Pearl Harbor Dbq Essay

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December 7th is a day that will live in infamy for all Americans, a day once filled with death, destruction, and desolation. On December 7th1941 a huge fleet of Japanese fighters, bombers, ships, and submarines converged and attacked the United States Navy at Pearl Harbor, resulting in the destruction or damage of 19 US Navy ships, damage or destruction of 347 planes, as well as the death of 2471 Sailors, and many more injured. At first it seemed there was no reason for Japan’s attack but after many years the United States figured out why they did what they did. There were at least three reasons why the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor; these include: the many United States embargos towards Japan, the rapidly growing U.S. fleet, and extreme Japanese …show more content…

began an embargo of airplanes and airplane parts; and after that in1941 places an embargo on oil shipments to Japan (Doc C). In the years 1937-1940 the U.S. exported about 3,000,000 tons of petroleum, and about 80% of all of Japans oil imports were from America, but in1941 when the U.S. placed its embargos it only sent Japan 880,000 which is significantly less than three million, which resulted in Japan having about2,590,000 less than their averages from the years leading up to the attack (Doc D). Also, in a meeting with the Emperor, Hideki Tojo, Prime Minister of Japan as well as Minister of War of Japan, said regarding the oil embargo, “Two years from now we will have no petroleum for military use. Ships will stop moving… I fear that we would become a third-class nation after two or three …show more content…

Navy and saw that as a huge danger to their Empire. Tojo, said in the same meeting with the Emperor, “[H]ow can we let the United States do as she pleases, even though there is some uneasiness?” (Doc E)This quote expresses Tojo’s obvious fear for Japan due to the monstrous U.S. fleet. The ideology of Tojo at this point in time makes sense, the enemy’s fleet is getting stronger and your military is getting weaker due to the lack of fuel, Tojo’s decision was to attack the biggest enemy strong hold, in this case, Pearl

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