Backround

=== After World War I the Japanese were unsatisfied that they never received the land they were promised from the Allied nations. After The Great War, Japan became the most powerful and dominate country in Asia. On September, 1931 Japan attacked China and took over and occupied Manchuria. Due to this imperialist action Japan also attacked Nanjing to further increase their power. The Japanese attack killed nearly 370,000 men, women, and children in the Nanjing Massacre (Nanking). In July of 1937, a full scale war broke out between China and Japan which was know as the Sino- Japanese War. The Japanese then set up puppet governments in China which were made to be favorable to Japan's interests. Due to the brutality of these governments, they became unfavorable to the people of China which led to many === === small conflicts in the area. At first, the people of the United States backed Japan on the issue but because of the Japanese brutality on the Chinese and the Japanese attack of the U.S.S Panay, the American public opinion shifted towards helping the Chinese people ([|Nanking]).Japan was now showing a new found aggression and was starting to extend its influence on other Asian countries. This severed relationships with the U.S. because the U.S. frowned upon these imperialistic actions. Shortly after, Japan completely ended relations with allied powers by //signing pacts with the fascist powers such as Germany and Italy// (Imperial War Museum). Japan then started attacking other French Indo-China countries such as the Philippines Islands and Vietnam due to European withdraw in the area. These actions again were looked down upon by the United States and our __President Franklin Roosevet__ and they placed a strict embargo on Japan to try to weaken their military. This prohibited the U.S. to ship: steel, scrap iron, and aviation fuel to the Japanese. //Also other Allied nations froze Japanese assets, this prevented the Japanese from buying oil and this was done to further weaken their military and try to stop Japan's actions// (Pearl Harbor History). Due to the Japanese now having no acess to oil, the Japanese army began to plan an attack on Pearl Harbor so that it could plan revenge on allied nations because of the plan to freeze oil and other materials going to Japan. This embargo slowed the war with China and slowed the extension of the Japanese influence. By Japan attacking Pearl Harbor they could get not only get revenge on an Allied Nations but also destroy the US naval fleet which was one of the only fleets that could deploy and stop the expansion of Japan in Asia. === === On November 26, 1941, the Japanese fleet left their homeland and started their journey to Pearl Harbor. "Fleet Commander, __Vice Admiral Nagumo__, received his final orders on December 1, and on the morning of December 7, the battle group was in position 275 miles north of Hawaii. At 6:00 AM the first elements of the air attack consisting of fighter aircraft, torpedeo bombers, high-level bombers and dive-bombers were and assembling in the pre-dawn gloom" (Fuchida 1). At 7: 45 on a quiet Sunday morning, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was commenced. The American force at Pearl Harbor was unprepared for the upcoming Japanese attack. Since it was Sunday, most of the soldiers were relaxing, going to === ** church or were on leave. When the first wave of the attack hit, there was little to no resistance to the Japanese force. The US force could never get a strong air force into the air because of the heavy bombing of air bases and most of the airbases were destroyed during the intial bombing which nearly destroyed all of the American fighter planes. One of the only successful American defenses was the use of anti-aircraft guns on the Japanese planes. From the words of a Japanese bomber in the attack, "Our command of the ai r was unchallenged" (Fuchida 1). Japanese submarines and dive bombers attacked airbases on the island and the ports at which American Naval vessels were being harbored. One place that was bombed and attacked espe cially hard was battleship row, which was an area where the US had most of their battleships such as the U.S.S Arizona and the U.S.S West Virginia. Other ships such as destroyers were als o in battleship row. The Japanese pinpointed the American defenses so that the attack wouldn't sustain many Japanese causlties and overall the Japanese casualties were minimal. Overall the US lost 170 aircraft, 18 ships were sunk or severly damaged including the pride of the US Naval fleet, the U.S.S Arizona which was sunk. There were also 3,700 US casualties during the Japanese attack. __President Franklin Delano Roosevelt__ was notified of the attack and he had an important decision to make about going to war or staying to American Isolationist views. **

The Decision