why did japan bomb pearl harbor?
“The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 was the culmination of longstanding rivalry between Japan and the United States of America. In the short term, over the previous decade, relations had worsened significantly as Japan set out on a course of aggressive expansion in Manchuria, China and Indo-China. In the long term, from the mid-nineteenth century, the stunning rise of Japan from feudal state to great power had decisively altered the status quo in the Pacific… …The occupation of Manchuria, begun in September 1931, was followed by the annexation of territory in China in 1933 and 1935 before full-scale war between the two countries broke out in July 1937. Japan gradually withdrew from the agreements of the 1920s to sign pacts with the fascist powers Germany and Italy in 1936 and 1940… …War in Europe gave Japan the opportunity to threaten vulnerable British, French and Dutch possessions in the Far East. However, advances into French Indo-China in 1940 and 1941 pro
Japan lead a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7 1941, because President Roosevelt decide to no longer trade with Japan. Japan would no longer get scrap metal and oil they needed for their war activities, which made them angry. Japan no longer saw America as their ally. Also Japan thought that they were entitled to the Hawaiian islands. If we weren’t their ally then we were their enemy. We had all of our battleships lined up in a little row right together. They seized the opportunity.
Because they know US was going to join the war and stop their expansion in the Pacific. Since FDR move like almost the entire US fleet to Pearl Harbor, it seems almost ingenues to attack it and crush them in one blow. Too bad the carriers were delay by a storm and only 1 battleship sunk at the end.
