First off I
would like to state that this is not meant to insult anyone and there will
definitely be people who say I am biased because I am an American, but I try to
be as objective as possible.
On December
7th 1941, the Japanese Navy launched a surprise attack against the
United States Pacific fleet stationed in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii and inflicted
heavy casualties and loss of equipment on the United States Navy, while
suffering minimal casualties in the process. Afterwards the forces of the
Empire of Japan launched strikes against all Allied territories, which included
numerous Pacific islands, the US supported Philippines, the Dutch controlled
Indonesian islands and British Burma. This attack on the United States and the
Allied nations was motivated in part because of the United States Oil embargo
of Japan due to their invasion of China which began in 1937. Japan had become
increasingly expansionist and militarized since the turn of the century and had
been expanding since the Russo-Japanese war in 1904, but their actions in 1937
onward were the largest expansion attempt by far. I do not want to get bogged
down in the history of Japans imperialism, but it is important to understand
that many in Japan viewed a war with the United States as another way for them
to expand as they would be free to push their imperialism without the United
States to stop them. The problem though is in that expansion itself, Japan had
no endgame they could not conquer and occupy China because their population
paled in comparison and yet they continued to expand in China and require more
and more men and materials to do so. Throughout the war with the United States
the vast majority of their ground troops were concentrated in China until the
very end when many were withdrawn to Japan to defend against an American
Invasion of the home islands, they never lost in China but it did not matter in
the end. Japanese imperialism had gotten the nation over extended in China and
the attack against the United States made this exponentially worse.
