Why Did Japan Attack Pearl Harbor
December 7, 1941, was one of the most dramatic and most memorable days in the history of the United States of America. It was the day when 2,403 innocent men lost their lives that morning by Japan's surprise attack. This surprise attack later involved the United States in World War 2, even though they tried so hard not to involve themselves in all the trouble. Now the real question is, why did Japan attack Pearl Harbor? There are a couple reasons why Japan wanted to attack Pearl Harbor. Japan attacked Pearl Harbor because they believed that the Yamato race was the superior one and their ruling needed to expand across the world, America stopped trading oil with Japan and the U.S. imposed many embargoes that hurt Japan.
One reason
why Japan attacked Pearl Harbor is because they believed the Yamato race was the superior one to all and that their ruling must expand to the rest of the world. Document A states, “Japan is the fountain source of the Yamato race”. The Yamato race is the pure and unmixed Japanese people. This Document shows that they truly believed they were the perfect ones and needed to rule the world. In Document E , Tojo says “We can expect an expansion of our country only by stationing troops. This the U.S. does not welcome.” Here Tojo is implying that even though they believe they should expand their “perfect” people and “perfect” ruling all around the world, the United States does not approve of such thing. Document A, also states, “An old order…(European and American)... is now crumbling.” This quote displays that since they wanted to get rid of the “old order” which included America, they had to go and attacked them.
The second reason why Japan attacked Pearl Harbor is because America stopped trading oil with Japan. Document D, shows a graph on Japanese Imports from 1937-1941. In the late 1930’s, 80% of Japanese oil came from the United States. Also, the U.S. provided most of their steel and scrap iron. Document B, portrays a map of the areas that Japan acquired in 1932. However, they never owned the countries that contained oil fields. Since Japan never acquired any of those countries that had the oil fields like Borneo, the United States was their main source of oil. Things got heated between the two trading countries because America was with the allies and Japan was with the axis and America was helping Japan's enemies. On August 1, 1941, the United States stopped helping Japan by cutting off Japan’s oil supply and that affected them severely. Oil is highly needed especially for the military
The final reason why Japan attacked Pearl Harbor is because the U.S. imposed many embargoes that hurt Japan. In Document C, the timeline shows that in 1939 “U.S. begins and embargo of aircraft and aircraft parts against Japan”, on July 1941, “The United States freezes all Japanese assets and bank accounts”, and on August 1941, “ The United States imposes an embargo on oil shipments to Japan”. All these events are all against Japan and angered them. America was totally against them and the Japanese reacted to all this by bombing Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, just 4 months after the United States imposed an embargo on oil shipments to Japan. That just shows how all these embargoes that America threw at Japan really aggravated them.
Overall, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor that morning because they believed that the Yamato race was the superior one and their ruling needed to expand across the world, America stopped trading oil with Japan and the U.S. imposed many embargoes that hurt Japan.
One reason
why Japan attacked Pearl Harbor is because they believed the Yamato race was the superior one to all and that their ruling must expand to the rest of the world. Document A states, “Japan is the fountain source of the Yamato race”. The Yamato race is the pure and unmixed Japanese people. This Document shows that they truly believed they were the perfect ones and needed to rule the world. In Document E , Tojo says “We can expect an expansion of our country only by stationing troops. This the U.S. does not welcome.” Here Tojo is implying that even though they believe they should expand their “perfect” people and “perfect” ruling all around the world, the United States does not approve of such thing. Document A, also states, “An old order…(European and American)... is now crumbling.” This quote displays that since they wanted to get rid of the “old order” which included America, they had to go and attacked them.
The second reason why Japan attacked Pearl Harbor is because America stopped trading oil with Japan. Document D, shows a graph on Japanese Imports from 1937-1941. In the late 1930’s, 80% of Japanese oil came from the United States. Also, the U.S. provided most of their steel and scrap iron. Document B, portrays a map of the areas that Japan acquired in 1932. However, they never owned the countries that contained oil fields. Since Japan never acquired any of those countries that had the oil fields like Borneo, the United States was their main source of oil. Things got heated between the two trading countries because America was with the allies and Japan was with the axis and America was helping Japan's enemies. On August 1, 1941, the United States stopped helping Japan by cutting off Japan’s oil supply and that affected them severely. Oil is highly needed especially for the military
The final reason why Japan attacked Pearl Harbor is because the U.S. imposed many embargoes that hurt Japan. In Document C, the timeline shows that in 1939 “U.S. begins and embargo of aircraft and aircraft parts against Japan”, on July 1941, “The United States freezes all Japanese assets and bank accounts”, and on August 1941, “ The United States imposes an embargo on oil shipments to Japan”. All these events are all against Japan and angered them. America was totally against them and the Japanese reacted to all this by bombing Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, just 4 months after the United States imposed an embargo on oil shipments to Japan. That just shows how all these embargoes that America threw at Japan really aggravated them.
Overall, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor that morning because they believed that the Yamato race was the superior one and their ruling needed to expand across the world, America stopped trading oil with Japan and the U.S. imposed many embargoes that hurt Japan.