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"A Date Which Will Live in Infamy"

War message delivered to U.S. Congress December 8, 1941

In the years leading up to World War II (1939-45), the government of Japan was run by its military leaders. These men sought to expand Japan's power on the eastern Asian mainland, forming an enormous empire in Asia.

Japanese forces had been fighting in China since July 1937 and by 1940 had taken over much of Southeast Asia. Japan's next targets were the island groups in the southwest Pacific ocean. Alarmed by the Japanese government's quest to dominate Asia, the United States took steps to restrict—but not totally ban—trade with Japan and demanded the nation withdraw its troops from China and French Indochina (now Vietnam). Although the U.S.-imposed trade restrictions interfered with their manufacture of war materials, the Japanese did not buckle under the economic pressure. Japan's military...