Pearl Harbor

            The Japanese air attack on Pearl Harbor (on the Hawaiian island of Oahu), December 7, 1941, was the climax of a decade of rising tension between Japan and the United States. Throughout the 1930s, Japan had been steadily encroaching on China. The United States had been trying to control Japan's development. Since America supplied more than half of Japan's iron, steel, and oil, Japan was hesitant to push the United States too far. It was also focusing on getting control of its own sources of raw materials.
             On September 27, 1940, Japan joined the Triple Alliance with Italy and Germany and began to expand into northern Indochina. The United States, in response, placed an embargo on aviation gasoline, scrap metal, steel, and iron. Japan, in response began planning an attack. Pearl harbor was a position that Americans did not expect. Japan knowing that planned a secret attack. American intelligence tapped into Japan's phone lines and knew of an attack on America but never suspected Pearl Harbor.
             By the time the Japanese's planes returned to their carriers at 9:45, most of the American planes on Oahu were wrecked. The eight battleships, three destroyers, and three cruisers had been put out of action. The two battleships, Oklahoma and Arizona, were completely destroyed--A total of 2,323 U.S. servicemen. Japanese planes attacked Pearl Harbor at 7:55 A.M. on December 7. Then a second wave hit an hour later. The next day President Roosevelt spoke for the American people when he proclaimed December 7 a "date which will live in infamy." .
             With only one opposition, Congress granted Roosevelt's request to recognize the state of war that existed between the United States and Japan. With that vote, America entered World War II. On December 8, the United States declared war on Japan. In the years following 1941, America prepared for war, and in 1945 we finally dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. A few days later, American dropped another bomb in Nagasaki, Japan.