December 8th 1941 “with confidence in our armed forces – we will gain the inevitable triumph – so help us god” was said by Franklin D. Roosevelt to the Congress to engage in war against Japan. Pearl Harbors’ geographical location led to the bombing of Pearl Harbor initiated by Japan. How or why would a country much smaller than Texas attack the United States? Japan had created a sparked conflict with America at Pearl Harbor because of the Embargos, Immigration Quota, and the Expansion of American Navy.
In 1939, the United States was worried about Japans advances in China, which led to the U.S placing an embargo to aircraft and aircraft parts (Background Essay & Doc C). With the United States making this move Japan had to make do with what they had (Doc C). In September 1940 Japan signs a treaty with Germany and Italy (Background Essay). Not wanting to fight a war on two fronts, the U.S imposes an embargo on oil shipment to Japan in August 1941 (Background Essay & Doc C). In conjunction with the embargo on aircrafts and aircraft parts this had a crippling effect on the economy in Japan. With the loss of aircrafts and aircraft parts, and now the loss of oil Japan had no way of fueling the already dwindling supply of aircrafts to continue to wage war against China.
Also, the expansion on the American Navy posed a threat to Japan. July 1940, Congress passes the Naval Expansion Act promising to triple fleet size by 1944 (Doc C). By tripling the size of the Navy in a four year span with the culmination of embargos placed against the Japanese this would leave them vulnerable to a U.S based attack (Doc E). Disseminating the Japanese forces with one fatal blow. Japan must had felt like they had no other recourse but to attack the U.S to save themselves from a future attack.
Incidentally speaking, the U.S adopted the Immigration Quota Act denying immigration to Japanese, Indians, and Chinese (Hook). After the adoption of the Immigration Quota Act the Japan Times and Mail posted a response called “The Senate’s Declaration of War.” To summarize the response the Japanese felt hurt and humiliated (Hook). Which could have left some underlining animosity toward the U.S making the decision to go to war that much easier.
In conclusion, Japan has attacked Pearl Harbor because of all the economic difficulties we set towards them. From the Embargo to the Naval Expansion. But as well as these situations occurring Japan just had a little Napoleon Complex.
