I believe I heard that on December 8, 1941, when President Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war against the empire of Japan one Senator or Congressperson refused to join the others in voting a state of war.
Did this happen? If so, who was the dissenter, and what was the reason? A fully committed dedication to pacifism?
Jeannette Rankin (R-MT) was a pacifist and voted against declaring war on December 8, 1941. She had also voted against World War I, although in that case she was joined by a number of other representatives.
If I recall correctly, she was not reelected in 1942.
Ed
From the wikipedia link:
I should point out that there was a large movement dedicated to keeping America out of the war, and these weren’t by and large pacifists.
The largest of these organizations, America First, was already in decline by Pearl Harbor, and within days following it it was dissolved.
ISTR that many Americans sided with the Japanese it their war with China, or else didn’t care one way or the other. Only after we were attacked did they become anti-Japanese.
Had anyone else heard this?
Well, there was the Taft-Katsura Agreement, in which the US and Japan both agreed not to interfere in each other’s colonization of the Philippines and Korea, respectively. I think most of the western world was more concerned about the Holocaust than what was going on in Asia during WWII, anyway. At least before Pearl Harbor.
Thank you. For some reason I thought it was a senator Borah of Idaho, but when I checked Wikipedia it said he died in 1940, which pretty much took him out of the running.
Why I thought of Borah, I have no idea.
I’m sure there were many who didn’t care, but I’m positive that the number of people sympathizing with China vastly outnumbered any siding with Japan. IIRC, Japan’s aggression from 1937 on didn’t win it any friends, and Chiang Kai-shek and Madame Chiang (FWIW) were featured as Time’s couple of the year soon thereafter. Americans of the time generally had a paternalistic attitude toward China.
The Rape of Nanking happened in 1937. It was well documented by Westerners living in the area. The massacre was known in the west. I don’t know what weight it had or how much play it got in the press. I could see how people might feel distant from the events in Asia but I doubt many in the west were sympathetic to Japan. The feeling against FDR’s sanctions was more out of isolationism rather than pro-Japan feelings.
IIRC, the Holocaust wasn’t really known in the western world until about 1942, and even then it wasnt a major topic of discussion until 1945 when the Allied armies started finding the German concentration camps.
The US was more interested in what was happening in Europe than Asia. America First was set up to stop us from fighting in Europe. Asia was below the radar for most Americans.
One notable member was Superman :eek:
It’s been so long that I heard this, that I don’t even remember if I read it, or saw it, or heard it. (Which is why I’m asking, of course.) I’m thinking there might have been some lingering anti-Chinese sentiment left over from the late-1800s. There was the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1889 (repealed in 1943) and the Johnson-Reed Act of 1924. (The Johnson-Reed Act was not targeted specifically at Chinese.)
Isolationism was concerned with keeping the US out of another European war. In regards to Asia, the US had a very strong pro-China voice in Henry Luce, who had lived as a child of missionaries in China and published Time & Life magazines. The Japanese had no qualms about committing atrocities, and Time was ready and willing to publish photos of them.
As for the Philippines, the US had planned to leave them sometime in the 1940’s, but known since the Russo-Japanese War in 1905 that they’d be targeted by the Japanese and so was doing everything to prepare them for that, right up to Pearl Harbor. The US Army would leave, but the US Navy would keep its bases for the remaining fifty years on the lease
(aside: the US Army kept it’s segregated Black troop in the Philippines, thinking them genetically better-suited to the tropics. All the Black troops sent to Europe in 1917-18 were volunteer units, while the Black regulars stayed in the Phillipines to defend them from our allies in that war, the Japanese.)
If my memory serves me correctly, I believe there is a statue of Ms. Rankin in the capital building in Helena. It’s on a landing of a stairway.
Being first counts for something, at least.
In Missoula, hippie capital of Montana, Jeannette Rankin is still a big deal! Statues, streets and buildings at the university are all named after her. You can buy all sorts of fair-trade knick-knacks and contribute to your favorite anti-war causes at the Jeanette Rankin Peace Center, who are currently trying to buy a section of hill to the north of town to rebuild the giant peace sign that loomed over the town during the 70’s.
Incidentally, some people claimed that Rep. Rankin’s opposition to both world wars was proof that women were too emotional to make such difficult decisions and thus were unfit for government. Luckily nobody can use that argument against a certain prominent contemporary female politician.