This is more than a racial war on very simplicitic, you know, yellow and white questions. The japanese do not see themselves as the equals of all these yellow peoples in asia that they are freeing using my fingers as airquotes from their european colonial masters. They could have been fighting an anti colonial war against the colonial powers in asia. Left the united states out of it, might have saved themselves a loss in a war. There's a lot of reasons, including the philippines and what not, and a growing antipathy in the united states. So things were edging towards this point anyway.