Pearl Harbor

Pearl harbor was an event that had the US at a stand still for a moment because of the nature of the events that took place that day. The Japanese sunk or damaged 21 american battleships to the point of them not being able to be repaired and destroyed over 300 aircraft. More importantly over 2,400 sailors were killed during the attack and over 1,000 were wounded. The events leading up to pearl harbor are something that people don't know about either. From 1868-1912 the Japanese participated in the Meiji restoration because they were a very isolated place and they had to keep up with the west, so they build up their industry, military and made the emperor the highest ranking official. Japan is a island with very few natural resources so they took the offensive and invaded other places and it all started with Manchuria because of their plentiful resources. FDR then put sanctions on metal and aircraft because he thought that this would limit them, but they actually got even more aggressive and started to attack other places. The Japanese then teamed up with Germany and Italy because of their common beliefs of militaristic governments and nationalism. Fdr released a trade embargo on oil to the Japanese and that was the last straw because japan relied on the import of oil for 90% of its supply. So japan reacted to this with the attack of pearl harbor.