Japan's Strategic Objectives After the economic sanction imposed by the US, Britain, and Dutch on Japan, the Japanese leaders were torn between reaching an agreement with the United States to surrender their plans to advance in China and other neighboring countries and seizing the Dutch and British possessions by force. Although the latter would give them resources that they need, that meant war against Britain and Netherlands and the United States would likely oppose the war. This choice would be favorable to Japan in the fall of 1941 since the British Empire would not likely win the war and Russian threat was diminished after the invasion from Germany.
The biggest obstacle to the expansion of Japan in Asia was the United States so in order for Japan to continue with their expansion in southeast Asia, the Japanese believed that it was necessary to diminish American power in Pacific by destroying the U.S Pacific Fleet in Pearl Harbor and depriving the United States of the US Far East Air Force base in the Philippines before moving southward and eastward to occupy Malaya, Dutch East Indies, the Philippines, Wake Island, Guam, the Gilbert Islands, Thailand, and Burma. The Japanese were very successful in executing their plan, inflicting a devastating damage on Pearl Harbor and overwhelming Filipino and American defenders in Manila which forced them to retreat in Bataan Peninsula. |