Pearl Harbor Dbq Essay

Pearl Harbor is a United States naval base located in Hawaii that had served as a US outpost in the region of the Pacific. On December 7th, 1941, Japan led a surprise attack that resulted in a launching of 361 airplanes from six aircraft carriers. The Japanese destroyed five battleships, while damaging three battleships and two hundred airplanes. In response to this attack and the amount of American lives lost, President Franklin Roosevelt asks Congress for a declaration of war against Japan and Germany. This declaration gave the United States an initiation to the beginning of World War II. The question that many have asked is why Japan saw the need to attack the Pearl Harbor naval base. Americans still wonder and search for something that

Japan believed that the United States was a country that would interfere during the commencement of their “new order”, which lead them to an attempt to eliminate the US. The document from The Way of the Subjects states, “[a]n old order…(European and American)...are now crumbling” (Document A). Japan wants the given ability to be seen as a country that can be recognized as a world power that could have the ability to intimidate the old world order. The Emperor of Japan would be the leader that would be empowered of the “new order”, whose overall goal is to spread the ideals and beliefs of the Yamato race across the world (Document A). Continuing the commencement of Japan’s plan, they launched an attack on China and gained control of the country’s Eastern coast, as well as the an affair with Manchuria(Document B, C). Along with the affair of Manchuria and the Eastern coastline of China, the Japanese gained control of French Indochina in 1940 (Document B). Many countries took notice of Japan’s expansion of territory and attempted to become allies with

According to the Suzuki Akira’s chart found in Asia Kenyu, 80 percent of Japan’s oil was imported from the United States. Asia’s geography revealed that there were only a few oil fields located in Japan’s territory and that most were located on islands that the Japanese did not have control over. For the commencement of the new order to take action, Japan was required to receive an importation of oil from other places in the world, since the country was lacking its own resources. Hideki Tojo, who was the Prime Minister and the Minister of War for Japan, gave comments at the Imperial Conference and stated that, “...I fear that we would become a third class nation after two or three years if we just sat tight” (Document E). Tojo, as well as Japan itself, accused the United States of demanding only Japan to “renounce”. Therefore, Japan had a decrease in their military strength due to the oil embargo and the United States had an increase in their counteracts on