1941.12.7, the peace in Pearl Harbor was broken by a cannon blast. This attack was the Pearl Harbor attack, which became one of the most well-known attacks in history. Many people believe that this attack is just a military action. The premise hiding in the back is Japan's constant aggression and their desire for resources, and the economic sanctions from America. These factors interacted and contributed to the escalating tensions between Japan and the United States, ultimately leading to the US declaration of war against Japan while the former was involved in the world war. Japan's expansionist policies significantly contributed to escalating tensions with the United States, culminating in the attack on Pearl Harbor. In the years leading …show more content…
To respond, the United States decided to impose economic sanctions on Japan. The United States' first economic moves against Japan began with what was called "moral embargos." The Department of State discourages U.S. airplane manufacturers from selling to Japan in mid-1938. Entirely extralegal and non-binding, this "moral embargo" succeeded in slowing the flow of airplanes to Japan; however, by this time, Japan had already stockpiled enough planes for itself that the action had little effect. This was repeated in 1939 with a moral embargo on the metals aluminum, magnesium, and molybdenum, to a similar effect. One good that Japan could not supply for itself, however, was oil, and Japan was California's largest foreign consumer of petroleum. The Roosevelt administration thought that squeezing Japan's oil supply could finally end Japan's aggressive expansion. In 1941, after months of failed negotiations, the administration began to draft an executive order that would freeze all Japanese assets in the United States, with the intent of stopping Japanese purchases of Californian oil. FDR's stance rested on two fallacies: first, no East Coast oil shortage mate- realized; second, even if the shortage was real, the difficulty of shipping oil from the West to the East Coast was great enough that California would not be able to supply all of the East