Why Did Japan Attack Pearl Harbor?
Everyone knows about Pearl Harbor, however, do people know why? Pearl Harbor was attacked
by the Japanese on December 7th, 1941 at approximately 7:55 am. 361 Japanese planes attacked the
American naval base in Hawaii. During this time, people around the world were witnessing the impacts
of WWII. Japan had signed a pact to be allied with Germany and Italy. All of them shared the same goal:
expansion. The United States did not want to be part of WWII, it wanted to remain neutral. The U.S. was
recovering from the previous war, WWI, and did not want to be involved in any other conflict. On the
other hand, Japan seemed to have sufficient reasons to attack the United States through Pearl Harbor.
Japan attacked Pearl Harbor because the U.S. placed an embargo on Japan, it wanted more oil, and
because the United States did not agree with it political ideas.
Japan had not been an ideal country in the eyes of the Americans for a while. It had been
attacking Manchuria, part of present-day China. In Document C, we can tell that tensions build up
throughout the years in Eastern Asia, and the U.S. makes a comprehensible action; beginning an
embargo. This was a way of the United States telling Japan to stop attacking other countries. The U.S.
also did not want to be contributing to all the attacks in Eastern Asia. The text shows us how Japan
decided it was their turn to take action after just two years.
In all battles, people need machines, and all machines needed oil. The Japanese also needed to
raise their economy now that their population was greatly growing. Therefore, they needed to expand
to other countries in Eastern Asia. In Document C, we can see that in May, 1940, Franklin Roosevelt
moves the U.S. fleet from California to Pearl Harbor. Then, in Document B, we can observe that after the
attack on Pearl Harbor, the Asian countries with oil were occupied by the Japanese. Based on the
evidence from both documents, we can infer that Japan wanted to get rid of the navy in Pearl Harbor to
be able to advance to other lands. Japan knew that in the presence of the U.S. Navy, nothing was going
to be done.
Japan and the United States had opposite opinions on how they should run government. When
the League of Nations was formed, Japan became one of the nations to join. The United States, on the
other hand, did not join. It did not want to be involved with the conflicts that pertained to other nations.
The Japanese saw this as a negative action. In Document E, Hideki Tojo, both Prime Minister and War
Minister of Japan, responds to the United States’ actions. Tojo says, “How can we let the United States
do as she pleases…” He also says that whenever he thinks about the strengthening of the United States,
he sees no solution to their problems. According to what Tojo had to say, both the U.S. and Japan had
two different views on how to handle government.
Throughout the texts, readers can identify the main reasons for why Japan attacked Pearl
Harbor. One reason was the fact that the United States began an embargo on Japan, ending the trade of
aircraft and aircraft parts with Japan. This limited Japan from obtaining more resources in their
expansion. Another reason was that Japan needed oil to help keep expanding and raise their economy.
However, the U.S. Navy was in their way, which is why they thought they needed to get rid of them. Last
but not least, both Japan and the U.S. did not agree on each other’s ways of running government. Japan
wanted to expand more and keep on attacking more people, while the U.S. had a different view on
expansionism. The U.S. did not support Japan in their expanding. Thus, it’s because of these reasons that
Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7 th, 1941.
