On December 7, 1941, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt described the day as a day "that will live in infamy." The attack on Pearl Harbor in the early morning hours of December 7 was one of the most devastating defeats the United States of America had ever suffered. In the years leading up to the attack, numerous events occurred that fueled Japanese aggression against the United States. Some say these events could have been avoided and others say the president let the events happen to advance his agenda that the United States' entry into World War II was inevitable. So why did the Japanese attack the United States at Pearl Harbor? Japan was a small nation in dire need of resources to prosper. They need iron for their weapons, rubber for their tires, and coal and oil for their fuel. In July 1937, to seize its coal and iron reserves, Japan successfully launched a brutal attack on China. This would be the start of Japan's assault on the Pacific region. This assault lasted three years without anyone being involved because tensions were becoming futile in the European theater. In the spring of 1940, tensions between the United States and Japan were rising in the Pacific region. President Roosevelt, as a show of force, transferred the U.S. naval fleet to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The move would give Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, commander in chief of the Combined Fleet, the ammunition he needed to urge his government that Japan needed to expand its naval air power. By July 1940, President Roosevelt had imposed a limitation on the sale of scrap metal and steel and completely reprimanded the sale of aviation fuel to Japan. This decision came after Japan had advanced on the South...... middle of paper...... victory to absolute victory. » Works Cited Smith, Carl, David Aiken, Jim Laurier and Adam Hook. Pearl Harbor 1941: the day of infamy. Rev. 60th anniversary ed. Oxford: Osprey, 2001. Divine, Robert A. “America and the World, 1921-1945.” In The American Story: Combined Volume. 5th ed. Boston: Pearson, 2013. 887-889. Dougherty, Steve. Pearl Harbor: the United States enters World War II. New York: Franklin Watts, 2010. Zimm, Alan D. “The Myth of Pearl Harbor.” World War II 26, no. 4 (November 2011): 34. MasterFILE Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed March 18, 2014). Eidenmuller, Michael. "American Rhetoric: Franklin Delano Roosevelt - Pearl Harbor Address to the Nation (08-12-41)." http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/fdrpearlharbor.htm (accessed March 19, 2014). Nat’t Geo: Pearl Harbor. DVD. Directed by Michael Rosenfeld. Washington, DC: National Geographic video; 2001.