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tazzygirl -> RE: "70% Of Young People Unfit to Enlist" (11/21/2009 10:55:06 AM)
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Your referring to the embargo?
The Roots of War
The roots of the Japanese attack lie deep within cultural and institutional factors within Japan and the U. S. and in the longer term U. S. - Japanese relationship, beginning with the forced opening of Japan for mercantilist purposes by Commodore Perry, and longstanding racist attitudes on the part of both parties. Some modern historical revisionists have attempted to show that an oppressive and bullying U. S. forced Japan into a corner, where it had no choice but to fight. From the Japanese military viewpoint this is correct, since the U. S. had embargoed certain strategic goods (such as oil and scrap metal), and within a few years, Japan would have used up its reserves and been unable to strike. However, this embargo was a response to Japan's cruel and brutal war to seize China for the Empire. Japan later entered into the the Tripartite Agreement, where Japan, Germany, and Italy were bound to mutual support in fighting wars (forming the "Axis" powers). There were a number of political factions within Japan that saw the error in the Tripartate Agreement, believing that it could ultimately lead to a war that it could possibly loose. One reason that these forces were ineffective in stopping this movement toward war is that constitutionally (as a parliamentary democracy), representatives of the Japanese military held seats in any cabinet, and by vacating these seats could bring down any government that it disagreed with. The final result of this was that General Tojo became Prime Minister. The military was thus not under strict civilian political control, but rather the opposite, with the civilian government subject to military dictates. Despite a veneer of democratic institutions, the social structures at the time were essentially feudal, and remnants of these structures can still be found within Japan.
http://www.ccdemo.info/PearlHarbor/PearlHarborDayRemembered.html
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