Background

 During the time of Japan’s search for domination, in 1940, over Southeast Asia and the Pacific, they had begun to invade French Indochina and separate regions of China. In the midst of the invasions, the United States placed an embargo on trade with Japan. The embargo blocked Japan from receiving any essential trade goods, including oil, and resources needed for completion of an invasion. Without crucial resources Japan would have to pull out of French Indochina as well as China.  With the U.S military increasing and America’s decision to put an embargo on all trade, the Japanese government was infuriated and in return increased tension between the United States and Japan. As well as increasing Japanese desire to expand its empire throughout the Pacific.  Japan now had a “critical choice: abandon its decade-long effort to control China and return to its home islands, or go to war with the most industrially productive, technologically advanced nation on earth” (Hillstrom 22). Historians believe Japan made the choice in October 1941 (Hillstrom 22). With its hostility towards the United States, they were ruthless in their plans to reach their dreams of hegemony throughout the Pacific. Japanese heard of a plan that Franklin D. Roosevelt was debating on transferring the U.S Pacific Fleet to the Hawaiian Island of Oahu on Pearl Harbor. Unsure if the rumors were true they had to decide quickly where they were to bomb. In result, it lead them to make an important decision on where to attack the United States in order to prevent its intervention into the war, and reach the Eastern Pacific Islands, obtain natural resources, and reach its dream of dominance.  It is now up for you to decide where to attack the United States, just as the Japanese. Click on the link below to view up to the point of decision.

The Decision