Japan's Attack on Pearl Harbor

Japan's Attack on Pearl Harbor

Shayna Dobbs

US History

On December 7, 1941, Japanese planes and submarines made a surprise attack on the United States at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The following day, president Roosevelt, with support of congress, declared war upon Japan. This marked the beginning of America’s involvement into World War 2. Japan bombed Pearl Harbor for three main reasons: The New World Order, US Oil Embargo, US Fleet Expansion.

“Japan times and mail, April 19, 1924” this was the Senate’s Declaration of War. This was an amendment to the Immigration Bill that took the Japanese race as a whole by shock. This was very humiliating for the Japanese this put a wrinkle in generations for that time and long after. The main cause for this was in California, the labor unions were against Japanese workers. The Japanese when they came to America there families started small businesses and then were passed down to the generations, and many were against that. The Japanese had felt as though they had been done wrong by the Americans. This starts the build of what leads to the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

The US was sending Japan shipments of Petroleum(oil), steel, and scrap iron from 1937-1941. This was because Japan had few oil reserves and produced very little of its own oil. The US provided around 80% of Japan's oil. The United States stopped all trade of oil, steel, and scrap iron with Japan on August 1, 1941. There was evidence that president Roosevelt was worried that this would affect the United States relationship with Japan, and that the Japanese would turn against the US.

The US Fleet Expansion, US congress passes the naval expansion Act. Which promises to triple Fleet size by 1944. President Roosevelt moves the US Pacific Fleet from California to Pearl Harbor. July 1941 the United States freezes all Japanese assets and bank accounts. Then in august the United States imposes an embargo on oil shipments to Japan. In two years the Japanese would be out of oil for the militaries use. The ships would stop moving. Then the Japanese thought of how the United States was getting stronger and the Fleet was getting stronger in the SouthWest Pacific, and the soon to be American Fleet expansion which was going to triple. The Japanese feared that they would become a third-class nation after two or three years if they did nothing. Then in December the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor,Hawaii.

Why did the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor? There were many causes to why the Japanese bombed us. The 3 main reasons is the New World Order, US Oil Embargo, and US Fleet Expansion. This may have been one of the many attacks on the US but this brought us about of the Great Depression and made the United States stronger as a whole.