dec 7, 1941 - Pearl Harbor

Description:

By late 1941 the war w/ China was a total stalemate,
Jap economy is embargoed,
it cannot sustain the war against China for long

Jap plan is to invade the Brit and Dutch colonies is SE Asia, which are full of rubber and oil, in order to give a boost to their war economy and deal the finishing blow to China,
to do this they need to first destroy the US Pacific Navy (guarding those colonies) in one big surprise attack,
following this attack the Japanese would quickly take SE Asia before the US could rebuild its fleet,

they do so via bombers kaunched from aircraft carriers to strike the Pearl Harbor naval base in Hawaii,
they are highly succesful in destroying the biggest ships,
but they do not target the aircraft carriers,
US declares war on Jap,

at the same time Jap invades Dutch and Brit colonies in SE Asia and are very succesful, largely because the Europeans are distracted with the war in Europe

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