Japan had a very clear reason why it wanted to attack the United States. “It was dangerously dependent on America for scrap iron, steel and especially oil: 80% of its oil came from the United States. The administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt had for years attempted to use economic sanctions as leverage to force Japan to abandon its invasion of China.”4 By imposing bans on oil and steel, Japan's economy was severely damaged. hit. The Japanese believed that America was hindering their Asian consensus, which really impressed them to launch an attack on Pearl Harbor. However, the attack on Pearl Harbor by Japan was successful by destroying the ships, but they failed to destroy the Pacific Fleet. This day will be remembered as one of the darkest days in the history of the United States. Japan's situation during World War II caused an attack on the United States and this made it scary that they had to face the consequences later. The attack on Pearl Harbor had a major impact on the outcome of World War II, if Japan had never carried out its plans to bomb Pearl Harbor, the Axis power would have had a better chance of winning the second war world war and innocent lives could have been lost.