n. For them, the memories and losses of World War I were still fresh in their minds. Although the U.S participated in a peace treaty toprevent the capture of Shanghai by the Japanese, who were waging another war in the Eastern hemisphere; already increasing Japanese expansion throughout China and occupying the French Indochina in July, 1940,the U.S. didn't want to put their troops placed in any danger.On the morning of December 7,1941, at Pearl Harbor, a U.S. naval base in Hawaii, the Japanese fleet of carriers that had been making it's way toward the Hawaiian Islands went into action. Wave after wave of Japanese aircraft came into the harbor and attacked the American fleet as it sat helpless. No one saw the attack coming, so defense to the assault was minimal. In the aftermath , the final tallies were five U.S. battleships and ten warships had been destroyed, and three more battleships were severely damaged. The death toll was also high. Over 2,400 American soldiers were killed in the strike. That was not the only attack that day, In twenty four hours Japan had launched attacks on Hong Kong, the Malay pennisula, Borneo and the U.S. outpost of Guam.On December 8, The U.S, with Franklin Roosevelt as the President, declared war on Japan. The U.S. was joined by Great Britain, the Netherlands, and several Latin American nations. In retalliation, on December 11, Germany and Italy, which had previously signed a military alliance with Japan, Also declared war on the U.S. Their strategy was to win the Eastern world to cut off valuable resources such as oil, tin and rubber. The U.S. had their own plan though. Along with Britain and the Soviet Union, they had planned to defeat Germany and Italy first than take care of the problems in the east.THE ALLIED AND AXIS POWERSThere were now two groups fighting this war, the Allied forces, consisting of the U.S, Britain and the Soviet Union, and the Axis forces made up of Germany, Italy and Japan. The fi...
