Causes and Consequences of Pearl Harbour

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On the 7th of December 1941 Japanese imperial bombers attacked the American naval base at Perl harbour in Hawaii in an aim to cripple the US fleet in the pacific. This attack was triggered by the Japanese military’s need for the pacific islands and the fact that the Japanese could not occupy the islands while the USA’s naval presence was so strong. Another event that triggered the Japanese’s attack on the base was the freezing of all Japanese assets in America and the implementation of an trade embargo. The results of the attack were that hundreds of lives were lost and several battle ships sunk the attack also brought the US war machine into WWII and resulted in the first use of an atomic weapon in an act of war. The Americans had long before the attack realised that the Japanese where a serious threat to their security and after the invasion of Manchuria America proceeded to freeze all Japanese assets in America as a punishment for the invasion of Manchuria they also stopped the sending over of scrap metal and rubber this severely set back the Japanese military effort because the Japanese relied on the scrap metal because they melted it down and used it to make their planes and Ships and as a result of this the Japanese army which held a huge amount of power became increasingly hostile to America. The Americans also decided to freeze all Japanese assets in America as a punishment for the invasion china and also the fact that the United states government was also seeing that the Japanese where a formidable force that used their military to get what they wanted The Japanese desperately needed the pacific islands as a base to launch attacks on Australia and New Zealand as their planes did not have enough fuel to reach them let alone return to base afterwards. Japan was in a good place to launch an offensive against the islands the only problem was the

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