The first of the unbearable laws, as the Japanese might refer to them, was the Export Control Act. Under this law, the president was delegated the power to prohibit the export of defense materials as well as aviation motor fuels and lubricants, heavy melting iron, and steel scrap (Higgs, How U.S. Economic Warfare 8). Though not stated in its print, this legislation was targeted only at Japan. The U.S. had no business using this law against any other county. America did not heavily trade with the other Axis powers, Italy and Germany, so the only country this could be aimed at was Japan. This is the beginning of a trend we see in these laws that were never said to be against one country, but clearly reflected that. 3 months after the Export Control Act in October 1940, Roosevelt added to it by officially embargoing scrap iron and steel to countries to nations other than those in the Western …show more content…
From that point on, it was a series of misstep after misstep that led Japan to the shores of Hawaii that December morning. Japan's money driven leaders blinded them from seeing the future impacts of their decisions. It was not entirely their fault, early action on the part of the United States would have made Pearl Harbor nothing more than a bad dream. It was foolish to even think that the U.S. could pass severe legislation against Japan and walk out unscathed. The fact of the matter is that Pearl Harbor was clearly a preventable occurrence. Had it not been for the embargoes on Japan, they would have never been looking for oil in the Dutch East Indies, and they would have never felt the need to attack the U.S. in order to prevent them from being stopped. No matter how you look at it, Pearl Harbor was just the culmination of around eighty years of poor decisions, and if we could change history, Commodore Perry should have just stayed