Why did america find itsef at war with japan in 1941? -

what were some key issues and events about japan from 1900-1945? also, does anyone knows any good and easy to understand websites on japan 1900-45 ,and on the attack on pearl harbour?

Japan was in an era of empire building, they had already taken huge portions of China and Mongolia (to find out about this time period google quot;Rape of Nanking.quot; Unfortunately for Japan, most of the areas they had acquired didn t have oil deposits (or at least any that were known of at that time). Japan needed oil (same as we do today) The nearest large oil deposits known of at this time were in Dutch east Indies, roughly the area now known as Indonesia and Boreo. Japan needed to take control of this area, but it was protected by France prior to the start of the WWII, and was still protected by English forces in Singapore. The United States, in a move the Japanese considered threatening - moved their west coast naval fleet from San Diego, CA to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii (3000 miles closer to Japan) sometime after the start of the European war. Then in late 1941 the US issued a embargo order on all oil shipments to Japan, trying to force Japan to withdraw from it s Chinese territories. Japan decided to wage war on the US. Figuring, rightly, that most of the European war would take first priority of the the French and English forces. At the time of the Pearl Harbor attack it is estimated that Japan had less than 60 days of oil stockpiled. To find out more about the actual attack try http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/event... You can also read a good book on the subject quot;At Dawn We Sleptquot;.

Appeasement was the main problem as it is today! Racism on both sides. Expansionist tendency of japan...who needed the raw materials for their advance society in that area..everything else was a colony and subject to others . Isolation in America. tagger

When all of the excuses are gone, in the end, the final thing was that the Japanese bombed part of our country and invaded several of our possessions. We fought back...THE END..

cause one morning the presindent of that time made some remarks about the penis size of both nations and well the jappys got mad and they bombed pearl, but then we killed like 5 million of em so all is cool we won