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Japan in Ww2

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Submitted By Kenny49
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World War II was a bloody world war that involved multiple nations and multiple actors, but in this Research Paper, I will be discussing the role of Japan in WWII as well as the short term and long term consequences of said role.
Today Japan and the United States are close allies, but from 1941 and 1945, they fought a bitter and bloody war-Why did they fight this war? The answer to that question, from the American perspective is simple: the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. The Americans were angry at the Japanese for their invasions of first Manchuria (1931), then China (1937), and later French Indochina (1940). After the Japanese moved into Indochina, President Roosevelt ordered a trade embargo on American scrap steel and oil, on which the Japanese military depended. But the American people felt that Asia was far away, and a large majority of voters did not want to go to war to stop Japan. The surprise attack on the Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 changed this, outraging was the prevailing sentiment among Americans, along with a pretty unanimous belief that it was time to go to war with Japan.
Why did Japan decide to attack the United States? This question is a little bit more complicated. Japan was fully aware of the fact that the United States was economically and militarily powerful, but it was not afraid of any American attack on its islands. Japan did worry however, that the Americans might help the Chinese resist the Japanese invasion of their country. When President Roosevelt stopped U.S. shipments of steel and oil the Japan, he was doing exactly this: the Japanese are dependent on other countries for raw materials because they have almost none on their archipelago. Without the ability to import oil and steel, the Japanese military could not fight for very long. Without oil, the navy would not be able to move after it had exhausted its

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