The correct answer is: “was in control of the islands”
The Japanese invasion of the Philippines started on December 8th of 1941 a few hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Japan occupied the country for three years - until the surrender of Japan at the end of the war -. Japanese government organized a new government structure in the Philippines, created a Council of State. But it was not an easy occupation, the Philippines opposed to it with a guerilla activity that covered most of the country - 60%-.
<span>Capture of the Philippine Islands was crucial to Japan's effort to control the Southwest Pacific, seize the resource-rich Dutch East Indies, and protect its Southeast Asia flank. Its strategy called for roughly simultaneous attacks on Malaya, Thailand, American-held Guam and Wake, Hong Kong, Singapore, the Philippines, and Hawaii. Although the aim of the air strike on Hawaii's Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 was to destroy the U.S. Pacific Fleet in its home port, the others were meant to serve as preludes to full-scale invasion and occupation.
It was mainly developments in the "steel" industry that made important contributions to improvements in the transportation system in the United States during this time, since the major advancement in transportation was in the railroads, which were made from steel.
