Why Did Japan Attack Pearl Harbor

On December 7th, 1941 while many people were going on with their daily lives on the radio it was announced that Pearl Harbor, a naval base in Hawaii, was bombed by a Japanese aircrafts. The Japanese had a total of 360 aircrafts, composed of dive bombers, torpedo bombers and a few fighters. When the smoke cleared it was found that 2403 people, both civilians and military personnel, were killed, 8 battleship, 11 warships and nearly all of the military aircraft were damaged or destroyed. The US military were very surprised of this attack from Japan because prior to the attack they had unlocked the code to the Japanese military and had known that an attack was being planned, but they thought that this attack was going to take place in South Asia and not the United States. On December 8th, President Franklin had gone before Congress to request a declaration of war against Japan and on the 11th, Germany and Italy declare war on the United States. Because of the attack Americans not wanting to be involved in the Second World War unified to end the U.S. neutrality, but some were not happy about this and others were saddened and stunned by this. Because of the declaration of war, many children had to undertake bombing drills at school while some thought they were fun, others were frightened by this because they didn't know when and where the next bomb if any was coming next. (Reef, 2015)

Roosevelt imposed economic sanctions on japan: oil, steel, and cropper metal. America also wanted japan to withdraw from indo-china. The Japanese wanted to take control of Asia’s economy, but the United States would not allow such dictatorship to take place. Japan wanted to clear the United States out of the Pacific to make way for the Japanese conquest, which led them to practice for over a year to reach their goal of an eighty percent hit on Pearl Harbor.