ABSTRACT
The Second World War saw what were, at root, unrelated wars in Asia and in Europe being fought as one. This situation developed in one fell swoop with Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, but had arisen from the clarified delineation of allies and enemies that accompanied the Tripartite Pact in 1940, the 1941 attack by Germany on the Soviet Union, and the start of British and US aid to the Soviet Union. In addition, the United States both as a bulwark of the Western hemisphere and as a global power with Asian possessions in imminent danger, had become unable to remain an idle spectator in view of the possibility of the fall of Britain, which had already resulted in US assistance to Britain and de facto participation in the war in the Atlantic.
