Hiroshima Case

December 7th, 1941 will always be remembered as 'a day that will live in infamy. It was the at the empire of Japan launched a surprise attack on the U.S pacific fleet stationed at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii in an effort to deter the U.S from entering the Pacific theatre, and subsequently, her interests. The reasons for the Japanese confidence in her ability to take out such a large portion of the U.S navy were pressures on her ability to sustain herself and the Sino-Japanese war. The geographical proximity was also another huge factor for the Japanese choice. The devastation cause at Pearly Harbor resulted in large political and social consequences.

The Wall Street Market Crash occurred in 1929, which led to the Great Depression. This had put global economies in turmoil and forced governments to place large tariffs on their exports. Many countries had also chosen to cease exports and keep their resources within their own borders. This was a major problem to Japan because she had recently industrialized and required large amounts of imports to sustain her economy since the mainland didn't offer large amounts of raw materials. At the time, the Japanese government was also in turmoil. A military group had observed the situation, identified the opportunity and seized control of the government.

Due to Japan's few solutions to her economic solutions, she sought solutions outside her borders. Due to the new government, her approach was now largely militaristic. In 1931, Japan launched an invasion of Manchuria in China and was successful. This gained Japan much needed resources such as oil and bauxite. Due to the actions that Japan had to take, it is suffice to say that due to the Great Depression, Japan gained more territory. The fact that the big powers of the time (Britain, France, and U.S.A) conducted little action also gave Japan the sense that they feared her, causing the Japanese government to gain more confidence.

By 1937, Japan believed themselves to be equal to countries such as France and Britain in terms of economical power and military might. Due to this, Japan chose to invade China, birthing the destruction of the Sino-Japanese war, taking control of China's resources and occupying her cities. Britain and France did not conduct any form of action due to being preoccupied with the German threat to their own nations. China was a strong ally and trading partner to the U.S, but due to their isolation policy, the U.S could take little action other than placing a trade embargo on steel and oil between the U.S and Japan in July 1941 in efforts to deter Japan from her expansion efforts. This action was taken since due to Japan's poor mainland, she supplied 75% of her oil from the U.S. Even with this huge drop in supply, Japan still had enough oil reserves for continual expansion.

Due to Britain and France being preoccupied with complications closer to home (Germany), they could do little to protect the colonies in Asia and the Pacific. Japan saw this as an opportunity to expand their empire to an even larger extent and proceeded to invade the resource rich European colonies in South-East Asia. Due to these advances, Roosevelt became increasingly concerned with Japan, influencing him into moving the Pacific fleet to Hawaii to show off their military power in hopes to deter Japan from expanding and increasing her sphere of influence in the Pacific theatre. Japan had the complete opposite reaction and viewed this action as a threat to her interests. She believed that if the Pacific fleet was wiped out, the U.S wouldn't be able to maintain a war effort and the cost of repairing the entire fleet.

On December 7th, 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbour, taking the Americans by surprise and causing one of the worst military defeats in American history. Around 2000 men and women lost their lives, 188 planes were destroyed and 4 battleships were destroyed and many others were severely damaged. The Japanese had believed that this act would be the knockout blow for the U.S to get out of her Pacific Theatre and not interfere with her interests, even though