USA HISTORY

WORLD WAR II 1941 1945

THE START OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR

Question [CLICK ON ANY CHOICE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER]
Why did Japan invade southeast Asia during WWII?
A
to recruit more men
B
acquire supplies of oil and rubber
C
to get more work for their spies
D
to prevent the US from joining the war
Explanation: 

Detailed explanation-1: -Japan invaded Southeast Asia primarily to acquire oil. Territorial control of the region was incidental, although it suited Japan’s ambition to build an autarchic empire.

Detailed explanation-2: -The Japanese military machine was almost entirely dependent upon imported oil–and that meant the United States, which supplied about 80 percent of Japan’s supplies in those days. (Much of the rest came from the Dutch East Indies–now Indonesia.)

Detailed explanation-3: -Outbreak of hostilities. Conflict in this theatre began when the Empire of Japan invaded French Indochina in September 1940 and rose to a new level following the Attack on Pearl Harbor, and simultaneous attacks on Hong Kong, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore and Malaya on 7 and 8 December 1941.

Detailed explanation-4: -The United States placed an embargo on scrap-metal shipments to Japan and closed the Panama Canal to Japanese shipping. That hit Japan’s economy particularly hard because 74.1% of Japan’s scrap iron came from the United States in 1938, and 93% of Japan’s copper in 1939 came from the United States.

There is 1 question to complete.