USA HISTORY

AMERICAN IMPERIALISM(1890 1919)

THE UNITED STATES IN WORLD WAR I

[SOURCES]
Why did the United States decide to join WWII in 1941?

(A) German’s invasion of France

(B) German’s invasion of Poland

(C) Japanese expansion into Manchuria, China

(D) ** Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii

EXPLANATIONS BELOW

Concept note-1: -The attack turned US public opinion in favor of entering the Second World War. The United States declared war on Japan on December 8, 1941. Japan’s allies, Germany and Italy, declared war on the United States on December 11. The United States responded in kind, and therefore entered World War II.

Concept note-2: -But the neutral USA entered World War II only after many months of argument in Congress and among the general public, and only when a Japanese fleet launched a big surprise air raid against its Pacific naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on 7 December 1941.

Concept note-3: -President Roosevelt moved the US Pacific Fleet from California to Pearl Harbor in 1939. This move was a threat to Japan, who wanted to expand in the Pacific. Military leaders and politicians saw a war between the U.S. and Japan as inevitable, with the solution being to attack first. Japan did just that.

Concept note-4: -The United States didn’t want to intervene. During an emergency cabinet meeting called by Roosevelt immediately after the war erupted in Europe, it was agreed that the United States would remain an outside influence unless directly threatened or attacked.