Existing comment:
Peacetime Navy:
During the interwar years the majority of the US Navy was assigned to the Pacific, where the biggest problem was how to defend the Philippines and maintain the "Open Door" in China. Each year the fleet participated in a major maneuver or Fleet Problem, either in the Caribbean on in the Eastern Pacific. The US Fleet was based on the West Coast until 1940, when it shifted to Pearl Harbor. The smaller Asiatic Fleet operated in the Western Pacific and on the rivers of China. For over a century, the US Navy had the job of protecting American commerce in the Far East. With the outbreak of the Chinese Civil War in the 1920s and the Japanese invasions of China in the 1930s, this job became increasingly difficult. Between operations, ships visited various ports and lived up to recruiting posters which called for volunteers "to join the Navy and see the world." |