Reasons for, Events Leading up to, the Attack and the Aftermath of the Attack on Pearl Harbor

During the 1930s, the U.S. watched Japan with growing concern for their aggressive territorial expansion. Japan was on a campaign to rule Southeast Asia and to build an empire. President Franklin D. Roosevelt took necessary precautions to ensure that this did not happen. He moved the main core of the U.S. Pacific Fleet from the west coast of the mainland of the U.S. to Hawaii, on the island of Oahu, at Pearl …

…airfields. Cruisers had been overturned in the muddy water. Rescue boats continuously pulled up to Ford Island to drop off hundreds of wounded crewmen. News of the attack was a shock to the nation. The bombing had convinced the American people that the U.S. needed to fight back against Japan. On Decmeber 7, 1941, the very same day Pearl Harbor was attacked. President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress for a declaration of war on the Japanese.