Editing Axis powers (section)

====War justifications====
[[File:Patto Tripartito.jpg|thumb|Italian propaganda poster by [[Gino Boccasile]] illustrating the strength of the Tripartite Pact, with [[samurai]] warrior sinking British and American ships, and the [[naval ensign]]s of the three powers flying behind him.]]
The Japanese government justified its actions by claiming that it was seeking to unite [[East Asia]] under Japanese leadership in a [[Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere]] that would free [[East Asian people|East Asians]] from domination and rule by clients of Western powers.<ref>[[Barak Kushner]]. The Thought War: Japanese Imperial Propaganda. University of Hawaii Press, p. 119.</ref> Japan invoked themes of [[Pan-Asianism]] and said that the Asian people needed to be free from Western influence.<ref>Hilary Conroy, Harry Wray. ''Pearl Harbor Reexamined: Prologue to the Pacific War''. University of Hawaii Press, 1990. p. 21.</ref>

The United States opposed the [[Second Sino-Japanese War]], and recognized [[Chiang Kai-shek|Chiang Kai-Shek]]'s [[Nationalist Government]] as the legitimate government of China. As a result, the United States sought to bring the Japanese war effort to a halt by imposing an embargo on all trade between the United States and Japan. Japan was dependent on the United States for 80 percent of its [[petroleum]], and as a consequence the embargo resulted in an economic and military crisis for Japan, as Japan could not continue its war effort against China without access to petroleum.<ref>Euan Graham. ''Japan's sea lane security, 1940–2004: a matter of life and death?'' Oxon, England; New York: Routledge, 2006. p. 77.</ref>

In order to maintain its military campaign in China with the major loss of petroleum trade with the United States, Japan saw the best means to secure an alternative source of petroleum in the petroleum-rich and natural-resources-rich [[Southeast Asia]].<ref name="Daniel Marston 2011">Daniel Marston. ''The Pacific War: From Pearl Harbor to Hiroshima''. Osprey Publishing, 2011.</ref> This threat of retaliation by Japan to the total trade embargo by the United States was known by the American government, including American Secretary of State [[Cordell Hull]] who was negotiating with the Japanese to avoid a war, fearing that the total embargo would pre-empt a Japanese attack on the [[Dutch East Indies]].<ref>Hilary Conroy, Harry Wray. ''Pearl Harbor Reexamined: Prologue to the Pacific War''. University of Hawaii Press, 1990. p. 60.</ref>

Japan identified the [[United States Pacific Fleet]] based in [[Pearl Harbor Naval Base]] as the principal threat to its designs to invade and capture Southeast Asia.<ref name="Daniel Marston 2011"/> Thus Japan initiated the attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 as a means to inhibit an American response to the invasion of Southeast Asia, and buy time to allow Japan to consolidate itself with these resources to engage in a [[total war]] against the United States, and force the United States to accept Japan's acquisitions.<ref name="Daniel Marston 2011"/> On 7 December 1941 Japan [[Japanese declaration of war on the United States and the British Empire|declared war on the United States and the British Empire]].