The Japanese Reasoning for the Attack on Pearl Harbor Research Paper

The Japanese Reasoning for the Attack on Pearl Harbor - Research Paper Example However, the losses were very less comparatively but the attack did result in America entering the World War II officially. The Empire of Japan and the United States of America started going separate ways in the 1930s due to differences over China. Japan began this by sending its men to Manchuria which was then a part of China. This land was conquered and taken over by the Japanese in the year 1931. It was in response to this that the United States formed the Stimson Doctrine named after Henry L. Stimson who was the Secretary of State of America in the Hoover Administration. This Doctrine stated that America did not recognize any changes made internationally regarding the addition and/or exclusion of territories that were carried out by force. This was mostly to warn Japan that it was not counting Manchuria as part of the Japanese Empire because they had taken over the land by conquering it. Thus, in their eyes, Manchuria was still a part of the Chinese land. Six years in the future i.e. in 1937, Japan started a long but also a mostly unfruitful campaign to take over the whole of China. By 1940, the government had joined the Axis Alliance and become an ally of the Nazi Germany. By 1941, Japan had managed to conquer Indochina. Watching these steps taken by Japan alarmed the United States as it had its own economic as well as political interests in the East of Asia1. To bring a halt to its plans of conquering China, America raised the total amount of the military and even the financial aid that it was providing to China so that it could protect itself even more properly against the attacks. The States also started a program, including Dutch East Indies and Burma, which was at that time controlled by the British, to strengthen its military power in the Pacific. Together, they hit Japan where it would hurt the most; they â€Å"froze Japanese assets in the United States, thus bringing commercial relations between the nations to an effective end. One week later Roos evelt embargoed the export of such grades of oil as still were in commercial flow to Japan†2. They stopped exporting oil, steel, scrap iron and the other necessary raw materials that Japan required to produce goods for its own people. The country was very short of natural resources and had been buying them from other lands, including the States. Once America placed this embargo, particularly on the export of oil which they most certainly needed for military uses, the Japanese government saw these actions to be threatening towards the nation’s growth3. America, on the other hand, was making quite a dent in the economy of the country so that the Japanese would stop using their few precious resources to invade China, and would move out instead4. However, Japan refused to give in and kneel to America’s indirect demands and did not withdraw from China. To fulfill their needs, the Japanese leaders came up with a plan to take over those lands in the South east of Asia, which were rich in natural resources, so that they could continue with their production of the required goods5. They did, however, realize that this move would lead to them going against the United States and unofficially declaring war. That being said, Japan still thought that it could convince the United States to remove the sanctions so that they could go back to importing the resources that they required. They did need a greater oil supply especially since they were