Japan

What was Japan planning to do that led them to attack Pearl Harbor on December 7 1941?

Japan was going through a hard time like every other nation, but Japan wasn't going to go down with this depression easily. Japan thoughts of expanding their economy to the other parts of Asia where there would be more resources that can help their economy get back up. But doing so will cause a confrontation with other nation that rule over parts of Asian countries, like the United States. Because of this, the Japanese was force to attack Pearl Harbor and try to take the upper hand in its conquest.

The Japanese were having a hard time holding and building up their economy because the World was going through the Great Depression. During this time China was blessed with rich soil and good resources. Japan thought that it would be a good chance to boost its economy by expanding further to these regions were the soil was rich and the resources were good. Although a small part of this area was already theirs, Japan wanted to expand throughout Asia and make it becomes as one with theirs.

One thing that Japan had to do besides conquering Asia was to deal with the nations that help support or rules over parts of Asia. One of the nations was the United State. This country supported China and other Asia countries were because of the great resource they get from them. The U.S. has a great deal with China and didn't want to loose it so they'll have to help although the U.S. didn't want to get involve in the war; they knew somehow someway they are going to be headed that way into the war. Still the U.S. had helped China and the other countries even before the war started. So it's only fair.

Even thought Japan and the United state was great allies they still attacked Pearl Harbor because of the action the United State had given to the countries in Asia. Japan didn't appreciate that the U.S. also helped China so they attacked china too. Not only did they aid China they have cut off the supplies to Japan and froze their assets in the U.S. This had caused big differences between all countries. It mostly affects the United State and China. Many of the countries depends export from each other countries. So, according to this, it meant war has started and Japan was the first to make its move because it wants to be overpowered.

III. EVALUATION OF SOURCE

The source that I use to find out the information on Japan was from the book called Reader's Digest: Illustrated History of World War II, and The Story of World War II. These two books gave a good amount of information about what Japan was planning and the details of these actions. They both have similar information, but the Reader's Digest: Illustrated History of World War II has a better detail of the note of who caused what and what really cause the war. Like both of these book would tell you about the ultimatum that Japan gave to the U.S. before the attack on Pearl Harbor. But the Reader's Digest: Illustrated History of World War II was the book that actually told what that ultimatum was.

The other source I need was a source where I would find out what was going through the U.S. during this confrontation with Japan. That source was also in the book The Story of World War II. This book gave me better information on the U.S. This book was rewritten from the original book from 1945. It was revised because of the missing facts that were not known back then. Thee author of the original book, Henry Commager, and the revised one Donald Miller, are both known historians of WWII.

IV. ANALYSIS

In the 1920s, Japan started to fall apart, but their economy and living standards was the best in Asia. Japan was a major trading nation, but the 1930s Japan drops economy greatly like many other nations because of the Great Depression. The rice patties weren't growing so well for the countryside. Japan wanted to expand their economy for better resources. Their population growth from 34 millions to 56 million people since 1872. Manchuria, China was already a Japanese occupied area. But this wasn't enough. They wanted all of Asia to be theirs.

By 1935, Japan had conquered land in China from the Great wall to Beijing. In 1937, the war between China and Japan was declared upon each other. With this war it soon brought the other nation involved. These nations were Britain, Dutch, and the United States. These three nations had controls over some of the southern Asian countries. These were soon targets of the Japanese conquest.

China was no match for Japan, so the U.S. supported China with a little aid. Even with the support President Roosevelt avoided any