USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Japan planned to rapidly seize European colonies in Asia to create a large defensive perimeter stretching into the Central Pacific. The Japanese would then be free to exploit the resources of Southeast Asia while exhausting the over-stretched Allies by fighting a defensive war.

Detailed explanation-2: -Japan felt that Asia and the western Pacific islands were inside her spheres of influence, and resented the presence of other colonial powers such as Britain, France, Holland, and the United States.

Detailed explanation-3: -The war in China, 1937–41 Overt hostilities between Japan and China began after the Marco Polo Bridge incident of July 7, 1937, when shots were exchanged between Chinese and Japanese troops on the outskirts of Peking. Open fighting broke out in that area, and in late July the Japanese captured the Peking-Tientsin area.

Detailed explanation-4: -The Japanese, meanwhile, sought to complete what they began at Pearl Harbor. They aimed to destroy the US carrier fleet in a victory so decisive that the United States would negotiate for peace. With its battleship fleet crippled in Hawaii, the US Navy turned to two surviving assets.