Reconsidering the origins of World War II in Asia and the Pacific, this book focuses on the diplomatic and cultural interactions between the United States and Japan in the interwar period. Challenging as well as amplifying accepted interpretations, historian John Gripentrog argues that competing ideologies of world order—particularly the rift between liberal internationalism and Pan-Asianism—was at the heart of the conflict between the two powers. He also explores the US reception of the Japanese government’s efforts to legitimize its regionalist aspirations through soft power, and how these efforts ended up backfiring.