America Enters the War

Japan Attacks the United States • America embargoes Japan – Aug 1939 to

Dec. 1941 FDR’s primary goal was to help Britain and its allies defeat Germany. He knew GB was divided because it had to keep much of its navy in Asia to protect their territories from Japanese attack. When Germany began attacking GB in the Atlantic they had to move some of their navy back there and thus were vulnerable in Asia. So FDR introduced policies to discourage the Japanese from attacking the British Empire.

• FDR begins by putting economic pressure on Japan. Japan depended on US for many key materials, scrap iron, steel, and especially oil.

• July 1940 Congress passed Export Control Act , giving FDR the power to restrict the sale of strategic materials to other nations. He immediately blocked the sale of airplane fuel and scrap iron to Japan. Furious, Japan signed an alliance with Germany and Italy and became a member of the Axis.

• 1941 FDR began sending lend-lease aid to China, in hopes that they would be able to “tie up” Japans forces and prevent them from attacking elsewhere.

• This effort failed and Japan continued to attack. FDR then froze all of Japan’s assets in the US and sent Gen. Douglas MacArthur to the Philippines to build up American defenses there.

Japan Attacks Pearl Harbor• Japan continued to negotiate with US

• American intelligence, however, had decoded Japanese communications that made it clear that Japan was preparing to go to war against the US!

• Nov. 27, 1941 American commanders at Pearl Harbor naval base received a war warning from Washington, but Hawaii was not listed as a possible target. Washington officials doubted Japan would try to launch such a long-range attack.

• The failure to collect sufficient information and the failure of the branches of the US military to share the information available left Pearl harbor an open target!

• Japan’s surprise attack on Pearl Harbor took place on December 7, 1941. They sank or damaged 21 ships of the US Pacific Fleet, including 8 battleships, 3 cruisers, 4 destroyers, and 6 other vessels. The attack also destroyed 188 airplanes and killed 2,403 Americans. Another 1,178 were injured!

• The next day, Dec. 8, 1941, FDR asked Congress to declare war on Japan. Senate voted 88 to 0 and the House voted 388 to 1 to declare war on Japan.

• Dec. 11, 1941 Germany and Italy both declared war on the United States.