where did japan invade to get resources?
China
contradiction
 Faced with the prospect of an invasion of the Home Islands , starting with Kyūshū , and the prospect of a Soviet invasion of Manchuria — Japan 's last source of natural resources — the War Journal of the Imperial Headquarters concluded : 

neutral
 In September 1941 Japan began its southward expansion by expanding its military presence in Indochina ( " securing ' points d 'appui ' " ) and decisively increased the number of stationed personnel and planes . This provoked the United States , the United Kingdom , and other Western governments to freeze Japanese assets , while the US ( which supplied 80 percent of Japan 's oil ) responded by placing a complete oil embargo on the Japanese Empire . As a result , Japan was essentially forced to choose between abandoning its ambitions in South @-@ East Asia and its prosecution of the war against China , or seizing the natural resources it needed by force . The Japanese military did not consider the former an option as attacking Soviet Russia instead of expanding into South Asia had become a more and more unpopular choice since Japan 's humiliating defeat at the Battle of Khalkin Gol in 1939 and the final rejection of any near @-@ term action in Siberia shortly after Germany began its invasion of the USSR . Moreover , many officers considered America 's oil embargo an unspoken declaration of war . With the harsh oil sanctions imposed by the United States , the Japanese leadership was now even more determined to remain in China . Germany had refused to sell Japan the blueprints to make synthetic oil , so Japan 's only hope for oil was to invade the Dutch East Indies , which would result in war with the United States and Britain . To succeed the Japanese had to neutralize the powerful United States Pacific Fleet , so they could prevent it from interfering with future Japanese movements in South @-@ East Asia and negotiate peace terms from a strong hand . 

neutral
 Imperial forces soon consolidated their hold on mainland Japan , and , in April 1869 , dispatched a fleet and an infantry force of 7 @,@ 000 to Ezo , starting the Battle of Hakodate . The Imperial forces progressed swiftly and won the naval engagement at Hakodate Bay , Japan 's first large @-@ scale naval battle between modern navies , as the fortress of Goryōkaku was surrounded with 800 remaining men . Seeing the situation had become desperate , the French advisers escaped to a French ship stationed in Hakodate Bay — Coëtlogon , under the command of Dupetit @-@ Thouars — from where they were shipped back to Yokohama and then France . The Japanese requested that the French advisers be given judgement in France ; however , due to popular support in France for their actions , the former French advisers in Japan were not punished for their actions . 

neutral
 The Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931 marked a period of increasing belligerence from the Japanese Empire , and as the decade progressed the Dutch grew concerned about the security of their East Indies colonies . The islands , which included Java , Sumatra , Borneo and part of New Guinea , were enormously important both politically and strategically to the Dutch , who had lived and traded there for more than three centuries . Over 500 @,@ 000 settlers had moved from the Netherlands to this " second homeland " , and the East Indies possessed abundant valuable resources , the most important of which were the rubber plantations and oilfields ; the islands were the fourth @-@ largest exporters of oil in the world , behind the United States , Iran , and Romania . 

contradiction
 For the two centuries prior to 1854 , Japan had severely limited exchange with foreign nations , with the notable exceptions of Korea via Tsushima , Qing China via the Ryūkyūs , and the Dutch through the trading post of Dejima . In 1854 , Commodore Perry opened Japan to global commerce with the implied threat of force , thus initiating a period of rapid development in foreign trade and Westernization . In large part due to the humiliating terms of the Unequal Treaties , as agreements like those conveyed by Perry are called , the Shogunate soon faced internal hostility , which materialized into a radical movement , the sonnō jōi ( literally " Revere the Emperor , expel the barbarians " ) . 
