Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor seems unwise, ill-judged, and senseless. The attack was meant to keep the U.S. out of the war, but had the opposite effect and instead made them want to fight and join it. Japan, at this time, was not a major power and having them attack one of the biggest major powers by bombing the U.S. naval base in Hawaii didn’t appear like an appropriate idea for them. Then why did they do it? Japan’s reasons for attacking Pearl Harbor was their plan for a ‘new’ world order, the U.S. oil embargo, and the relocation and expansion of the U.S. naval fleet.
Many Japanese leaders and citizens believed that the way the world was functioning was quickly crumbling. In an excerpt from The Way of the Subjects by the Japanese Ministry of Education they refer to this as ‘An old order’ and believed that Japan could rebuild this as the ‘New order’ with the world under Japan’s rule (Doc A). What this is talking about is how major world powers such as England, the U.S., and France seemed to control the world’s trading and how
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As seen in Document D, 80% of all Japan’s oil was imported from the U.S. However, when Japan started to fight against China and occupied Manchuria, the U.S. began to decrease how much they would export to Japan. Because they were getting less and less oil from the U.S., they needed another way to get it. They began to expand down to the Dutch East Indies, which had plenty of oil, which created more conflict with the U.S. since she occupied the Philippines and the Philippines were in between Japan and the Indies as seen in Document B. In Pearl Harbor and the Coming of the Pacific War it reveals that it wasn’t until August of 1941 that the U.S. puts an embargo on oil for Japan. An embargo is when you stop trade. It wasn’t until 4 months later that Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. With limited supplies, they had to find a way to keep their military
Instead of giving into the United States demands, the Japanese had decided to finally put their surprise
The last and final reason is that Japan thought America would crumple their power and also attack them first. Japan thought that America had the means and potential to attack them first so they wanted to get out their first and prevent an attack on their end. In closing there are many reasons as to why Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. It was a surprise attack that has left many americans still in shock and confusion to this
Japan felt humiliated when the U.S. cut-off all of its resources in the states. The U.S. was one of Japan’s biggest providers of oil. Almost 80% of their oil came from the U.S.(Doc D) Due to the Japanese advances in China and the U.S.’s want to stay out of the war, the United States thought it would be best to do an embargo of Japan.(Doc C). Japan does not produce
Hideki Tojo, the Prime Minister and War Minister of Japan, didn’t like the U.S. expansion at all. He said, “When I think about the strengthening of American defenses in the Southwest Pacific, the expansion of the American fleet, . . . I see no end to difficulties. . .” (Doc E). Tojo was frightened of what the United States might have planned since they had expanded their naval fleet. He feared Japan “. . . would become a third-class nation after two or three years. . .” (Doc E). He feared those things would become true if they just sat tight and didn’t take any action against the United States. Japan had already taken many acquisitions throughout Asia, so they wished to continue to expand their territory. Japan feared the continuation of the status quo, so they wanted a major change. That is also a part of why Japan attacked Pearl Harbor.
December 7, 1941, was one of the worst attacks on the United States in U.S. history. Of that day 2,403 soldiers were killed in action, 1,178 were wounded in action. Numerous U.S. armed forces personnel were misjudged, which allowed the Japanese to carry out this terrible attack. Not only did the Japanese hit the U.S. where they knew it would hurt the most, but it crippled the United States’ entire Pacific Fleet.
This stated in document D and when it says that 80% of Japan's oil came from America. This is important to notice because Japan is especially in need of oil since they are in a middle of a war and they need fuel for all their ships and aircraft. Also, including in the embargo, Japan didn't have any steel or scrap iron coming from America. This created even more tension between the two countries. America didn't like Japan's side during World War II because they supported Hitler, so they stopped all exports. Japan attacked Pearl Harbor because America was interfering with their fighting in the
During this time, Japan believed that they were superior to all other races, and that this allowed them to extend their rule over all other countries (Doc A). This lead them to occupy other neighboring regions, like Manchuria and French Indochina (Doc B). America did not agree with Japan's imperialist behavior, so they began to put embargos in place and froze Japanese assets. Japan was angered by this, as the Americans were willing to do what needed to be done to keep the Japan from becoming an imperialist empire. The Japanese were determined to spread their power throughout the world, so they viewed the bombing of Pearl Harbor as a way to keep the Americans from being able to stop
In Document B the map shows that Japan had little to no oil fields. So Japan must have been getting oil from somewhere else because they could not have possibly made the amount of oil that they needed on their own. In Document D the chart says that about 80% of Japan's Petroleum was from shipments coming in from the US. They needed the US to supply their oil or they would have virtually none. Lastly, in Document E Hideki Tojo said at the Imperial Conference that if the US does not ship them oil they will run out within 2 years and not have any for military uses and the military ships will not be able to run. Japan was angry at the US for not sending in the shipments of oil to help supply their
The United States did not want the British controlling all of the trade in the Asian countries which in return, make the British even more powerful. So, the United States decided to spread its influence to Japan, as it was one of the few Asian countries that was not controlled by the British. Japan was weak because of its isolation and it was next to china so the U.S. would be able to participate in trade easier in the Asian region. The U.S. wanted to control Japan to gain many of its benefits, which are “The combination of it, advantageous geographic position and rumors that Japan held vast deposits of coal increased the appeal of establishing commercial and diplomatic contacts with the Japanese.” (Office of the Historian) The Japanese islands were just about everything the United States needed; the perfect geographic position, land in Asia, and a possible abundance of fuel. The U.S. was in need for more power and wanted to spread its influence to Japan in order to gain benefits. Japan was weak due to isolation and had no choice but to agree to what the United States wanted.
oil embargo against them. It could be seen as a threat to them. The embargo first started in 1939 with aircrafts and aircraft parts, and then the oil embargo occurred in 1941 (Doc C). This was a major problem for Japan because around 80 percent of their oil came from the United States (Doc D). Japan was increasingly worried and predicted they would have, “no petroleum for military use,” after two years (Doc E). The oil embargo was a major issue for Japan and contributed to their anger for the United
One contributing factor towards the bombing of Pearl Harbor was Japan’s desire to be recognized as a world power. This is explicitly expressed in Document A, which states, “The ideals of Japan… are represented by the principle that the benevolent rule of the Emperor may be extended so as to embrace the whole world. The way of the [world] is to be loyal to the Emperor in disregard of self… ” This idea was not a mere suggestion, but rather it was a plan. Proven by Documents B and C, Japan managed to occupy nearly all of East Asia’s coast and “declare its policy to establish a new order” in the span of approximately five years.
Introduction The Second World War had been fought between the Axis nations (Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Imperial Japan and their smaller allies) and the Allied nations, led by Britain (and its Commonwealth nations), the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the United States of America (Source D). The war changed many things internationally. This included changes to do with technology and the end of European colonialism (Source D).
Yet, this only made Japan more interested in keeping up the flow of imported oil from surrounding areas so that they didn’t have to depend on the U.S. Going back to document C, in May 1940, President Franklin Roosevelt moved the U.S fleet from California to Pearl Harbor and in document B we can see that after the attack Asian countries with oil were under Japan’s rule. Therefore, we can infer that Japan wanted to get rid of the navy/fleet so that they are able to continue taking over other
was definitely influenced. A shown in Document D,about 80% of Oil of Japan received in 1937
Clearly, Japan wanted more power during World War II. Japan believed Europe and America dominated across the globe for too long. Japan became jealous and wanted to be as powerful as these nations. They decided to establish a policy titled the “New Order”. Japan hoped to spread their reign across the world, however The United States did not appreciate this. Document A explains, “The benevolent rule of the Emperor may be extended so as to embrace the whole world”. Japan wants to control other countries around the world. America does not agree and decides to freeze their assets and bank accounts to hopefully stop Japan’s power strides. Instead of accepting America’s demands, they decided to bomb Pearl Harbor in retaliation to prove their brutality to the rest of the