DBQ Honors Essay Review:

What was the Question for the DBQ Essay?

How justified were the Japanese in attacking the United States at Pearl Harbor?

How did you answer this question?

I answered the question correctly by explaining how the Japanese were not justified. I related three
topics to the question within my thesis, these three being Militarily, Teritorial, and Political factors. My
three body paragraphs also used these topics and answered the E.Q.

Thesis: (Write your thesis here):

The Japanese were not justified in attacking the United States at Pearl Harbor because of Military,
Teritorial, and Political factors.

Revise Thesis: (stronger thesis):

The Japanese were not justified in attacking the United States at Pearl Harbor due to the influences of
Militarily, Territorial, and Political factors.

Intro Paragraph:
Is your thesis in the appropriate spot? Yes or No. Did you develop your introduction paragraph? Add
content in red if you did not have enough for your
intro paragraph.
Yes I think that I needed to add more substance to my
introduction paragraph since I didn’t fully develop
the intro.
 Tensions had been rising between the United States
and Japan for decades leading up to the bombing of
Pearl Harbor. With numerous discussions of peace,
even during the time of WWII, relations slowly
crumbled with the Japanese following many signs of
hostility in East Asia. This all accumulated into their
ill will towards America, and what they believed that
had done to warrant the attack. The Americans had
their own side and perspective as well, seeing that
Japan was creating many problems that would
threaten their own neutrality. The Japanese were
not justified in attacking the United States at Pearl
Harbor due to the influences of Militarily, Territorial,
and Political factors.
Conclusion Paragraph:
Did you restate your thesis? Was your conclusion developed? Add content in
red if you did not have enough for your conclusion
paragraph.
Yes I don’t think I fully developed my conclusion.

Japan was unjustified for their attack on Pearl

Harbor due to the influences of Military, Territorial,
and Political factors. They spent a great deal of
effort to try to deceive and attack the US when it
was not warranted. They also continued to show
their disregard to other countries who wanted
peace, showing that they never intended to keep
the peace in the first place. There were many other
things that played into Japan’s aggression and
hostility towards the United States, but an attack
on their military base that had been planned for
years should not have been the next option. They
never made their intent of hostility clear, and this
significantly contributed to how unjustified the
attack was. Japan’s hostility led to many horrible
things in World War II, which didn’t need to be any
bloodier than it already was.

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DBQ ESSAY BODY PARAGRAPHS

* In the boxes below please color code in red what you are changing in your essay to make it stronger. If
you need additional outside knowledge, analysis, or sources, add content in red showing what change
you would make for your essay.
Body Paragraphs:
What was the Major focus of this paragraph?
Do you stay on topic throughout the paragraph?
Does your topic answer the EQ?
How did you support it with evidence?
Body Topic 1: Militarily Factors
Evidence (Outside Knowledge):
1. Nanking
2.
3.
Topic 1 Documents:
Document 1: C
1. Additionally, they had deceived the U.S. by
keeping up peace talks and showing no sign of an
imminent threat.
2. Document G
The Japanese had been planning Pearl Harbor for
over a year in detail, and despite the United States
continued efforts to keep peace negotiations as
long as possible, Japan still planned a bombing of
one of their military bases behind their backs.
Body Topic 2: Territorial Factors
Evidence (Outside Knowledge):
1. Imperialism
2.
3.
Analysis:
Japan had already shown in years prior in the Rape
of Nanking, where they massacred innocent
civilians and raped thousands of women, that they
would not hesitate to use horrible tactics in order
to win.
Analysis:
This deceit was significant because there was no
way to prepare for the attack, and their intention
was to destroy property and take lives.
This behavior shows that Pearl Harbor was not
justified because of the nature of the attack and
Japan’s want for military conquest even while
pretending that there was still the chance for
peace to be kept.
Analysis:
Japan wanted to expand their territory due to
imperialist interests and wanted to expand their
influence and power throughout the territories
that they conquered.
Topic 2 Documents:
Document 1: C
1. The wide distance between Hawaii and Japan
shows that an enormous amount of resources
were poured into the attack.
2. Document F
Additionally, Japan already had a great deal of
territory that they had conquered in the past few
decades before Pearl Harbor, many of them being
peaceful.
Body Topic 3: Political Factors
Evidence (Outside Knowledge):
1. Treaty of Versailles
2. Tripartite Pact
Analysis:
Judging by the amount of money that would be
needed to be used for fuel and to get planes across
a wide gap of ocean water, the Japanese had
spared no expense to ensure the success of the
mission. Spending an excessive amount of
resources to attack the United States was not
justified.
One such country was Manchuria, where they
deliberately blew up their own cargo on a railway
in order to have an excuse to invade. Japan’s
invasion of Manchuria further damaged relations
with America and decreased their opinion of them.
This may have been a reason for Japan’s attack, but
as the ones who shot first in both situations it is
easy to see how it was not justified.
Analysis:
When the Treaty of Versailles was being written,
the Japanese were largely left out of negotiations
which offended them. Within the treaty it was
written that a League of Nations would be formed,
and Japan ended up being a part of it which made
them susceptible to the same rules as the others.
One such rule was the open door policy, but along
with this they violated other rules and eventually
left the League of Nations.
With Japan’s signing of the Tripartite pact, which
allied Japan, Germany, and Italy, they showed that
they were a part of the Axis powers. The United
States was friends with Great Britain, which gave
the Japanese reason to believe they would join the
Allies, but that was not sufficient reason to warrant
the bombing of Pearl Harbor since the US was a
neutral country in the midst of the war.
3.

Topic 3 Documents:
Document 1: B Analysis:
1. Hitler Japan had a partnership with Hitler in WWII who
had also committed many atrocities, showing that
they were on the side of evil rather than justness.

2. Document G
The imperial Court had already decided to go to The imperial Court had already decided to go to
war with the United States. war with the United States, and Pearl Harbor
would be their first aggression. The biggest
political leaders of Japan had already decided that
their dislike of the neutral nation was enough, and
they would start making war preparations before
actually declaring war on them.

What could have you done differently next time to earn a higher grade?

I think that I should have developed my last two body paragraphs better, and since I was lacking the
outside knowledge identifications they ended up being weak. Next time I should prepare better with
identifications, and have a wider array of knowledge for it. I also think that I should have strengthened
my introduction and conclusion with more content. My thesis probably should have been stronger, since
my original three topics were kind of lacking and that led to the troubles I faced during the essay. My
analysis lacked focus and it was very sparse in reasoning the majority of the time.

What are your strengths in DBQ writing?

My strengths are using the information within the documents we were given as evidence. I think I
explain how these support my claim within each body paragraph that they’re used in.

What do you need to work on the most?

I definitely need to work on gathering outside knowledge and explaining how this relates to the topic of
the body paragraphs. My body paragraphs ended up being weak because I lacked sufficient
identifications to support my claim in each of these paragraphs, and a lot of my analysis for the things I
mentioned was repetitive within it. In general, adding content and substance to the essay should be my
top priority for next time.