Pearl Harbor Dbq Essay

The four islands of Japan launched an attack on America, a country over double their size and population, on December 7th, 1941. Why would Japan make such an attack on a country as large as America? In the past, Japan had many victories with other large countries such as China. The United States, at the time, was mostly neutral World War II, and this bombing on one of their large naval bases pushed them into the war. By this time Japan was just starting to come out of the shadows of China's legacy and started to meet the status quo of the important countries. Singing the Tripartite Pact helped show who Japan's real allies were. Japan and America were not in complete agreement on how some of their affairs were handled; however, it was a multitude

Pearl Harbor was only about 5,000 miles from Japan, to close for comfort for Japan's military. Not only was the naval base close; additionally, it was growing. “ July 1940, US Congress passes Naval Expansion Act that Promises to triple fleet size by 1944” (Doc C) Japan was worried that the reason the United States navy was growing, doubled with other things were undertaking, was to attack Japan and its military. Attacking Pearl Harbor, before America could attack them, lowered the number of Japanese casualties and lowered America’s ships that were able to fight in the war against Japan and its allies. If America had attacked first it could have destroyed Japan's chances in the war. Using this tactic, the United States were completely caught off guard and, for that, they suffered greatly. Japan felt that Pearl Harbor's size and proximity was a danger to them and their citizens, and the only way for them not to live in fear was to attack first, so that they could not be surprised the same

Tensions had been high between Japan and America for a while, and restricting trade between the countries only fueled the fire. “July 1941, The United States freezes all Japanese assets and bank accounts. Aug 1941, the United States imposes an embargo of oil shipments to Japan.” (Doc C) Losing America as one of their consumers caused the Japanese economy to suffer. Japan believed that this separation of trade was the United States preparing to distance themselves from Japan to make it easier for America to attack Japan. Ending the oil trade from America to Japan also lowered Japan's ability to work as a whole, including with making it more difficult to fuel their planes and war ships. This also made it more difficult to make some scientific advancements. America's embargo had a bigger effect than they indented and they payed for it. In order to get their trade income and oil back from America they decided that taking over the country would be the best course of