In July of 1941 the Japanese took over almost all of Indo-China. In response the United States, Great Britain, and the Netherlands, alarmed by the Japanese expansionism in Asia imposed an embargo upon the island country. The embargo included he precious commodity of oil; with out oil Japan was doomed to economic strangulation. Along with oil were the strategic materials of aviation gasoline, scrap iron, and steel.

Japan attempted to solve the embargo diplomatically with the United States and sent a minister to Washington DC to negotiate and answer. While the diplomats were talking in Washington, the Japanese military concluded their plans of conquest in the Dutch East Indies, which had the oil wells that Japan needed. The next issue was getting the oil back safely to Japan. The shipments of oil would be at risk from the Royal Navy in Singapore and the United States Navy at Pearl Harbor. Inevitably leading the United States into the war.