10h 25min, jul 26, 1941 y - US Freezes Japanese Assets in the States

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President Franklin Roosevelt seizes all Japanese assets in the United States in retaliation for the Japanese occupation of French Indo-China. Given that France had long occupied parts of the region, and Germany, a Japanese ally, now controlled most of France through Petain’s puppet government, France “agreed” to the occupation of its Indo-China colonies. Japan followed up by occupying Cam Ranh naval base, 800 miles from the Philippines, where Americans had troops, and the British base at Singapore. In response to this, and also the Japanese’s general increasing aggression (USS Panay, Tripartite Pact, Chinese Invasion), the US froze the Japanese’s assets in the US, which resulted in Japan losing access to three-fourths of its overseas trade. Japan the considered trying to seize Saigon and Southeast Asia. Japan was now faced with a dilemma: back off of its occupation of Southeast Asia and hope the oil embargo and would be eased—or seize the oil and further antagonize the West, even into war. This would eventually lead to Japan attacking Pearl Harbor.

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