In July 1941, only a few months before the attack, the United States, United Kingdom and the Netherlands had moved to freeze all Japanese commercial assets. The Allied nations were alarmed by continued Japanese aggression in China and the seizure of French Indochina from Vichy France in September 1940. Washington and London hoped that cutting off Japan's home islands from critical raw material imports would pressure Tokyo into backing down from its continued expansion. To the Japanese High Command, however, the idea of submitting to this pressure and curtailing what they believed to be Japan’s destined rise was unthinkable. Japan, as an island nation, was heavily constrained by lack of resources. Going into the war, the nation imported 88 percent of its oil and was utterly dependent on raw material imports to sustain its industrial base.