I've been reading Antony Beevor's World War Two book, and one thing he says I didn't know was that the US government was firmly expecting to go to war with Japan at some point in the 40s. One example he gives is that a warning about Pearl Harbor was not passed on, on the grounds that they'd already had plenty of warnings.
Was a war with Japan expected by the US public as well as the government in this period? Or were they perhaps aware of tensions in the way that the European public knew about the potential for war with Germany?
Public Opinion Quarterly published some surveys on the issue. The surveys of Germany go back farther than the ones on Japan, suggesting that involvement in the European war (something a majority of Americans simultaneously expected to happen and rejected as unwise) was something that was viewed as more likely than war with Japan. Still, as relations with Japan deteriorated, the public both expected and to some degree supported war with Japan:
"December 5-7 1941 (asked before the Pearl Harbor story broke): Will the US go to war with Japan in the near future?" The responses were: Yes 52%, No 27%, No Opinion 21%.
Similarly, in August 1941, Americans were asked, "Should the US take steps now to prevent Japan from becoming more powerful, even if it risks war?" Some 51% said yes, 31% said no, and 18% had no opinion or were undecided. When the question was asked again in October/November, the figures were 64%, 25%, and 11%, respectively. The American public knew we were trying to contain Japanese expansion and were willing to risk war to do so.