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What caused Pearl Harbor and what were its effects?
Quick answer:
Japan attacked Pearl Harbor because the US presence in the Pacific threatened Japanese goals for expansion. Ultimately, the attack on Pearl Harbor was the deciding factor in bringing the US into World War II, siding with the Allied forces and eventually ending the war with Japan through the first, and with any luck the last, use of nuclear weapons on Nagasaki and Hiroshima.
Imperial Japan had a chronic shortage of raw materials such as oil, minerals, and steel, all of which they desperately needed to be a major economic and military power. As such raw materials could not be obtained at home, they needed to be appropriated from the countries Japan conquered as part of its aggressive territorial expansion.
But this move put the Japanese on a collision course with the United States. America also had an eye on these raw materials, and perceived Japanese territorial expansion as a strategic and economic threat.
With that in mind, the US Congress placed severe restrictions on doing business with Japan. For good measure, the Roosevelt administration seized all Japanese assets in the United States as retaliation for Imperial Japan's occupation of French Indo-China.
To some extent, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor can be seen as retaliation for American actions. Although the Japanese killed nearly...
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2,500 Americans and destroyed hundreds of planes and a large number of ships, they didn't manage to achieve any of their overriding objectives.
They didn't gain any additional raw materials, nor did they get trade and economic restrictions lifted. Instead, all they did was to bring the United States into the Second World War, thus sounding the death knell for Imperial Japan.
Short answer is: Cause= America had placed an embargo on Japan due to their increasing power and taking over most of the South Pacific islands. Japan was wanting to increase its oil for its war effort and saw the Pacific Fleet of the United States as its biggest threat.
Effect= You've always heard that the bombing of Pearl Harbor awoke a sleeping giant, and that it did. The United States was to remain neutral during the second war in Europe and the bombing made declaring war a popular reaction.