Historical Dictionary of United States-Japan ... - Bakumatsu Films

AMO – DOCTRINE • 37
American democracy could be preserved only by keeping out of the
war. Fourth, it argued that aid “short of war”—as the Roosevelt administration
was extending to Great Britain—not only weakened the
national defense but also threatened to involve America in war
abroad.
Over the following months, the American First Committee organized
itself into local chapters. By the end of February 1941, it had
some 650 embryonic chapters, and had distributed some 1.5 million
leaflets, 750,000 buttons, and 500,000 bumper stickers. It was going
strong up to the afternoon of the Pearl Harbor attack.
AMERICA–JAPAN SOCIETY, INC. The America–Japan Society
(AJS) was founded in Tokyo on 13 April 1917. Kentaro Kaneko, the
first Japanese person to graduate from Harvard University and author
of the Meiji Constitution, became the AJS’s first president. The AJS
is one of the oldest non-government, non-profit organizations in
Japan. Its primary purpose is to promote mutual understanding between
the United States and Japan through educational, cultural, economic,
social, and public affairs programs, and to provide a forum to
discuss issues concerning U.S.–Japan relations. The AJS also serves
as the headquarters of the National Association of America–Japan
Societies, which consists of 29 societies across Japan (as of October
2005). Moreover, the AJS has been active in promoting close relationships
with Japan–America Societies in the United States. See also
JAPAN AMERICA SOCIETY.
AMERICAN CIVIL WAR (1861–1865). After decades of contention
and compromise over issues related to the slavery of Africans in the
United States, many Southern slaveholding states seceded from the
Union upon the election of Abraham Lincoln in November 1860. War
began in South Carolina in April 1861 and continued until April 1865.
More than 600,000 soldiers and civilians on both sides were killed
during the conflict, making the Civil War the deadliest war in American
history. President Lincoln was assassinated by a Southern sympathizer
on 15 April 1865. See also GRANT, ULYSSES S.
AMŌ DOCTRINE. On 17 April 1934, the chief of the Japanese Foreign
Ministry’s Information Division Amō Eiji issued a provocative