Date of Award
Spring 2026
Document Type
Thesis
Abstract
The following work argues that the most common historiography of the United States and Japanese Empire’s relationship prior to Pearl Harbor has been sidelining the economic struggle between the two nations as context rather than cause when discussing the conflict. This choice leaves out important economic analysis that explains both expanding American executive authority and realist Japanese decision-making that pushed both nations into the Pacific Theater. Roosevelt's decades-long undeclared embargo on Japan set a constitutional precedent that shaped every major exercise of executive war power.
Recommended Citation
Haak, Noah, "“The Very Existence of the Empire”: U.S.-Japanese Economic Relations and the Road to Pearl Harbor" (2026). Munn Scholars Awards. 21.
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/munn/21