History essay Using these four passages and your own knowledge, asses the view that Japan was driven into war with the western powers in 1941 by American policies.

The main focus on this essay is “Why Did Japan Attack Pearl Harbor?”. On a normal Sunday morning when the American navy units were busy doing their normal routine work, the Japanese navy planned a surprise attack that stunned the world. This attack was so unpredictable that the entire American navy went in deep shock. Very few of them realized the need to manage and control their position to save the naval power. All the staff and ships that were present at the Pearl Harbor suffered massive loss. Just a couple of hours of bombing gave the Pearl Harbor, a battlefield view with fire and smoke emerging from every corner. The attack left American navy at a loss of 2400 of her best men as well as 21 ships that were either sunk or completely demolished.

Portraying Japan’s notions of nationalism and desires for imperialistic gain, the attack on Pearl Harbour was planned,

In the beginning of this time period, around 1931, Japan disregarded our international treaty agreements. America did not approve of this and drew a cartoon criticizing Japan for these actions. This was shown in Document A. The same type of action happened between Europe and America in the year 1932. Europe could not pay their war debts and America reacted by saying Europe could not agree on anything else. This was shown in Document B. America could have handled this differently by being neutral and helping rather than being aggressive and saying they could not agree on anything else.

Roosevelt continues his speech by describing the nature and circumstances of the Japanese invasions. First, he claims that America was “suddenly” and “deliberately” attacked (para. 2). This informative diction works to convince the audience that the attack on Pearl Harbor was not by chance or by a rash

The first reason why Japan attacked Pearl Harbor is because Japan had different beliefs then America. In document A it shows that the Japanese are being educated that the laws and rules of American are crumbling. Japan believed that their laws are greater and superior of those who are not from Japan. This created hate on the other nations. Japanese also believed that Japan has the best source of the Yamato race. The Yamato race simply means the pure natives of Japan. This is making their race greater than anyone else. The last evidence in document A is that you have to be loyal to the Emperor no matter what you believe. All the Japanese are required to unite and serve one leader, making them different than America. Americas law and people are

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 the present, Japan is a military and economic superpower with strong influence. However, it was not always like this. In the early 1700s, Japan isolated itself from the world and greeted foreigners unfortunate enough to shipwreck in Japan with hostility. In the 1850s, the United States attempted to make contact with Japan to establish a treaty. The U.S. knew even though Japan was hostile, it was weak compared to a western power. Although the U.S. was stronger than Japan, it was nowhere close to being as strong as other western powers such as Brittan or France and was struggling to keep up. Japanese hostility, U.S. power struggles, and Japan’s isolation all led to the inevitable Japanese and U.S. conflict.

In fact, most of Japan’s problems were caused by the U.S. regardless of whether or not it was intentional. For example, when referring to the last two paragraphs, it talked about how the U.S. put an embargo on their oil with Japan, along with their aircraft parts which caused Japan to have limited resources. This, in turn, caused some tension which was added onto by more of the acts committed by the U.S. such as the Immigration Act of 1924, and the formation of the League of Nations. Besides the tension and the limited resources, there was also the fact that Japan wanted more land for their imperialistic interests. For instance, Manchuria, and China which Japan invaded with ease due to the U.S. being preoccupied with Adolf Hitler and the other axis powers. In the end, Japan clearly had a reason, if not multiple, for attacking Pearl

Jones, Sam J. "Japan, China, the United States and the Road to Pearl Harbor, 1937–41 -

(Doc C). Tojo was both Prime Minister and War Minister of Japan. He claimed that when he thought of the expansion of the American Fleet, “he could see no end to difficulty.” He feared that if Japan had just sat back and let America expand its fleet that they would become a third-class nation after two or three years (Doc E). This evidence supports why Japan attacked Pearl Harbor because it is clear from Tojo’s statement that the American military posed a threat to Japan as well as creating other problems by expanding our Pacific

Japanese plan of expanding and gaining power stimulated them to hurt America first before they

The United States certainly knew it was going to win the war against Japan by any means necessary. Many actions leading up to the conclusion of the war were brutal. I imagine that there might have been other ways to bring about Japan’s surrender without bombings that devastated Japanese civilians or continued military action resulting in exponential loss of American service men. Maybe I’m wishful. Is it possible that Japan related to American destruction of its country? Was it in words that Japan understood given its destruction of Asia? Perhaps, the only way to defeat Japan was to emulate some of its actions. I’m wondering how much of these policies were driven by American sentiments back home in the states. The propaganda machine most certainly instilled a level of disdain against the Japanese. This would be exemplified by the internment of Japanese

During 1941, despite President Roosevelt wished to stay neutral in WWI; on December 7th, Japan established an unexpected, (though perhaps to be foreseen) assail upon Pearl Harbor, hence the next day war was declared. Prior to Japan’s attack on the U.S; Japan had been struck by an Immigration Policy, embargos on aircraft and parts, a freezing of all its assets and bank accounts, and eventually an embargo on oil and petroleum shipments. The Immigration Act was a forge of shame and humiliation against the Japanese, causing them to become unable to purvey the Yamato race; thus began the first surge of aversion towards the U.S (first-page doc). Embargos on aircraft, parts, and oil would lead to believe Japan to become a third- class nation within two to three years if no action on the U.S policy was taken (as stated in document E). The propositions which were taken by the U.S preceding the attack on Pearl Harbor led Japan to hold a surge of execration, which became a wound Japan sought out vengeance for.

1. How does the author describe racism in America towards Japan in the Second World War?

“Suddenly, in the early morning of December 7… the carriers released their planes, each stamped with a red sun representing the Japanese flag, swept down on the unsuspecting American naval base… dropping torpedoes and bombs.” President Roosevelt described Pearl Harbor as “a date which will live in infamy,” and launched the neutral United States into World War II. As every AP United States history textbook states, Japan suddenly attacked Pearl Harbor. Yet each book fails to mention a comprehensive explanation behind Japanese motives, such as Japanese politics, nationalism, and the divided nation. Although Pearl Harbor had one of the most significant impacts on the war, not much was mentioned from the Japanese perspective. If the United States adhered to their policy of neutrality, given the exceptions of the Lend Lease Act, shooting German u-boats at sight etc., why would the Japanese illogically decide to provoke the US? Every coin has two sides, and I wanted to learn about Japan’s perspective, instead of accepting the simplistic one sentence explanation I learned previously. This book certainly did not fail my expectations, for it provided a timeline of the complex year for Japan, detailed the failures of the government, the warring government officials, and thoroughly explained the decision behind why Japan decided to wage an unwinnable war, further slimming their chances of victory by inciting the United States to join.