A series of historical events leading to the attack on Pearl Harbor occurred that contributed to the actual attack. War between Japan and the United States had been a possibility that each nation's militaries planned for since the 1920s, though real tension did not begin until the 1931 invasion of Manchuria by Japan. Over the next decade, Japan expanded slowly into China leading to all out war between the two in 1937.

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  • A series of historical events leading to the attack on Pearl Harbor occurred that contributed to the actual attack. War between Japan and the United States had been a possibility that each nation's militaries planned for since the 1920s, though real tension did not begin until the 1931 invasion of Manchuria by Japan. Over the next decade, Japan expanded slowly into China leading to all out war between the two in 1937. In 1940 Japan invaded French Indochina in an effort to embargo all imports into China, including war supplies purchased from the US. This move prompted the Imperial Japanese Navy to estimate that it had less than two years of bunker oil remaining and to support the existing plans to seize oil resources in the Dutch East Indies. Planning had been underway for some time on an attack on the "Southern Resource Area" to add it to the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere Japan envisioned in the Pacific. The Philippine islands, at that time an American territory, was also a target of Japan's. The Japanese military concluded that an invasion of the Philippines would provoke an American military response. Rather than seize and fortify the islands, and wait for the inevitable US counterattack, Japan's military leaders instead decided on the pre-emptive Pearl Harbor attack, which would negate the American forces needed for the liberation and reconquest of the islands. Such an attack would certainly provoke American military involvement in the war. This would complicate matters for the Japanese and a preventive strike was planned which resulted in the attack. Planning for an attack on Pearl Harbor had begun in very early 1941, by Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto. He finally won assent from the Naval High Command by, among other things, threatening to resign. The attack was approved in the summer at an Imperial Conference and again at a second Conference in the fall. Over the next year, pilots were trained, and ships prepared for its execution. Authority for the attack was granted at the second Imperial Conference if a diplomatic result satisfactory to Japan was not reached. The order to attack was issued at the beginning of December.
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  • Causes of World War II
  • more information
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  • Imperial Japanese Navy
  • Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service
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  • A series of historical events leading to the attack on Pearl Harbor occurred that contributed to the actual attack. War between Japan and the United States had been a possibility that each nation's militaries planned for since the 1920s, though real tension did not begin until the 1931 invasion of Manchuria by Japan. Over the next decade, Japan expanded slowly into China leading to all out war between the two in 1937.
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  • Events leading to the attack on Pearl Harbor
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