Dbq 11 Pearl Harbor

Imagine living in San Francisco, CA you’re a 12 year old, Japanese- American boy, you have black straight hair, round glasses, a small petite frame, and all your family were residents from Japan. On April 1, 1942, Lieutenant General John Dewitt from the U.S. Army ordered all Japanese persons, both alien and non-alien to evacuate San Francisco by a designated time. All Japanese-Americans were evacuated, loaded on buses and relocated to camps by the Western Defense Command and Forth Army Wartime Civil Control Administration. Executive order 9066, by President Roosevelt stated the internment of 100,000 American citizens of Japanese ancestry and resident aliens from Japan.

On September 1940, Japan signed the Tripartite Pact with Germany and Italy, entering the military alliance against the United States, also known as the “Axis”. President Roosevelt stopped U.S. shipments of steel and oil to Japan. Roosevelt saw Japan as a threat; and he restricted Japan from consuming oil in the fall of November 1941. Roosevelt hoped that this economic pressure would force Japan to end its military expansion in East Asia, and Japan wanted Asia to themselves. Japan did something that the United States was not expecting for Japan to do; they attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

The attack happened in the island of Oahu, located near the center of the Pacific Ocean, it was about 2,000 miles from the United States and 4,000 miles from Japan. Hawaii was part of the U.S. during this time; they had no idea that Japan was planning to attack Pearl Harbor. To the Japanese, Pearl Harbor was an easy target, and the U.S. was not expecting it at all. Japan won, and destroyed nearly 20 American ships and around 300 airplanes. More than 2,000 Americans were killed, and about 1,000 people were