new insights into our not so distant past.

Context -- 1 Japan Confronted -- Imperialism -- The Optimism of Individuals -- 2 A Place In The World -- A Stone Thrown into the Pond -- The Importance of Micronesia -- The Beginning of the Inter-war Period -- 3 Managing Change: Structural & Systematic -- Training & Governing the Military -- Conscription -- Modernization & Rural Poverty As Factors -- In Conservatism -- Systemic Conservatism In The Control of Education -- The Emperor as Organ Theory -- 4 Dealing With Internal Turmoil: Democracy, Corruption, Media & Industry -- Media Independence. Managing & Enabling Unrest -- The media and popular sentiment -- Creating Strength in Industry -- 5 The Paris Conference, Wilsonian Idealism & Japan -- 6 The Washington Conference 1921-1922 -- The Washington System of International Relations -- 7 Post-war Liberty and the Left Looks West --The Left in Retreat -- The Anarchist Movement -- Fractured Politics and the Rise of a New Nationalism -- Pan-Asianism --8 The Beginnings Of The Showa Period -- Ultra-nationalist Momentum After 1930 -- 9 China Emerging -- America and Britain face the Rise of nationalism -- The Ishiwara Road to Manchukuo -- Background to the Manchukuo Incident -- The Creation of Manchukuo -- 10 Japan Turns Away -- Trade, Industry and Regional Power -- Changing the Guard -- 11 Preamble to a fuel war 1934 -- 12 The 1930s. An Unraveling or a Culmination? -- Russian Dolls in the Politics of Militarism --Flying the Flag and Folding the Parties -- Marco Polo Bridge -- 13 The Failure of Politics & War in China -- Mediation as a Tool in the Factional Struggle -- National Mobilization -- Konoe's Dream Team -- Undermining Ugaki -- 14 Complexities of Alliance -- The Tired Pendulum -- Attempts to Resolve the Issue of China -- Re-organization for a Crisis -- Konoe's Second Cabinet -- The Invasion, Or Not, of Australia: a slight deviation -- The Signing of the Tripartie Pact -- 15 Politics Straddling the Pacific -- 16 Harnessing Discontent & The Issue Of Fascism -- Making national policy from national discontent -- Fear Challenging Pluralism -- The Totalitarian Mindset -- Japanese Fascism, Corporatism or Unique Entity? -- European Comparisons -- 17 The Kyoto School of Philosophy -- 18 Views of America's Role -- Effects of The Tripartite Pact -- The Issue of Race -- China. A Moral Cause or an Excuse? -- Evaluating the Naval Race -- The Issue of Provocation -- 19 Embargo Or Energy War -- The Japanese in Indochina -- The Prince Konoe in his Own Words -- The Convergence of Opportunity and Danger, August-October -- Grew's Information about The Emperor's Order -- 20 The Negotiators & The Strategists --Hull's View of an Unchanging Policy -- Defensive American Policy -- Softening the Japanese Position -- Perceptions of US Policy From July -- Reconciling Conflicting Advice -- Amateur Diplomacy -- 21 Reconsidering the Non-negotiable, November 1941 -- The Last Day of Peace in the Pacific -- 22 Conclusion: Responding to the Whistle -- Author's Note -- Selected Bibliography -- Index