This was briefly mentioned in Theodore Rex as relations with Japan was an issue during his presidency (the racial restrictions on immigration and the anti-immigrant fervor in California at the time) and not to mention the war between Japan and Russia that President Theodore Roosevelt helped mediate and end (and ultimately won the Nobel Prize for). TR was very impressed with Japan's culture and their rise to power in the Pacific, while still being wary, as there were concerns that they would come to threaten US interests in the Pacific. See his remarks to Senator Knox here: https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/trjapan.htm