Why Did The Japanese Army Carry Out The Pearl Harbor Attack - Annotated Bibliography Example

The paper “Why Did the Japanese Army Carry Out the Pearl Harbor Attack?" is a spectacular example of an annotated bibliography on history. Allison Lassieu with her book "The Attack on Pearl Harbor: An Interactive History Adventure" begins a list of authoritative authors. Lassie is a well known professional freelance author. She had started her career in publishing (as a passionate D&D player) and later had been working as an editor in the publishing arena for 13 years. Some of the magazines she edited included Disney Adventures.

As Lassieur points out, the attack of the Pearl Harbor could be anticipated sometime before being executed. The main reason for the Pearl Harbor attack was to neutralize the U.S. Pacific fleet. This was intended to progress the Japanese mission to advance into Dutch East Indies and Malaya (Lassieur 16). The Japanese wanted to venture in these regions in order to get access to natural resources, which included rubber and oil. In the 1930s, Japan was already expanding into Manchuria, the fact which led to an intensification of tensions.

Being the worlds largest power, America posed a major threat barrier to the Japanese in their efforts. The tension between these two countries intensified during the 1930s; this tension led to the Pearl Harbor attack that marked the beginning of World War II (Lassieur 18). In the year 1940, the Japanese invasion of French Indochina bled the American government to impose strict sanctions against Japan. For instance, the American government stopped the shipment of airplanes, machine tools, parts as well as aviation gasoline.

Later, the American government also threatens to impose more restrictions by prohibiting the sale of scrap metal. Through their ambassador to the US, Japan reacted to these restrictions on the ground that they were unfriendly. However, after the Japanese expansion to Indochina, the U.S. stopped oil exports to Japan in July 1941 (Lassieur 21). Merriam, Ray. Pearl Harbor: "This Is No Drill!" New York: Merriam Press, 1999. Ray Merriam is a renowned author who owns a publishing house - Merriam Press.

As Merriam observes, long before the Japanese attack on the U.S. at the Pearl Harbor the two had been in the continuous rivalry. A few years before the attack, their associations had worsened. The major cause of this contention was the Japanese action of assertively expanding Manchuria and China (Merriam 59). Japan was also progressively becoming more authoritative and influential. Therefore, the U.S. saw it as a great threat to its status. As a result, America was ready to stop midstream any effort made by Japan to enlarge its territory.

Streissguth Thomas. The Attack on Pearl Harbor. New York: Green haven Press, 2002. Print Streissguth has published over forty books on history, geography among other subjects. He also took employment in magazines firms in New York for 4 years and also in Minneapolis as a (juvenile book) editor for 6 years.After World War I, there were many issues that were left unresolved. This was another factor that contributed to World War II, which began with the attack of Pearl Harbor. These led to increased nationalistic tensions that led to World War II (Streissguth 8).

The main reason for the parlor attack was to protect the move to the Southern Resource Area. As a result of these tensions, the Japanese government started planning for their attacks early in 1941. Tames, Richard. Pearl Harbor: The US Enters World War II. USA: Heinemann/Rain-tree Publishers, 2006. Print Tames teaches on the history of London at the Tourist Guiding Institute. He has authored 20 books that focus on London’s history. He is, therefore, a known historian. During World War II, there was a war between France and Britain and Germany and Italy.

However, the United States remained neutral and did not join the war. Japan wanted to expand and grow economically by taking control of the natural resources in Asia, but the United States prevented it. This brought about conflict and mistrust between the two countries and it was clear that a confrontation was imminent (Tames 5).The US navy had been using Pearl Harbor in Hawaii since the beginning of the 20th century. In order to stop Japan from making moves in the Pacific, the US navy was sent to Pearl Harbor in April 1940.

The United States had placed constraints on Japan to prevent them from expanding aggressively into the Pacific. The surprise attack on the US fleet was planned since Japan did not have enough resources to fight against the US. The surprise attack would incapacitate the United States troops in one strike (Tames 9). China was seeking access to rubber and oil from the Dutch East Indies and Malaya and Japan were interested in conquering this region and attaining enough resource autonomy. Japan saw the United States as a hindrance to its achievement of this goal.

Therefore, the Japanese troops planned an attack on Pearl Harbor on the fleet units of the Americans. The aim of the attack was to deter Americans from preventing Japan to conquer Malaya and the East Indies. Another aim was to enable Japan to get time to augment its position and naval strength to increase its chances of winning the war. Moreover, the Japanese wanted to destroy the confidence of the Americans and dispirit them from taking their war to the Dutch East Indies and the Eastern Pacific ocean.

Japan did not want any country to interfere with it in its conquest of Southeast Asia. During the attack, Japan targeted the prestigious battleships of the US navy to completely dishearten them from interfering with their mission.