Prepare For “East Wind, Rain”. I, Navy Minister Sankichi

Prior to Pearl Harbor, Japan started to create an empire that especially did not want to be manipulated by the United States. Steven Hook, the author of “U.S. Foreign Policy: The Paradox of World Power,” mentions that “With French and Dutch colonies in East Asia up for grabs, Japanese leaders knew that only the United States stood in the way of their plan to create a Japanese-led ‘co-prosperity

Starting in the early 1930’s, the Japanese began to display their great imperialistic dreams with ambition and aggression. Their goal was to create a "Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere" where they controlled a vast empire in the western Pacific.1 In September of 1939, Japan signed the Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis Treaty, allying themselves with Germany and Italy in an effort to safeguard their interests in China from the Soviet Union. Japan’s only major obstacle left lay in the significant size of the United States Pacific Fleet. To rid themselves of this, Japan attacked the United States Pacific Fleet in hopes of crippling it enough to prevent any further hindrance from the

Over the span of a few decades, the Japanese and Americans were as is, heading towards war due to a varying amount of disputing between the two. In the 1930’s, Japan invaded China. This caused an uproar between the two countries at the time. This was one of the first few sparks to the flame. In order to create the perfect Yamato race, the Japanese felt that there was more validity if there were no one to stop them, (Document A). Destroying the Pacific fleet was the goal so they could expand and imperialize the world around them. America, being one of their main oil producers, made them the perfect target. Leading up to the attack, America placed an embargo on Japan, (Document C). Japan wanted to destroy the Pacific Fleet to gain oil and continue imperialization to obtain the perfect Yamato

The tension between the United States and Japan all began over the differences of China back in the 1930’s. The country of Manchuria, which was then a part of China, was conquered by Japan. Instead of stopping there, Japan wanted more; they wanted all of China. So in 1940, the government of Japan made an alliance with Germany. The following year, the Japanese government took over Indochina.

relentlessly. Although Japan and the United States had been allies in World War I, and the United

The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise, but Japan and the United States had been edging toward war for decades. The United States was particularly unhappy with Japan’s increasingly belligerent attitude toward China. The Japanese government believed that the only way to solve its economic and demographic problems was to expand into its neighbor’s territory and take over its import market; to this end, Japan had declared war on China in 1937. American officials responded to this aggression with a battery of economic sanctions and trade embargoes. They reasoned that without access to money and goods, and especially essential supplies like oil, Japan

…nevertheless the future outlook for further dangerous incidents was anything but serene. On the one hand, the ability of the Tokyo Government to control the action of the Japanese forces in China in jeopardizing American life, interests, and property is negative. On the other hand, I cannot conceive that with all our pacifist tendencies and longing for peace the patience of our people under cumulative insult is inexhaustible.6

Roosevelt during this time period ordered restrictions on shipments of oil,metal, and fuel (McNeese, 102). Japan itself made very little oil, not enough for their country to live off of, so as soon as Japan finds out about this restriction on oil they want to take action. Not long from the restrictions the U.S. freezes all Japanese assets in the U.S. because Japan has taken over all of Indochina (Rice, 17). The Japanese couldn't have been more angry with the lost of their oil supplies, things got even worse when the U.S. froze all of Japan's assets in the U.S. Japan sees only two choices to remove troops from China like the U.S. would like them to or to stay at war with China and risk war with the U.S. (Rice,17). Japan of course takes the second option and plans the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. Japan was angry with the decisions the U.S. made that affected them causing them to attack Pearl

In the late 1890s, tensions between China and Japan were growing. China’s power was growing into the early 1900s as it converted to Nationalism. Japan felt the need to expand and conquer because they had been forced into the modern age by the United States, and they believed it was their destiny to exert government over other nations (Chang 23-24). The Japanese felt the need to do something before China became “too powerful to be conquered” (Chang 28-29). This put Japan on the path to war with China (Chang 25).

This made Japan uneasy as the U.S. could become a threat in later years. Japan expressed it’s worries appointed towards the United States by stating “‘When I think about the strengthening of American defenses in the Southwest Pacific...I see no end to

"In anticipation of possible open conflict with this country, Japan is vigorously utilizing every available agency to secure military, naval and commercial information, paying particular attention to the West Coast, the Panama Canal and the Territory of Hawaii," stated the 26-page memo.”

Japan and America have been butting heads for awhile. When Japan was struggling economically, they thought gaining more territory would be the answer. Because of this, Japan declared war on China. This

On that contrary, this pushed Japan and gave them more motivation to fight for what they were doing and stand their ground. Eventually Japan made the decision to attack us first. Which was the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Looking further into the conflict between the United States and Japan, we see that tensions dated back to at least the 1920s. The conflict between the two nations began to heat up in the 1930s when Japan invaded China. The United States was supporting China in their war against Japan. The Second Sino-Japanese war was one of a few background conflicts between Japan, China, Russia, Germany and Western Powers over dominance in the Asian Pacific region. While American, British and Dutch colonies were being established in the Asian Pacific region, the Empire of Japan was increasing its power.

Both Japan and China lie in the East of Asia. ‪To a certain extent，Japan and China own similar culture background, in the Confucian Cultural Circle. But when we look back into the modern history development, Japan and China made quite different decisions when facing the western countries’ aggression. China suffered the invasion in 1840 after the first Sino-British War. Japan was in a similar situation in the black boat incident in 1853, the Opium War made the West began to pay attention to East Asia. From then on, Japan began to face the western culture. ‬The reactions, as well as the result of Japan and China were quite disparate. This article wants to discuss what lead to the difference. ‬‬