Japan attacked the us at pearl harbor in an effort to

1. divert the focus of the war away from the axis.
2. eliminate the us as a threat in the pacific.
3. stop the us from expanding in the pacific.
4. force the world to lift an embargo against it.

The correct answer is 2. Japan attacked the US at Pearl Harbor in an effort to  eliminate the US as a threat in the Pacific.

The attack on Pearl Harbor sought to neutralize the Pacific Fleet of the United States and thus protect Japan's advance in British Malaysia and the Dutch East Indies, where they sought access to natural resources such as oil and rubber.

At the beginning of 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered the transfer of the Pacific Fleet to Hawaii from his previous base in San Diego and ordered the rearmament of the Philippines with the hope of deterring the Japanese aggression in the Far East. The Japanese high command was wrongly convinced that any attack on the British colonies in Southeast Asia would cause the United States to enter the world war, so it decided to carry out a devastating preventive strike that would prevent US naval interference.

The attack deeply shocked the American people and led directly to the entry of the United States in World War II, both in the theaters of war in Europe and the Pacific. The day after this offensive, December 8, the United States declared war on the Empire of Japan.

franklin d. roosevelt

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