Surprise Attack on Pearl Harbor
The military leaders who ran the Japanese government also had plans to build an empire. Japan was
overcrowded and did not have enough raw materials or oil.
The Japanese captured part of China in 1931.
In 1937, they invaded the center of China. There
they met strong resistance. Needing resources for
this war, they decided to move into Southeast Asia.
The United States feared that Japanese control
of this area would threaten U.S. holdings in the
Pacific. Roosevelt gave military aid to China. He
also cut off oil shipments to Japan.
Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto decided
that the U.S. fleet in Hawaii had to be destroyed.
On December 7, 1941, the Japanese navy began a
surprise attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl
Harbor in Hawaii. In just two hours, Japanese
planes sank or damaged a major part of the U.S.
Pacific fleet - 19 ships, including 8 battleships. The
next day, Congress, at the request of President
Roosevelt, declared war on Japan and its allies.
How did the United States fight Japan before declaring war? AND How did the United States respond to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor?
Please answer both parts of question.
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Japanese Victories
The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was just one
of many sudden strikes. Japan also captured Guam,
Wake Island, and the Philippines from the United
States. It took Indonesia from the Dutch and Hong
Kong, Malaya, and Singapore from the British.
Japan then invaded Burma, located between
India and China. Japan wanted to stop China from
receiving supplies through Burma. Burma fell in
May 1942. By that time, Japan had conquered
more than 1 million square miles of land with
about 150 million people.
Before these conquests, the Japanese had tried
to win the support of Asians. They used the anticolonial slogan Asia for the Asians.
After their
victory, the Japanese made it clear that they had
come as conquerers.
What areas of Asia did the Japanese conquer between December 1941 and mid-1942?
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The Allies Strike Back; An Allied Offensive
The Japanese seemed unbeatable after a string of
victories. But the Allies wanted to strike back in the
Pacific. In April 1942, the United States sent
planes to drop bombs on Tokyo. The attack raised
the morale of Americans. In May 1942, the Allies
suffered heavy losses at the Battle of the Coral Sea.
Still, they were able to stop the Japanese advance
and save Australia.
The next month, the U.S. Navy scored an
important victory near Midway Island in the central Pacific. In the Battle of Midway, Japan lost
four aircraft carriers, the most important naval
weapon in the war. The victory turned the tide of
war against Japan.
The United States now went on the attack.
General Douglas MacArthur did not want to
invade the Japanese-held islands that were most
strongly defended. He wanted to attack weaker
ones. The first attack came on Guadalcanal, in the
Solomon Islands in August. The Japanese were
building an air base there. It took six months of
fighting for U.S. and Australian troops to drive the
Japanese off the island in the Battle of
Guadalcanal. The Japanese abandoned the island
in February 1943.
How did the Allies strike back?
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