World War II about oil?

Question

Watching a documentary-the US interfered with Japanese oil accessability-

Answer 1

Your question/statement comes no where NEAR what the real issue was.

An American fleet was sent to Pearl Harbor to hopefully be a deterent to the Japanese. Japan needed oil and other raw materials desperately especially with their seemingly endless meat grinder war they started against China. Eventually, the United States and other powers cut off Japan's oil as a result of Japan's continued aggression. This infuriated the Japanese and a plan to take out America was hatched.

The Empire of Japan had conquered a great portion of the Western and Southern Pacific. They eventually wanted to expand East towards the United States West Coast. Japan knew that America was going to be a problem but they thought that if the Japanese could hit America big that the Americas would either (1) be so set back that it would take them years to recover or (2) knock them out completely thus eliminating the threat altogether. It was a gamble to be sure.

The Japanese target was eventually decided to be Pearl Harbor. With a large U.S West Coast fleet deployed to Pearl Harbor, a surprise attack against this fleet just might work and was really the only hope the Japanese had. The attack itself was carried out early on a Sunday when most of the fleet was docked and the ships had skeleton crews on board. But overall the Japanese plan was brilliant.

The attack, while a surprise and on the surface did seem to be successful, was not. The Americans did not have all of their ships in Pearl Harbor. One important ship, the aircraft carrier Enterprise - along with other ships - were at sea during the attack. Nevertheless, a lot of ships were destroyed and a lot of good men died but all the attack did was stir up anger and resentment towards the Japanese. America immediately declared war against the Empire of Japan.

When the Japanese learned the truth of their attack, they knew that their days were numbered. Japanese military commanders said that they could slow the Americans down but ultimately would not win the war against them. The Battle of Midway halted the Japanese expansion and sealed Japan's eventual doom.

I did not copy and paste this. I typed it from memory because I paid attention in my history classes and did not have Liberal professors that like to bash the greatest country on the planet.

If you're a high school student you are not learning anything and you need to tell your parents. If you are a college student you STILL aren't learning anything and your parents are wasting their money on you.

Answer 2

I think that you should substitute the word Oil for Resources, and you will find that most major conflicts have been about that, as without access to resources any society cannot progress and may even regress.

The Russians spent a century getting into wars in order to obtain a warm water port, in other words a major harbour which didnt freeze in the winter, so that they could import resources.

The Nazis invaded the Balkans and Russia in WW2 in order to get oilfields and Gas.

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour was because of a U.S embargo on not just oil but Steel as well, and therefore the Japanese knew that if they were to remain strong enough to have an asian empire, they had to attack the U.S before the embargo weakened them. If they had waited a year then they would have been too weak to ever stand up to the west.

Answer 3

It is tempting to try to explain complex questions with easy answers, especially on this forum.

But the reality is that WW2 was fought for a variety of reasons, all of them complex and related to the preceding 50 years history, treaties, and alliances.

keep in mind that the leadership back then had to wait for days to weeks to receive real intelligence or news about events taking place on the other side of the world.

There was no instantaneous information transfer like we have grown accustomed to today.

If YOU were the leader of a nation and heard a RUMOUR of an invasion, you would end up with several sleepless nights of high anxiety, fear and uncertainty to cloud your final reaction.

Plus WW2 was the last time that the leaders of the great powers of the day had the luxury of simple plans of conquest as the world economy was far simpler than now and far less interconnected.

Yes, it is true that oil is a strategic resource, but you failed to mention that hte US also froze over 4 billion dollars of Japanese currency in their banks.

I am certain that someone could put that in modern dollars, but I would guess that simply multiplying by 100 would give an idea of how much that meant to the Japanese as well.

Plus since you citing this documentary as your source of information, you should not discount the very real evil that the axis powers were ruled by.

Germany- Hitler
Italy- Mussolini
Japan- Hirohito/Tojo

These were some of the cruelest men ever to live, their alliance formed a kind of "perfect storm" of evil. They believed in simple conquest, like you read about in history books, like Ghengis Khan or the various Caesars.

Fortunately, the world has evolved somewhat from these kinds of social arrangements and very much so have the advanced societies left this kind of thinking behind.

For all the evils perpetrated by Russia, China or occaisionally the US, none of them are truly evil on the scale that the WW2 axis powers were.

Rape of Nanking
Holocaust

America at its worst, say during the Japanese internment periods, at least those people were not institutionally starved, raped, beaten or murdered. Americans are not cruel by nature. The Nazis and the military caste of Japan most assuredly were.

World War 2 was fought to defend a fragile alliance of democracies. Yes their economies developed as a result, but you can hardly fault people for wanting to eat!

Answer 4

Yes, after the Japanese invaded China the US stopped selling oil to them. At the time the US was a major oil exporter. The Japanese then had to choices, stop the war in China or get another oil supply. They choice to get another oil supply. The only one in the Pacific Rim at the time was in Dutch colonies around New Java. To do that the Japanese Navy would have to sail past the Philippians, an American base, to attack New Java. Rather than do this and risk the American declaring war on the and attack their supply lines from the Phillipian, they choice to start the war with US. They destroyed the American fleet and overran the Philippians securing their access to the Dutch oil fields and allowing them to continue to attack China.

Answer 5

LMAO! Alright look, the businessmen of America are not out to fight wars. The bouregoise class is not out there to get you. These enterpreuners have conflicting interests on all issues and even though some oil companies profited from wars, this does not prove the fact that the war was fought over oil that becase there is no such evidence.

There are many theories of why that war was fought. My take on it. The Versailles treaty badly demoralized Germany from the first war, yet it was not enforcable in the sense that Germany was able to leave, bring up their army, using nationailism capturing the hearts of millions of men, and slowly beggining to take territories. They were pissed off and wanted to prove something.

The only case you can about it being fought over oil is when Japan attacked US. There, Japan needed oil to keep fighting the war and since US put sanctions on it, that might be the biggest reason.

Answer 6

It was an economic embargo to protest Japan's actions in China. It's no different from what the US later did to South Africa and present policy towards Sudan, Burma, etc. The civilian goverment of Japan at the time wanted to withdraw from China and defuse the situation with the US, but the fanatics were able to take control and provoke a war with the US. Imagine how a billion Chinese would feel today about the US if the policy was just to let Japan rape China because no one wanted to interfere with Japan's oil supply!

Answer 7

Oil was used as fuel for some battleships, all vehicles, tanks, etc.... Being able to destroy your enemy's oil supplies, or prevent their supply lines was a strategic objective. It has been that way since war became modernized. WW2 wasn't about oil but controlling the enemy's access was a factor in the war.

Answer 8

interesting but never heard that
rubber I knew

The Japanese hit our Pearl Harbor and targeted the oil fields.

If your point is Iraq is not the first engagement with issues over oil, you are right. As the others have stated Bush was not the first one here. Just the fall guy during an election season. Divide a country, make Republican's look bad. Politics as usual. Thanks.

Answer 9

Yes, of course.
1. The Germans aimed at Baku and Iraq.
2. US cut Japanese supplies.

Answer 10

For the Japs and Germans, part of the war was about oil. The Japs needed it to continue their war in China, the Germans needed it from the Russians in order to continue their war against Britain.

On the Allied side, there were certainly defensive actions to hold onto oil, but no realy offensive plans to seize any.

Keep in mind, the U.S. interfered with the Japs by way of embargo; basically saying they would not do business with the Japs, not sell our oil to them.

Nothing wrong with that.