1) Japan had ambitions of expanding its empire across Asia to gain resources and influence. By 1941, its war with China had depleted resources and the US embargo threatened Japan further. 2) Facing economic collapse, Japanese military leaders decided to attack US, British, and Dutch territories in Asia and the Pacific to seize oil and resources. 3) On December 7, 1941, Japan launched a devastating surprise attack on the US Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor, crippling the American battleships and drawing the US into World War II.

1. WORLD WAR II Lic. Laura Flores

2. Japan conquered an Asian empire Japan had its own dreams of gaining its own sphere of influence. Stretching from Manchuria in the north to Australia in the south. By 1939 the war between China and Japan had dragged on for three years. Japan’s economy was in the breaking point. Japanese leaders were alarmed for the lack of oil, iron, rubber and tin. They began to eye the lands of Southeast Asia.

3. Japan threatened American interests in Asia Relations between the United States and Japan were moving toward a crisis. Roosevelt banned the shipment of American fuel, scrap iron and steel to Japan. Japan’s military leaders had two choices: pull out of China and admit defeat; to obtain war materials from Indochina, Malaya and the East Indies. The japanese knew that the second choice would provoke war with the US. Emperor Hirohito and the Japanese generals decided on the second choice--attack.

4. The Japanese Attack Pearl Harbor In July 1941, Japanese forces overran French Indochina, and President Roosevelt ordered a total “embargo”, or stoppage on all trade with Japan. The embargo angered Japanese leaders who opposed withdrawal. They pointed out that US was unprepared for war and decided that if they coul not persuade Roosevelt to end the embargo they would attack US Pacific Fleet. Unknown to the Japanese US had broken their code by a secret process called Magic. When? Where?

5. Sunday morning, December 7, 1941, the Japanese fleet lay 220 miles north of Hawaii, at 6:00 A.M.

6. Japan overran the Pacific During December 1941 they took Hong Kong from the British, added the American islands of Guam and Wake also Malay Peninsula. By March 1942, Japan had conquered the oil-rich Dutch islands of Java, Borneo, Sumatra, Celebes and Burma, threatening China and British India. By mid-1942, Japan’s red and white banner flew over most lands and islands of the western Pacific Ocean. They hoped to push their conquests ever farther to Australia and perhaps Hawaii as well.

7. World War II in Asia and the Pacific, 1941-1945

8. The Allies turned the tide of war. Battle of the Coral Sea: The main Allied forces in the Pacific were the Americans and the Australians. In May 1942, they succeeded in stopping the Japanese drive toward Australia. Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, commander in chief of the Pacific fleet, had broken the Japanese code and learned that Midway was to be the target.

9. The Allies went on the offensive. The Battle of Midway was the turning point in the Pacific War, the Japanese advance stopped and the Allies were now on the offensive winning back territory from the Japanese. The first Allied offensive was at Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. Finally the Japanese gave up the island. The Japanese offensive in the Pacific was stopped.