WI Panay war

In 1937 Japanese planes attacked the American gunboat USS Panay in the Yangtze river. The Japanese apologized, claiming they hadn't seen the US markings on the ship. The Americans had however decrypted radio messages to the planes and they had been under orders while attacking the vessel and they knew it was an American ship. There was no mistake.

The US didn't act on this although this and the Allison Incident damaged US-Japanese relations. Suppose this evidence leaks and the US subsequently goes to war over the attack? What then? How does it effect WW2 for example.
 
In 1937 Japanese planes attacked the American gunboat USS Panay in the Yangtze river. The Japanese apologized, claiming they hadn't seen the US markings on the ship. The Americans had however decrypted radio messages to the planes and they had been under orders while attacking the vessel and they knew it was an American ship. There was no mistake.

The US didn't act on this although this and the Allison Incident damaged US-Japanese relations. Suppose this evidence leaks and the US subsequently goes to war over the attack? What then? How does it effect WW2 for example.

There was someone who did this on another page, including a VERY different WW2. Alas I cant find teh link.
 
Okay,

The short answer is that the isolationist movement is still too strong. When the attack happened, a lot of people argued for "This is why we shouldn't have any ships in China at all!", for instance.
 
But they knew that the Japanese were under orders and knew they were attacking an American vessel. Couldn't this have led to a more aggressive response if the info leaked to the public somehow. This is unprovoked Japanese aggression and I can imagine that the public might want revenge if the info leaks to them.
 
But they knew that the Japanese were under orders and knew they were attacking an American vessel. Couldn't this have led to a more aggressive response if the info leaked to the public somehow. This is unprovoked Japanese aggression and I can imagine that the public might want revenge if the info leaks to them.

Perhaps, but the response in OTL was to push for an amendment requiring referendums on going to war.

Not encouraging for jingoism. And it also requires the Japanese, who publicly apologized and compensated America, to be crazy.
 
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