Japan's Attack On Pearl Harbor Summary

Robert Higgs, author of How U.S. Economic Warfare Provoked Japan’s Attack on Pearl Harbor, summed it up perfectly in the beginning of the article when it comes to a common American’s knowledge about Pearl Harbor. “Ask a typical American how the United States got into World War II, and he will almost certainly tell you that the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and the Americans fought back. Ask him why the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, and he will probably need some time to gather his thoughts.” There is no truly moral reason as to why the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, however it is justifiable given the period and situation. Japan was a small, yet powerful Asian nation that did not want to lose what it had established and succumb to European …show more content…
In response, the U.S. imposed embargoes on precious materials that proved critical to Japan’s economic state. The U.S. had forced Japan’s hand and it had no choice other than to give up or fight, thus the decisive and fateful decision to attack Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 was made. As Patrick J. Buchanan summed it up in Why Did Japan Attack Us?, “Had FDR met Prince Konoye, there might have been no Pearl Harbor, no Pacific war, no Hiroshima, no Nagasaki, no Korea, no Vietnam.” There were several ways the events following the embargo and leading to the U.S. joining the war, which would devastate Japan more than economically, could have been avoided. Negotiations, clear signs of animosity, and decoded messages intercepted from the Japanese. Yet nothing was done about it, the United States made the decision not to budge and would lead to an even more morbid involving two heavily populated cities in Japan and a newly-created weapon— the atomic bomb. To restate, this paper is not intended to prove that what the Japanese did was correct and just, but to show that there is a reason for it as there is a reason for