Pearl Harbor Dbq Essay

‘We have only awoken a sleeping giant.’ That is what is believed that one Japanese official told another minutes after the attack on Pearl Harbor on 1941. On a sunny Sunday morning, December 7, 1941, the Empire of Japan carried out a surprise attack on the U.S Pacific fleet in Hawaii. After a few hours, more than 3000 Americans were killed, almost 300 U.S planes destroyed and several U.S destroyers and ships as well. This was the event that finally caused the U.S to join the fight against the axis powers in WWII. Yet, one wonders why the Japanese, such a small country would even attack in the U.S? The Japanese decided to attack Pearl Harbor in 1941 because it wanted to stop growing U.S military presence from expanding in the Pacific. They

Japan had made it known by 1938 that they wanted to be ranked as a first rate nation, above the U.S and Great Britain. (Doc. C, A). In order to do this Japan needed to be free to capture china and all the islands in the Pacific. However, the U.S protested to Japanese aggression and started getting military prepared to stop it. The U.S congress voted to triple its naval fleet in 1940. (Doc C) Because of the U.S military presence building in the Pacific, Japan was worried that the U.S could possibly use their forces to attack Japan in order to try to stop them. So, the Japanese believed it needed to cripple the U.S navy early on so they could continue to gain

(Doc. C) With this being said japan was furious in the action the U.S took because they need money for the war which would then meet their goal of controlling Asia. As stated in document E, Japan needed the money that the United States has frozen to pull their troops out of China. Japan needed much of its money to a great amount of things, Japan had already lost a lot of money for the war, freezing the money would cause greater impact for them. Moreover Japan is also increasing tension to the U.S and start seeing the U.S as an enemy, Japan and the U.S have very distant point of views and causes them to not agree on any decision they make therefore, it causes arguments through both countries. Japan was getting furious and furious as the U.S would keep stopping them which made Japan want revenge to bomb something that meant a lot to the United States and chose pearl Harbor where most of the Naval base