The pacific war

In the summer of 1941 three months before Tōjō was appointed prime minister the United States demanded that Japan withdraw from Indonesia. The Japanese refused. In return Washington declared an embargo against Japan. This embargo deprived the Japanese empire of strategic raw materials in particular oil on which the country depended for the war against China. In response to this embargo on December 7 1941 the Japanese fleet assembled at Hitokappu Bay aided by German spy service secretly attacked the U.S. Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor.The following day Japanese troops invaded Thailand and attacked the British colonies of Malaya Singapore and Hong Kong as well as the territories of Wake Island Guam and the Philippines. The Japanese expanded their empire with the conquest of Vietnam Cambodia and Laos.The Pacific War details the history of the wars launched by Japan in the Pacific and South Asia (1941-1945).