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Tensions Mount in the Pacific While Britain fights a desperate war in Europe and North Africa, American trade embargos against Japan are extended to crude oil and then to aviation gasoline. With only a year’s supply of petroleum, Japan realised that she would either have to reach an agreement with the US or secure her own oil supplies. During the year there were growing rumours of a Japanese plan to attack Pearl Harbor, however, these were deemed to have ‘no credence’. Further evidence came when a Japanese ‘shopping list’ for spies in Hawaii was intercepted. As with the rumours, this evidence was not acted on. In the midst of this chaos, the war in Europe took an expected turn. France, which had valiantly held out against Germany during World War I, fell. The allies feared that Britain would fall next. Britain pleaded with the US for arms, and Roosevelt, knowing the importance of a British victory, swapped 50 World War I era destroyers for long-term leases on British bases in the Western Hemisphere. When the US accelerated its program to expand its Naval capabilities, Japan realised that the US Navy would be unbeatable in the Pacific by 1942. To counter the US Naval strength, Japan needed access to the oil of the Dutch East Indies. Japan entered a neutrality pact with the Soviet Union to free up its exposed northern flank, and in July of 1941 Japanese troops entered French Indochina. The US knew that Japan would attack, but not where. They thought that the attack would be against British and Dutch interests in South East Asia, but he events of December 7th, 1941 changed that thinking.
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