The morning of December 7th, 1941 saw Pearl Harbor awake to a Japanese surprise attack
intended to remove the USA from WWII before this "sleeping giant awoke".
Japanese Imperial expansion has resulted in embargoes
levied by the United States and her allies
which, if left intact would significantly reduce Japan's ability to wage war
While conflict seemed inevitable. Japan made the curious decision to strike first
in attempt to deliver a crippling blow before the US could direct
it's full attention at the Eastern power
The US was, and still is, a vast land of abundant crops and natural resources.
It was also one of the most thoroughly industrialized nations of the world.
Paul Kennedy, a Yale historian ranked the major players in WWII factoring in industrial capacity,
agricultural production, and economic power among other things.
He ranked the United states with a war potential
The American way was one of hard work and high rewards.
It was this that the Japanese, and even the Germans feared, the industrial capacity and
weighted determination of the American people.
Admiral Yamamoto wrote this is response to the outcome of Pearl Harbour to a Japanese journalist:
And what followed on the industrial front, as
well as the war front, was indeed a determined counter attack.
Over the next 4 years American shipyards built:
These US ships were built assembly line style with major components being manufactured across
the country and transported by rail.
In the case of the Liberty cargo ships, sections weighing up to 250 tons were transported at
a time.
Shipyard competed against shipyard to produce more ships at a faster and faster rate, with
one liberty ship being built in just 4 days, 15 hours and 29 minutes, while on average
It represented an unprecedented level of unity and organization on the home front.
This was the type of industrialized effort that was also put into building planes for
aerial bombardment, amphibious landing craft for beach assaults and tanks for advances
on the ground.
It was one of the major factors that led the allies to victory.
Most historians would also agree that the Cold War, ended by the economic collapse of
the USSR, was likewise largely as a result of Western industrial capacity, led by the US.
However, the US has not been faced with a large opponent like the USSR, or the Axis powers since.
We now live in the age of the global economy, where almost all countries are connected through
trade, industry and economics.
The US has continued to be an economic powerhouse, and today is still the world’s #1 economy
by a number of standards.
However, there have long been concerns of jobs being outsourced to foreign countries
as businesses seek to increase profitability, especially in manual labour jobs of resource
extraction and heavy industry.
Steel production has long been a sound metric of a nation's industrial might both due to
the processes required in creating quality steel, and due to it’s wide spread use in
all manner of construction and manufacturing, increased production indicates a strong economy
that requires that material.
Looking at the years 2000-2017 US steel production
If industrial and economic power, is increasingly shifting away from Western countries,
specifically the United States and Great Britain,
how long until we see the capacity to wage war, in our efforts to protect
or impose global interests and uphold international law along go with it?