In 9th grade US history we held a mock trial about the nuclear strikes on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I was assigned the role of Harry Truman, one of the defendants. I did a ton of research about the plans for invasion of Japan on both sides, and it was terrifying. The Japanese were teaching children to fight with garden tools, and US casualty estimates were over a million soldiers.

However, in the end I came to the conclusion that the nuclear strikes weren't necessary, and I wouldn't have ordered them simply because a the war was already incredibly one-sided, and an invasion wouldn't have been necessary in the first place since Japan was already on its last legs.

The class ended up convicting me of a war crime, which was nice.

Even though I am an American, my primary school education is from a school for British expats so my WWII knowledge is mostly European focused. What was the beef between the US and Japan that led to the bombing of Pearl Harbor?

The US stopped selling oil to Japan. Japan needed oil to maintain their empire and fight the USSR, so they interpreted it as the US weakening Japan for a near-future war.

I thought it was copper? Ah, looks like both were factors. And we wanted them to leave all their neighbors alone.

*leave their neighbors for us to exploit

America was still directly administering its empire in the pacific.