As the battle in Western Europe moved to the skies over Britain, Japanese leaders speaking of a “new order in Greater East Asia” eyed the semi-orphaned, resource-rich colonies to their south. When the United States tried its hand at deterrence by placing its Pacific fleet at the naval base it had built at Pearl Harbor and by issuing an embargo on some of the raw materials essential to the Japanese military, Japan tried its own policy of deterrence by signing a defensive pact with Germany and Italy.
