Japan vs. Pearl Harbor What

Japan vs. Pearl Harbor

What were Japan's major reasons for its attack on Pearl Harbor? In what ways did the attack connect with their moves into China in the 1930s and Southeast Asia in 1941 and 1942?

Given Japan's lack of natural resources and less developed military capability, Japan knew that the war it began against the United States was an unwinnable war."Even many government leaders of Japan knew that at the time. However, at the same time, it was the war that they had to fight," once the U.S. imposed sanctions on Japan after its invasion of China (Arima 2003). Japan was utterly dependant upon trade, particularly trade with the United States. "Oil was a lifeline for power, but unlike the U.S., Japan could produce only a little amount of oil domestically…Japan had become a member of the imperial powers and one of the most advanced nations in the world of the time. However, such accomplishment and power was impossible to achieve and maintain without oil, which Japan had totally depended upon the U.S. For the supply" (Arima 2003). America supplied approximately 80% of Japan's oil resources at the time. In 1941 President Roosevelt also imposed embargos of scrap metal and other commodities essential in waging an air-based war. The U.S. demanded that Japan withdraw from its alliance with Germany and Italy as well as from Chinese territories.

Although it had been an ally of the United States during World War I, Japan's appetite for imperialist expansion had been whetted in 1894 when Japan defeated China in the Sino-Japanese War for Taiwan. It defeated the Russian Empire in 1904. Japan established control over Korea in 1910 and after its invasion of China it established the state of Manchuria in 1932. The Japanese refused to comply with U.S. demands partially out of a sense of honor: it feared that to capitulate to a Western power would mean a huge loss of face, and also could destabilize the regime of the Emperor. Japan had already suffered heavy financial and military losses to establish a presence in China (Arima 2003). Manchuria was believed to be of essential strategic importance to Japan, and it was feared that without Manchuria either China or Japan might establish control over Korea. But the U.S. demanded that it withdraw from both China and Manchuria in exchange for a reestablishment of trade for oil.

Japan's other major source of oil had been the Netherlands, but the Dutch followed the American's oil embargo in August of 1941. The Japanese resolved to take control of Dutch East India's oil fields. If it did so, it knew war with America was inevitable. "The oil stock Japan had was only for a year and half, and time was running out…if the war was unavoidable and they chose to fight, the longer they would wait the lesser the chance for victory would be because of the limited oil stock, which would be spent even during the peacetime" (Arima 2003). To speed up the course of the war, and to buy time for its oil supply, on December 7th in 1941, the Japanese launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. military base located in Hawaii.