How Did Ww2 Affect America

World War II officially started for the United States after the bombing at Pearl Harbor by the Japanese, but it actually goes deeper then that. Before the the bombing Japan was in a time of need, along with that the United states had a foreign policy that did not relativity stick. This leaded to the US trying to create relations with Japan, which ultimately leads to the US creating relations with China. The US had these relations due to the fact that the relations between Japan and China were awful.During the time Japan was in China they went to war with each other. Then due to all these relations failing it pushed the US into a time of war when Japan had the audacity to bomb Pearl Harbor, which affected the whole country. The US joined World
War II due to Japan being overpopulated in the 1920s. Way before the bombing at Pearl Harbor surprisingly Japan was in a time of need and no one would help them. Japan was becoming overpopulated, and since they were only a small island they would need to send immigrants somewhere. Their first option was the United States but they would not accept them. This made Japan mad and hungry for domination, so Japan entered western Asia looking to claim territory. Thier biggest target was China. Something interesting about this time period was the United States’ foreign policy. Their foreign was to increase aid to allies to keep short of war. The United States saw Japan moving into unowned territory and started to make relations with them. Creating relations with them was easy since they were an island that relied mostly on international trade. A few years later Japan started to make pacts with other western nations causing them look like a threat to the United States. According to “Pearl Harbor” from New York: Charles Scribner's Sons “On 27 September 1940, Japan joined the Axis powers with Italy and Germany”(1). The United States instantly wanted to withdraw from giving Japan supplies, but they couldn't because of a document that was signed by both countries. Then by the fall of 1941 the United States was trying to create peace with Japan. Which was when Japan was faced with serious shortages as a result of the embargo, and unable to retreat. They came to the conclusion that with the military forces they had left they had to act fast. The United States doubted that japan could be able to attack them, with this thought the unthinkable happened and Pearl Harbor was bombed. Since Japan headed into western Asia to dominate territory the United States created some relations with China to help them fight back. Most of the aid was given to China in 1940, even though Japan was in China way before that. The aid that was given to China in 1940 was mostly to gain leverage against Japan. The U.S. gave military and economic assistance instead of fighting for them. This happened due to the fact of the Roosevelt Administration figuring out that by aiding China it would restrict the flow of supplies going to Japan.
Japan was so eager to gain territory they ended up starting a war in China. The steady aggression from Japan’s campaign lead into an invasion in Manchuria. Japan had invaded Manchuria on the 18 of September in 1931. After a few days Japan had gained control ann placed troops in South Manchuria. By the year of 1937 there was a full scale war between Japan and China.
After Japan started to fail at gaining territory they pulled together all of the military they had left and done what the United States found unthinkable.
It all happened At 7:55 in the morning on 7 December 1941. On this date hundreds of Japanese planes flew over the unprepared U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor and destroyed everything (Violence in America). According to Violence in America “Although the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise and a humiliation for the U.S. military, it was also the climax of a decade of rising tensions between Japan and the United States.” The next day the U.S. president declared war on Japan and had officially joined the second world
war.
With the United States joining the war it affected the whole country.
The U.S. had a mass production of weapons being made. The president knew they were at a time of war so he planned for over 300,000 planes, tanks, and anti aircraft weapons to be made in the next to years along with shipping over 15 million tons of materials (World Book Advanced pg 3). All of these weapons had to be made and paid for which changed the tax system of the United States. Since they were at a time of war industrial workers earned 70 percent more money and farmers earned an incredible 300 percent more. To raise money for the war the us had to increase the income tax to low wage families. And the tax system from World War II had continued into the United States’ economy in the twenty first century (Sidney
Pash).
So, the United states joined World War II due to Japan being gretry for domination of territory in order to save their country from becoming over populated. The United States saw Japan as a threat when they were dominating parts of western Asia. The U.S. then created relations with China to stop Japan from continuing their path for territory. All of this lead to Japan’s last move, which was bombing Pearl Harbor. This made the United States officially join World War II.