Editing Preventive war (section)

===Pearl Harbor===
{{Main|Attack on Pearl Harbor|Events leading to the attack on Pearl Harbor}}
Perhaps the most famous example of preventive war is the [[attack on Pearl Harbor]] by the [[Empire of Japan]] on December 7, 1941.<ref name="bakerinstitute.org">J. Barnes, R. Stoll, "PREEMPTIVE AND PREVENTIVE WAR: A PRELIMINARY TAXONOMY", p.15, THE JAMES A. BAKER III INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC POLICY RICE UNIVERSITY, [http://www.bakerinstitute.org/publications/Preemptive%20and%20Preventive%20War-1.pdf URL] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101123064942/http://bakerinstitute.org/publications/Preemptive%20and%20Preventive%20War-1.pdf |date=2010-11-23 }}</ref> Many in the US and Japan believed war to be inevitable. Coupled to the crippling US economic embargo that was rapidly degrading the Japanese military capability, that led the Japanese leadership to believe it was better to have the war as soon as possible.<ref name="bakerinstitute.org"/>

The sneak attack was partly motivated by a desire to destroy the [[US Pacific Fleet]] to allow Japan to advance with reduced opposition from the US when it secured Japanese oil supplies by fighting against the [[British Empire]] and the [[Dutch Empire]] for control over the rich East Indian ([[Dutch East Indies]], [[Malay Peninsula]]) oil-fields.<ref>Keith Crane, ''Imported oil and US national security'', p. 26, Rand Environment, Energy, and Economic Development (Program), International Security and Defense Policy Center</ref> In 1940, American policies and tension toward [[Military history of Japan#Showa Period - World War II|Japanese military actions]] and [[Japanese expansionism]] in the Far East increased. For example, in May 1940, the base of the US Pacific Fleet that was stationed on the [[West Coast of the United States|West Coast]] was forwarded to an "advanced" position at Pearl Harbor in [[Honolulu]], [[Hawaii]].

The move was opposed by some [[US Navy]] officials, including their commander, Admiral [[James Otto Richardson]], who was relieved by Roosevelt.{{citation needed|date=July 2010}} Even so, the [[Far East Fleet]] was not significantly reinforced. Another ineffective plan to reinforce the Pacific was a rather late relocation of fighter planes to bases located on the [[Pacific islands]] like [[Wake Island]], [[Guam]], and the [[Philippines]]. For a long time, Japanese leaders, especially leaders of the [[Imperial Japanese Navy]], had known that the large US military strength and production capacity posed a long-term threat to [[Japanese expansionism|Japan's imperialist desires]], especially if hostilities broke out in the Pacific.{{citation needed|date=April 2008}} War games on both sides had long reflected those expectations.