WWII

<<I'm curious: What does the average American high school history book have to
say about the political situation before Pearl?>>

I don't know what the books say these days. When I was in high school, very
little was said about the proximate causes of WWII, other than Japanese
expansionism. It took me awhile in college (while working on a history degree
or two) to find out that American policy was almost deliberately provocative
prior to the war and left the Japanese very little option other than passive
submission or war (as you noted).

-- John I.