Question

What main factors led General Tojo to order an attack on the United States? When and

where did Japanese leaders choose to make this fatefulstrike? (

Answer 1

The United States embargoed scrap-metal shipments to Japan and closed the Panama Canal to Japanese shipping. This hit Japan's economy particularly hard because 74.1% of Japan's scrap iron came from the United States in 1938. Also, 93% of Japan's copper in 1939 came from the United States.In May 1940, the United States had made Pearl Harbor the main base for its Pacific Fleet. As Americans didn't expect the Japanese to attack first in Hawaii, some 4,000 miles away from the Japanese mainland, the base at Pearl Harbor was left relatively undefended, making it an easy target