USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -(Image: Library of Congress, LC-USZC4-1663.) On December 7, 1941, Japan staged a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, decimating the US Pacific Fleet. When Germany and Italy declared war on the United States days later, America found itself in a global war.

Detailed explanation-2: -The relationship between Japan and the United States had soured in the years leading up to Pearl Harbor. This began with the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931, an expansion throughout the Chinese mainland that led to the Second Sino-Japanese war between China and Japan in 1937.

Detailed explanation-3: -On this date, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, addressing the nation in a Joint Session in the House Chamber, asked Congress to declare war against Japan in response to the surprise attack against American naval facilities in and around Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, a day earlier.

Detailed explanation-4: -While there is no single correct or simple reason for the attack, this lesson should help students realize that Japan’s motivation for attacking Pearl Harbor was driven by its political self-interests, its scarcity of economic resources and perceived opportunity costs, and America’s embargo policy.

Detailed explanation-5: -The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, ended the debate over American intervention in both the Pacific and European theaters of World War II. The day after the attack, Congress declared war on Imperial Japan with only a single dissenting vote.