December 7th, 1941, was destined to be remembered as a “day of infamy” and as a day in which the Second World War transcended Europe and engulfed the rest of the world. Ironically, it is not remembered as what it really was: the culmination of four years of failed negotiations, trade restrictions, sanctions and diplomatic disputes between the United States and Japan. How then did all of this come to pass?
The ill-famed oil embargo in the months preceding the attack on Pearl Harbor is often given a lion's share of the blame but this is false. In truth, the blame for war falls largely on the shoulders of Cordell Hull, United States Secretary of State from 1933-1944. Throughout the years 1937-1941, Hull was responsible for crafting U.S. foreign policy in the most turbulent Asia the world had ever known.
Unfortunately, Hull's policies ended in nothing but war; they were an abject failure. Hull failed to heed the advice of more knowledgeable figures such as Joseph C. Grew, U.S. Ambassador to Japan, and Hull also refused to offer the Japanese any sort of compromise aside from one he knew they would decline. Hull, largely through acquiescence, allowed circumstances to deteriorate until the point where they could not be easily reversed and war increasingly became the best and eventually only option for Japan.
The ill-famed oil embargo in the months preceding the attack on Pearl Harbor is often given a lion's share of the blame but this is false. In truth, the blame for war falls largely on the shoulders of Cordell Hull, United States Secretary of State from 1933-1944. Throughout the years 1937-1941, Hull was responsible for crafting U.S. foreign policy in the most turbulent Asia the world had ever known.
Unfortunately, Hull's policies ended in nothing but war; they were an abject failure. Hull failed to heed the advice of more knowledgeable figures such as Joseph C. Grew, U.S. Ambassador to Japan, and Hull also refused to offer the Japanese any sort of compromise aside from one he knew they would decline. Hull, largely through acquiescence, allowed circumstances to deteriorate until the point where they could not be easily reversed and war increasingly became the best and eventually only option for Japan.
