The text authors observe that “Japan negotiated with the United States

The text authors observe that “Japan negotiated with the United States throughout 1941. Instead of compromising, however, the United States asked Japan to withdraw immediately from Indochina and China”.

Why was the United States unwilling to compromise with Japan to avoid war?

ANSWER
Japan was demanding that the United States abandon Chiang Kai-shek, the anticommunist nationalist in China. Hull would not surrender the forty year Open Door Policy Japan was asking the United States to abandon. He saw that as a betrayal of a friend in the Far East and feared that it would be seen by others as an “appeasement” of Japanese aggression.