This Day in History Spinoff: 70th Anniversary of "a date which will live in infamy"

[Amnorix]

This is a spinoff from the This Day in History Thread dealing with the events of 1941 leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, “a day which will live in infamy.”

For anyone unfamiliar with it, the This Day in History thread can be found here: http://www.chiefsplanet.com/BB/showthread.php?t=199589



For those who may be less familiar with the topic, by late 1941 most of Europe and Asia was already at war, and had been for years. After years of tension in Europe as a result of Hitler’s aggressive policies, the invasion of Poland by Germany on September 1, 1939 finally resulted in war between England and France, on one side, and Germany on the other. By spring 1941, France had already been brought to her knees by the Wehrmacht and its blitzkrieg tactics, Italy was in the war, and Northern Africa was a battleground as Italy/Germany and England fought for control over that strategic area. Also in 1941, Germany launched Operation Barbarossa, bringing Russia into the war also. By this point (November), however, the German advance had greatly slowed, and it would reach its high water mark outside Moscow on December 5.

Asia, meanwhile, had been at war for much longer. The Japanese had an aggressive, militaristic government which had controlled the Korean peninsula for decades, and then invaded Manchuria in 1931. In 1937 it had also invaded China. While this entire period is often ignored or forgotten by those of us in the “West,” if you count the period of 1937-1941, then by some estimates over half of the casualties in the "Pacific theater" of war during World War II happened PRIOR to the United States even entering the war.

In September, 1940, Japan had tied her fate to those of her new allies, Germany and Italy, by signing the Tripartite Pact, forming the military alliance that would be better known to history as the Axis.

As a result of these various aggressive acts, especially the invasion of China, tensions between the US and Japan were at an all-time high. Between 1939 and 1941 the US steadily increased the economic sanctions it imposed on Japan, a nation that was (and is) very poor in natural resources, including oil. By late summer 1941 the US had prohibited the sale of oil and scrap metal to Japan, and had frozen its financial accounts in the US. It’s hard to imagine now, but then the US was the world’s largest oil exporter, and Japan – which produced less than 10% of its needs -- received 80% of its imported oil from the US in 1940. Most of the rest of its imports, 13%, were from the Dutch East Indies, which followed the US’s lead. Thus by August 1941, 93% of Japan’s oil suppliers had told it that it would no longer sell it the crucial commodity.

As a result, the fiercely proud and militaristic Japanese leadership decided that it could not bow to US demands, but would rather need to obtain oil and whatever other resources it required by force. Shipping such goods back to Japan in the face of a hostile American navy was impossible however. There was only one way to prevent the American navy from blocking oil and other shipments to Japan. It was unlikely to work – Japan had 1/10th of the American industrial capacity -- but given the alternative of withdrawing from China and the loss of face of bowing to America, it was the only plan possible….



As a housekeeping note – this thread may not be terribly long. I only have 30 days after all, though I will back up and post a couple of events prior to today. I also don’t (yet) have something to say for each day between now and the infamous date. I will consult some additional materials, however, and see if I can come up with more than what I already have in hand.