The Attack On Pearl Harbor

9 Pages 2273 Words

y his armed forces. He increased the United States defense forces fund by five hundred million dollars, as he was concerned of Japanese threat as well as the Germans. By May 1940, Roosevelt ordered the United States Pacific Fleet from California to Pearl Harbor as a warning to Japan.(7)
Relations between these countries had fallen apart and Japan felt it needed reassurance. In September of the same year, Japan joined the Tripartite Pact with Germany and Italy. This agreement gave them the strength they needed to force major issues with the United States Japan pushed its luck in 1941 when they invaded French Indochina. The United States government issued a total trade embargo. All assets were frozen but most harmful was lack of oil. This greatly threatened Japan’s industries as eighty percent of its oil came from the United States.(2)
To Japan this was the event that would cause them to realize that war was necessary. Yamamoto began devising his master plan called Operation Hawaii. Yamamoto began to formulate his plan in January of 1941. He believed the attack on Pearl Harbor was the first step of seizing the oil-rich Netherlands East Indies and to break the trade embargo. Yamamoto met with other Japanese officers and came to the conclusion that an attack on Pearl Harbor was possible but would be hard. The Admiral realized though, that he had an advantage over the American Navy. Although the Japanese were much smaller in size, the United States ships were spread throughout the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. As it also turned out, the Japanese had a numerical advantage, and in the spring of 1941, the German U-boat crisis forced the U.S. to send a quarter of its fleet to the Pacific Ocean. This was Japan’s opportunity. Yamamoto’s total objective in this battle was to sink all three aircraft carrie...