IN-PERSON ONLY: Collision Course: The Pacific War, 1898-1945

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Friday, September 25, October 2, 9, 16, and 23 1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.THIS COURSE WILL BE RECORDED.Register Here The Pacific War is usually considered a struggle between the Americans, eager to avenge the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, and the Japanese Empire. The conflict, however, was far more complicated and went back long before World War II. We will explore the collision course of these two Pacific powers from the end of the nineteenth century through the conclusion of the Second World War. We will explore their mutual quest for empire, overseas influence, and food supplies as well as their mutual mistrust, based on extreme nationalism, racism, and xenophobia. We will begin with Japan's industrialization and its search for overseas resources to power its economy and modern military. Then we will examine the concomitant closing of the American frontier and the American imperial ambitions of the Spanish-American War, which brought American influence to Japan's doorstep with the conquest of the Philippines. The First World War proved to be an existential inflection point for Japanese grand strategy. The major allies of the war rejected Japan's expansionist Twenty-One Demands, denying the empire territory (and food and metals) in northern China. A major earthquake, the financial devastation of the Great Depression, and ambitious, xenophobic Japanese military leaders weakened Japan's parliamentary democracy. Japan's invasion of China in 1937 provoked international outrage. The United States imposed a crippling fuel embargo on Japan, bringing the Pacific War to a precarious crossroads: Japan could either expand the war against the U.S. and other Western powers, or lose its overseas empire.Greg Tomlinson is a lecturer at San Jose State University, where he teaches courses on history, historical methodology, and writing. Dr. Tomlinson received his Ph.D. from Louisiana State University (LSU) in 2020. He conducted research in Munich, Germany, from 2015 to 2018. His dissertation focused on the Kingdom of Bavaria during the Napoleonic Era. Dr. Tomlinson's research interests are modern German history, eighteenth- and nineteenth-century European history, Napoleonic Europe, and the intersection of the Enlightenment, agriculture, property reform, and state-building in Bavaria and German-speaking Central Europe. Before attending LSU, he received his B.A. and M.A. degrees from San Jose State University. This is Greg's eighth course for OLLI@SCU, having previously taught courses on the Third Reich and Post-1945 German history; Parts One & Two of WWI; the life and legacy of Napoleon Bonaparte; the history of Jews in Europe; and Mussolini's Italy.