Pearl Harbor Dbq Essay

During the early stages of WW2 Japan withdrew from the League of Nations and invaded China killing over 100,000 civilians. Do to Japans actions, the American government slowly began to cut them off from their assets and sent them a warning letter saying America wasn’t going to turn the other cheek if these actions were kept up. Japan decided to make no efforts in changing their military strategy so we fully cut Japan off from American supplies in 1941. Now its hard to say whether or not America made the correct decision when cutting off Japan during WW2, it created a lot of tension and anger towards America from the Japanese. Japan began to plan a surprise attack on one the U.S. Naval bases in Hawaii called Pearl Harbor. The attack occurred on a Sunday morning December 7, 1941. America lost 2,000 citizens and soldiers that day. The next day Franklin D. Roosevelt (America’s president at the time) announced Americas entry into WW2. I believe that if America had never cut Japan off from their assets then the anger and hostility would not have been there creating a reason for Japan to attack America and without the attack on Pearl Harbor, America would have no reason to enter the war during the year 1941.

With the conceitedly decision by the Americans to force Japan to open its doors to foreigners and trade, a decision that turned out to be the first step along the path that was to lead to bombing of Pearl Harbor.

Japan during this time had high aggression towards China, because of this the United States sided with China. The Japanese were looking to gain a large amount of power during the 1940’s. The places they attacked, the Japanese were very cruel to the natives in that particular country. The Japanese brutality really upset the American public. The American people believe in what the government presents to them. The American officials responded to reacted to the aggression of the Japanese with multiple economic sanctions and trade embargoes. They believed that if Japan does not have access to money and other goods, including oil, this will decrease their chances of expansion to other countries. Both sides from America and Japan came together for negotiations but none of them could come to an agreement, so war was in the future.

Another cause was that the Japanese could not be overlooked in the Pacific even with the "Europe First" approach. First actions were defensive, was to protect areas that were not being used by the Japanese. The Japanese Aggression known as the Second Sino-Japanese War was an invasion which arose after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. This attack would become one of the superior conflicts of World War II as a main front of what is known as the Pacific War. The Great Depression had hit Japan's economy hard. Japan's military leaders argued that Japan could resolve its economic difficulties by expanding into other parts of Asia. The United States had refused to recognize Japan demands. To stop Japanese development, the U.S. forbidden exports of steel, oil and other supplies to Japan. Japan was focused on expanding; so, then the two binary countries debated so they can avoid a

The United States relationship with Japan was already tense; Japan’s attitude towards China was extremely hostile and aggressive. The United States and China had been allies, so they helped each other out. In 1937, Japan declared war China. In response, the United States cut of Japan’s oil supply and other goods. Without

The causes of the attack on Pearl Harbor stemmed from intensifying Japanese-American rivalry in the Pacific. Japan’s imperial ambitions had been evident from as early as 1931, when she invaded Manchuria. The conquered region’s bountiful resources were then used to supply Japan’s war machine. Leaving the League of Nations in 1933, Japan pursued an aggressive

President Roosevelt chose to cut off Japan as well. The U.S wasn’t the only one to cut of trades to japan so did Germany, due to the invasion of Russia. Roosevelt took out the last of Japan’s major trading partners. Japan struggled with finding resources to keep their country alive they were angry because they had nowhere to go, but the U.S. knew if they stopped all oil it would lead to war which they did not want so they granted licenses to export and pay for oil, but for other resource America froze completely. Leaving Japan in the hands of America. Secondly, the U.S. was known for having the largest naval force there was. Which made all enemy countries jealous of always being the underdog to America. Japan wanted to expand further in the Pacific but when Roosevelt moved the US Pacific fleet from California to Pearl Harbor it put a hold on Japans plan. The U.S. knew that with the fleet moving would bring war between Japan and America but it was all the question of who would start it?

This is why it was such a world event when Pearl Harbor was attacked. It was one of America’s strongest bases. Japan was trying to take over China and the only country able to stop this from happening was the United States. So Japan had to think of a way to prevent the U.S. from joining the war. They figured by bombing Pearl Harbor they would be successful. At the time of Pearl Harbor, the United States was a neutral country, but was backing up the Allies. They were also supplying Japan with scrap iron, fuel and steel, all of which are important essentials of war. The U.S. stopped this, which in turn angered the Japanese. That was a main reason for Pearl Harbor.

Before World War II had taken place, Japan and China had started to fight against each other, thus leaving the United States in the middle of the two countries at war. Craving to have relations with China, the United States aided the Chinese against Japan. Japan was not too pleased of the United States backing of China. “The United States was the main supplier of the oil, steel, iron, and other commodities needed by the Japanese military as it became bogged down by Chinese resistance but, in January 1940, Japan abrogated the existing treaty of commerce with the United States.”

Japan’s growing nationalism and imperialism scooped the nation up to its feet, In 1931 “Japan launched its first plan by invading Manchuria, Manchuria was the first step in Japan’s imperial expansion” (Work Cited 2). On 1937 Japan launched a full scale war on China. The U.S started transporting resources to China and cutting off export of raw materials and oil to Japan, moves clearly intended to oppose Japan’s expansion. The embargo was seen as a serious threat to Japan’s goals of imperial expansion and to overcome this obstacle Japan began to conquer Asian Pacific territories that were rich in raw materials and oil. “Almost 70 percent of the country’s supply of zinc and tin, 90 percent of its lead, and all of its cotton, wool, aluminum, and rubber had to be imported from other countries” (John F.

Japan, after winning against the weak fleets of Russia, the felt powerful over the years. Having dominance over some countries. But what was her deal with the U.S.? To start, Japan increased the need of natural resources including Oil, Minerals, & Steel. This also came with their goal of expansion increasing. But, the problem with this want for resources is that when the U.S. found

The focus of this investigation will be “To what extent was the trade embargo by the USA responsible for Japanese military actions in 1941?” which will analyze the actions taken by US to hinder the expanding power of the Japanese and evaluate how these actions provoked by US affected Japan to the point where they launched a full invasion on US Pearl Harbor. Thus, the Memorandum For The Director, the memorandum written by McCollum Memo on October 7, 1940 given to FDR and the article, How U.S. Economic Warfare Provoked Japan’s Attack on Pearl Harbor by Higgs Robert are sources of particular value to this investigation, due to the information and thoughts they provide on the actions US take against Japan and Japan’s condition either through first-hand

Since 1930 the Japanese conquests with the Chinese had cause ever increasing friction with the US. From the early 1940s America had banned exports of strategic materials such as scrap iron and metal to the Japanese Empire, then in 1941 they lead and oil embargo and froze all of the Japanese assets. This had huge effects on the Japanese Empire as they imported 90% of their oil. Because of this the Japanese leadership made the decision to invade and take over neighbouring territories and take their resources which Japan lacked. But before this could be done they faced a great and powerful obstacle, the American naval fleet at Hawaii’s Pearl Harbour. And thus this lead to Japan’s attack on Pearl

Pearl Harbor was huge, so where the causes. First of all, Japan wanted their empire to be all across the Pacific Rim. That couldn't happen because they were part of the Axis powers which helped Adolf Hitler. So in return, we put embargoes and sanctions against them. That made them mad, that is where most of their oil came from. Lastly, we were not prepared if they attacked.

December 7, 1941 began the attack on Pearl Harbor and gave the United States no other choice but to join the war, but the background relationship began in the 1850’s, when Japan was forced to open their doors to Western Imperialism. After this Japan began to copy the Western Imperialism and Nationalism and grew very rapidly towards an advanced society. There were two wars that were of significance during this time the Sino-Japanese war, and the Russo-Japanese war.