ABSTRACT
The Pacific War has a central place in the history of the twentieth century. Like any other event of comparable magnitude it has its antecedents in history, which are examined in this chapter. Subsequently, an attempt is made to explore the growth of different perceptions between East and West through centuries of intermittent contact. The war begins a generation after the end of the American Civil War and after the Meiji Restoration in Japan. The structure of Japan's pre-war political system is worth reviewing in order to analyse an important source of the lack of control over national policy-making in a crisis, which derived from some of the characteristics of the political structure itself. The traditional conflict became more serious after the revision of the document entitled 'Directives for Japan's National Defence' in January 1923. Divisions in the Japanese government were paralleled by divisions in the American system.
