The Pearl Harbor and the Pacific War

The attack on the Pearl Harbor and The Pacific war was instigated by the Japanese.

During the 1930’s and 1940’s, especially in 1941 Japan was interested in expanding its territorial

boundaries towards the South East Asia and it wanted to occupy the southern Indochina. Japans

invasion was conflicting with the westerns; most especially the United States who had interest on

the harbor. Japan had initiated the war due to its drive for national glory and for its growth

towards reviving its economy. It wanted to secure a strong position from the dependence on the

United States.

Japan had intended to overthrow and expel the Westerns from the southwest pacific

territory, while the Americans had the ambitions to stay much longer to conquer and expand. The

United States was against the expansion of territories by the Japan and in 1941, the United States

started to impose embargos on the shipment of materials to Japan and thus oppressing its

economy. For the sanctions to be lifted and the leverage on Japanese economy to be revoked;

The United states had made a demand for the Japanese to withdraw its army from both the

Indochina and China. Japan was not ready to accept such a demeaning request which would

make them seen as minor, that made Japan not to accept the terms.

The economic warfare imposed by the United States against Japan was affecting the

Japanese industry and its economy was deteriorating. Japan had to choose on either submitting

herself to United States or it had to seize and conquer the Southeast of Asia. Cutting Japan from

majorly oil, steel and iron made the livelihood of the Japanese to become more expansive and the

government was wiling to restore and revive its economy, but not by bending low or by agreeing

to the terms brought forward by the United States.

 Due to the imposed economic sanctions to Japan, and the denial of access to raw

materials for the growth of its industries. Its economy together with the military was falling and

deteriorating. The Japanese had to make a decision before they could get deep into misfortunes,

thus they opted to go for a war since the oil embargo was making their military to fall. The

Japanese did not want to wait to get totally paralyzed to go into the war. They initiated the attack

on the Pearl Harbor where the United States had stationed themselves.

The Americans went further ahead and froze the Japanese shares, this action by the

Americans had angered the Japanese. The Japanese wanted to drive away the westerners and to

do away with their influence from East Asia to establish themselves and to preserve their empire.

To continue expanding its boundaries and to get raw materials and resources for its industries.

The Japanese wanted to revive their economy without bowing down to other nations, they

wanted to conduct their own trading without interference.

When the Japanese leaders headed Yamamoto advice of not waiting longer to fight the

United States because of the oil factories they had which could help power and navigate the

naval ships. The Army chief of staff Hajime Sugiyama also had advised the leaders to attack

earlier than later. Nagano had believed that they would wage into a prolonged war if they had

attacked American’s resources of national defense. Thus, the Japanese directed their attack on

the Americans fleet at the harbor

REFERENCES.

1. Walker, Brett L. A concise history of Japan. Cambridge University Press, 2015.

2. Akira Iriye, ed., Pearl Harbor and the Coming of the Pacific War (Bedford/St.

Martin’s,1999).