The United States And Japan

Their moment to shine came on December 7, 1941, “A date in which will live in infamy” as proclaimed by President Franklin Roosevelt the day after Pearl Harbor was attacked by the Japanese air force and navy (Roosevelt). But the Japanese badly miscalculated the psychological effect of their surprise attack at Pearl Harbor that unified a divided people and aroused the United States to wage a total, not a limited war (Stewart, 166). The United States was finally pushed

On December 7, 1941, one of the biggest disasters in United States history occurred. Truthfully, this was and is, “A date which will live in infamy.”(Costello), but for the trickery used by the Government and Franklin D. Roosevelt. To him this was a game of strategy and self-defense. Roosevelt sacrificed over 2400 American naval soldiers’ lives, thanks to his power as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. By over-looking the facts of an attack by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor, he was able to control both the political and economic systems of the United States. Most of American life before the Pearl Harbor bombing believed in the idea of not participating in political or economic relations with other countries. The only way United States countrymen would stand up and fight in what was know as then as Europe’s War.

Although Japan changed in many ways from 1853 to 1941, there were also many factors that remained the same throughout the history of Japan. One such continuity was the maintained existence of a figurehead ruler controlled by other political authorities. The feudalistic emperor of Japan was the supposed “highest, most powerful authority” in the land, but was actually controlled by the military leaders- the shogun. Similarly, the militaristic emperor of Japan decades later continued to remain a figurehead ruler controlled by military and government officials. In addition, Japan continued to remain reliant on exports in order to maintain its economy. As a result of Japan’s small geographical size, the island nation had few natural resources and was forced to rely on exports to survive economically. The nation also grew increasingly reliant on other nations to provide materials and supplies that it could not provide for itself. This complete reliance on other nations was seen illustrated when the Japanese military was provoked to attacking another superpower- the United States, in response to the 1940 United States embargo

As seen in Document D, 80% of all Japan’s oil was imported from the U.S. However, when Japan started to fight against China and occupied Manchuria, the U.S. began to decrease how much they would export to Japan. Because they were getting less and less oil from the U.S., they needed another way to get it. They began to expand down to the Dutch East Indies, which had plenty of oil, which created more conflict with the U.S. since she occupied the Philippines and the Philippines were in between Japan and the Indies as seen in Document B. In Pearl Harbor and the Coming of the Pacific War it reveals that it wasn’t until August of 1941 that the U.S. puts an embargo on oil for Japan. An embargo is when you stop trade. It wasn’t until 4 months later that Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. With limited supplies, they had to find a way to keep their military

When thinking of New York City, more often than not, the first things one visualizes is the beautiful skyline, the bright lights, and Times Square. But without a second glance, one might miss one of the important things about the city. New York is the most heavily Dominican populated city in the United States. It’s ironic that the first non-native American to migrate to and reside on what is today New York City, was from Santo Domingo, the capital city of the Dominican Republic. Throughout history, Dominicans have migrated to the US in search of economic opportunity. This is the factor that influences nearly every immigrant group that migrates to the US in history. In the early 1900s, The United States and the Dominican Republic had a very close diplomatic relationship, to the point where the President considered annexation. At one point, the United States completely controlled the Sugar industry, one of the country’s most profitable markets.

As indicated by Document E, its ambitious endeavor costed “several billions of yen” and “well over 100,000 dead and wounded”. In addition to the heaping problems, America began an embargo on products Japan depended on for success, starting with aircraft and aircraft parts in 1939 and oil in 1941, and freezing all Japanese assets and bank accounts (Document C). The termination of imported oil was undeniably the most damaging. Document D indicates that prior to 1941, America supplied Japan with eighty percent of its oil; Document E claims that by 1943, the military would have no petroleum to utilize. Two months after the embargo, Pearl Harbor was bombed.

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.

The United States was a powerful country, but Japan felt they were superior to the United States. Initially, Japan took over China for raw goods and resources. Japan and took control over China (Pearl Harbor Timeline). In 1939, World War II began between England, Germany, and Japan. America had not join the war in the beginning (Pearl Harbor Timeline). “The tensions between Japan and the United States escalated until the United States decided to place an embargo on Japan” (Jason, Justin, Randy, etc.). “The United States made new trade sanctions that limited how Japan could trade their goods. This was because of Japan’s actions in war” (Pearl Harbor Timeline). Because of the Japanese Empire need for oil, the embargo caused a breakdown of negotiations between the United States and Japan (Pearl Harbor

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

During the early stages of WW2 Japan withdrew from the League of Nations and invaded China killing over 100,000 civilians. Do to Japans actions, the American government slowly began to cut them off from their assets and sent them a warning letter saying America wasn’t going to turn the other cheek if these actions were kept up. Japan decided to make no efforts in changing their military strategy so we fully cut Japan off from American supplies in 1941. Now its hard to say whether or not America made the correct decision when cutting off Japan during WW2, it created a lot of tension and anger towards America from the Japanese. Japan began to plan a surprise attack on one the U.S. Naval bases in Hawaii called Pearl Harbor. The attack occurred on a Sunday morning December 7, 1941. America lost 2,000 citizens and soldiers that day. The next day Franklin D. Roosevelt (America’s president at the time) announced Americas entry into WW2. I believe that if America had never cut Japan off from their assets then the anger and hostility would not have been there creating a reason for Japan to attack America and without the attack on Pearl Harbor, America would have no reason to enter the war during the year 1941.

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 1940’s, tension between Japan and America was dramatically increasing.Japan had recently declared that there was to be a new order, and that they were the new world power. The United States did not like Japan’s motives and cut Japan off from their main source of trade and supplies. Japan bombed Pearl Harbor because America put restrictions on trade, America was becoming too strong, and Japan wanted to be the at the top of the world power.

On December 7, 1941, with Japanese attack on Perl Harbor, all debate over avoiding war and the policy of American isolationism was gone. It was the beginning of a great war that brought death, devastation and finally the victory and power to United States. At the time of Roosevelt’s appointment in 1933, historically crucial events were taking place in Japan, Italy and Germany which had to shape the future and the fate of United States. This paper studies and analyses the major factors which contributed to American success both at home and abroad during WWII in addition to world’s view about American participation in war and bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

“All is fair in love and war”, but what if the war begins by surprise, and the love is for a country’s ideals? These conundrums and countless others were forced onto America when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1841. Prior to the surprise attack, the Japanese forces, under the command of Emperor Hirohito, viciously began attacking the Chinese provinces in 1937. By 1940, the country had joined the Rome-Berlin Axis, cementing their place as an enemy of the democratic Allies. However, because America wished to remain isolationist, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt did not attempt to directly stop the efforts of the Axis of Evil. Instead, America decides to cut off oil trade with Japan, which prompts them to make the highly offensive move of attempting to take over the Pacific region between America and

In 1937, Japan invaded China, where many Americans had gone to be missionaries. Quickly, Japan seized much of Indochina and was planning on acquiring more (“History of Pearl Harbor”). The Japanese began bombing and hit a U.S. Navy ship. As a result, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt moved the Navy’s Pacific Fleet from California to Pearl Harbor to keep a better eye on the Japanese (Allen, 11-12). Afterward, a few of the Allies, U.S., Britain, and the Netherlands, ended all trade with Japan. Declining