There have been many attacks on the US throughout history. Some were minor, some were major. To think that the attacks were unexpected or unreasonable can be somewhat hypocritical. Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor was not something that just randomly happened, it was caused by the actions of the US. Before the attack Pearl Harbor, the US government began to make a number of restrictions on the business they made with Japan. In 1939 the US put an embargo on the trade of aircraft and aircraft parts being exported to Japan(Doc C). The US put this embargo on Japan a little after the Japanese had declared their “new order” policy. By establishing the embargo the US was getting involved in the war efforts against Japan. This meant that they were getting in the way of Japan's effort to create a purely Japanese empire in East Asia. With this embargo, Japan realized that they had made a new enemy. …show more content…
In May 1940 President Roosevelt moved the US Pacific Fleet from California to Pearl Harbor. In July of the same year the US Congress passes the Naval Expansion Act which promised to triple the fleet size by 1944(Doc C). This gives evidence that the US did not stop at a simple embargo on aircraft. It demonstrates that the US was keeping a close watch on Japanese affairs so that they could be ready to attack if they needed to. The Japanese were aware of the actions being taken by the US. They knew that soon enough they would be attacked if they didn't attack first. That is why they were just waiting for the push to start an attack on the
Considering the conflicts with Asia, the attack on Pearl Harbor was not surprising. The United States provoked the Japanese into doing the attack because of an embargo. Petroleum and metal were two resources that Japan did not have enough of. The United States received knowledge that Japan wanted to attack but just didn’t get to the issue in time. Japan was very dependent on the Americans, the two met on two different occasions to try and settle the dispute, but neither of them were willing to compromise.
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.
Europe and Asia had been engulfed in War World Two long before the United States was forced to join in on the Allies side. When the U.S. declared war on Japan, they had been dominating all throughout Asia in land, sea, and air. The U.S. navy at first where dealt a serious of defeats by the Japanese navy and all seemed lost. A single battle turned the tide of the war in the pacific and put the Japanese on the defensive. The United States began to push the Japanese back in a serious of major land and sea battles.
The planning for the Pearl Harbour attack by the Japanese had been in the making for almost as long as a year if Source B is to be relied on. It states that Ambassador Grew informed the US that Japan was planning an attack in January 1941. Source B also states that military personnel again issued warnings in February and July of the same year that an attack was imminent. Japan had spent months, by this time, systematically planning an attack that would enable them to travel over 4,000 miles and attack the US by surprise without detection. Most of the planning went into successfully co-ordinating the carriers and aircraft to within distance to strike.
They did not expect such a sudden and devastating assault. The Japanese had planned the attack in advance, as revealed in historical records. The United States had some ideas and guesses of Japan's intentions through a code-breaking operation known as 'Magic.' According to paragraph 6, "The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise, but it was foreshadowed. In 1941, America was attempting to check Japanese aggression in China through economic sanctions.
In July 1941 Japan became more aggressive and the U.S. takes action by freezing all Japanese cash and goods in the U.S. and cuts off all oil supplies to Japan. On December 7, 1941 Japan launched an attack on against the United States Naval base in Pearl Harbor (Pearl Harbor 9). Japanese planes were flying everywhere, guns blasting and bombs were dropping. It only took minutes for the skilled pilots to turn the harbor into a disaster. The Japanese flew so low that they could see the pilots from the ground(Pearl Harbor).
Tensions had been high between Japan and America for a while, and restricting trade between the countries only fueled the fire. “July 1941, The United States freezes all Japanese assets and bank accounts. Aug 1941, the United States imposes an embargo of oil shipments to Japan.” (Doc C) Losing America as one of their consumers caused the Japanese economy to suffer. Japan believed that this separation of trade was the United States preparing to distance themselves from Japan to make it easier for America to attack Japan.
Japan fought China for many years; in 1937, they launched a war to dominate the country, and by 1939, Japan controlled parts of Eastern China. As a result, President Franklin Roosevelt issued a warning by threatening a trade embargo with Japan if they did not withdraw from China. In February 1941, Mr. Roosevelt moved the U.S. pacific fleet from San Diego, California to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii as a further notice of warning to Japan. Japan continued with the occupation of the northern parts of French Indochina, present day Vietnam, in August of 1940. When Japan tried to further their occupancy to the southern parts of Indochina, Mr. Roosevelt ordered a freeze on trade with Japan.
In Bedford/St. Martin’s Press, Pearl Harbor and the Coming of the Pacific War, tells us that, “In 1939, the US begins an embargo of aircraft and aircraft parts against Japan” (Doc C). An indication of disapproval in Japan’s actions in invading their neighboring countries ; America stopped all military weapon trades to Japan. The government even imposed an embargo on oil shipments to Japan in August 1941, four months before the Pearl Harbor attack (Doc
Japan was more determined and stood their ground that they 're not going to back down. In the nineteen forties Japan was a belligerent country. In nineteen fourty one December seventh, over one hundred fire figther planes attacked the american military bases in Hawaii. It was tragic moment, the attack lasted about two hours. The presdient, Frankelin D. Roosevelt declared war on Japan, the Congress approved.
On the morning of December 7, 1941, the Japanese Navy carried out a surprise attack that injured and killed both military personnel and civilians on the United States Naval Base at Pearl Harbor. News of the devastation relayed to the rest of the nation. Despite strong isolationist sentiment during the time, President Franklin D. Roosevelt knew of a possible Japanese assault and used the attack on Pearl Harbor as a way to engage the United States into World War II. Although 75 years have passed since this incident occurred, there is controversy on whether President Franklin D. Roosevelt had the skills and knowledge to purposely allow the Japanese government/ military to attack to United States.
Roosevelt imposed economic sanctions on japan: oil, steel, and cropper metal. America also wanted japan to withdraw from indo-china. The Japanese wanted to take control of Asia’s economy, but the United States would not allow such dictatorship to take place. Japan wanted to clear the United States out of the Pacific to make way for the Japanese conquest, which led them to practice for over a year to reach their goal of an eighty percent hit on Pearl Harbor.
160 aircraft were destroyed and 150 others damaged. The attack took the country by surprise, especially the ill-prepared Pearl Harbor base.” This was the most tragic incident and the president made the decision to use common good instead of civil liberties. Additionally, Encyclopædia Britannica says, “Pearl Harbor attack, (December 7, 1941), surprise aerial attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor on Oahu Island, Hawaii, by the Japanese that precipitated the entry of the United States into World War II.” The United States was disappointed by the bombing and made big decisions without giving notice to the
First, the Japanese were inhumane. At the beginning of the war, America chose to stay out of the war. On December 7, 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. The United States was not prepared for defense because they did not think they need too. The Japanese attacked America out of nowhere.
In 1940 the U.S. only had three Aircraft carriers compared to the Japanese who had ten. The Japanese also had lots more modern destroyers and cruisers. Admiral Yamamoto first proposed the idea of a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in January 1941, but the plan was not approved and the planning did not commence until September 1941 (Hanyok, 2009). This sort of attack was not aligned with Japanese naval strategic thinking, which added to the Japanese radio intelligence strategies of denial-and-deception actions, helped the success of the attack. Through these techniques, the Japanese managed to fool the U.S. into thinking that their carriers were actually still in Japan and not en route to the Hawaiian islands.