United States declaration of war on Japan

Japan during World War II On December 8, 1941, at 12:30 PM ET, the United States Congress declared war on the Empire of Japan in response to its surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. Quotes One of the judges in the Tokyo War Crimes Trial after World War II, Radhabinod Pal ... argued that the United States had clearly provoked the war with Japan and expected Japan to act. Richard Minear (Victors' Justice) sums up Pal's view of the embargoes on scrap iron and oil, that "these measures were a clear and potent threat to Japan's very existence." The records show that a White House conference two weeks before Pearl Harbor anticipated a war and discussed how it should be justified. Howard Zinn in A People's History of the United States,(Full text online) (1980) p. 402 External links