Causes of American Involvement in World War 2

Causes for American Involvement in World War II

Corey Carter

HIS125

Kristopher Daniels

March 15, 2013

The United States was attacked December 7, 1941 at Pearl Harbor by Japan. On December 8 Congress declared war on Japan in retaliation to those lost at Pearl. By December 11 Germany declared war on us. The attack on Pearl Harbor was the turning point for the United States that helped them make the decision to enter World War II. This event happened on December 7, 1941when “360 Japanese aircraft attacked the major U.S. Naval Base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.” (World War II 2012). This attack claimed over 2,000 troops that day, officially, on December 8th, the United States claimed war with Japan. Germany and other countries decided to claim war against the United States. (World War II 2012)The Second World War ended when American planes dropped atomic bombs on Japanese cities in 1945. (Henretta and Brody 2010)

By the beginning stages of World War II, Nazi Germany were not too thrilled with American supply ships providing aid and assistance via workers and supplies to Allied troops during the war. The Allied troops consisted of Russia, England, China, and France and they were key allies of the United States at that point in time during the war, in which Nazi Germany at the time objected to (Mintz, 2007). Before things took a turn for the worse in regards to war efforts, the United States Congress approved the “Neutrality Acts”, which were created simply to keep the United States out of wars with countries who were fighting civil wars like Germany, Japan, China, Italy, Britain, and most of Europe overall.

This is when the Neutrality Acts came into play hence resulting in the United States choosing to stay out of the war at all costs by implementing those acts (Gordon, 2008). However, FDR, or Franklin Delano Roosevelt found various loopholes throughout those acts and created the Lend-Lease Act, which essentially was a countermeasure to the Neutrality Acts in...