What Caused The Japanese To Attack Pearl Harbor – The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in the Hawaiian Islands on December 7, 1941 was the United States’ entrance into World War II.
In the 1930s, Japan, having already annexed Korea in 1910, wanted to expand its empire, especially to gain access to natural resources. In 1931, the Japanese invaded Manchuria, a small, wealthy region in northern China, and established a country called Manchukuo. In 1937, Japan invaded the rest of China, and by some measure, up to 300,000 people were killed during the Nanking Massacre. China would lose up to 14 million people at the end of World War II.
What Caused The Japanese To Attack Pearl Harbor
Japan’s expansion upset Western powers, especially because it violated the United Nations’ “Open Door” policy, which was put in place to ensure equal trade opportunities with China. . The United Nations reprimanded Japan, but this did not stop its spread.
America Enters The War Diagram
As Japan was rich in natural resources, 55.4% of its imports at the time came from the United States (Rhodes 39). Beginning in 1937, the US began embargoing oil, iron, and scrap metal. In December of the same year, a Japanese plane crashed
, an American ship, in the Yangtze River, killed three Americans. Although Japan claimed it was a mistake and paid the price, it aroused Chinese sympathy and anger against Japan and the United States.
In 1940, Japan became part of the Axis Alliance with Germany and Italy and took over part of French Indochina (modern Vietnam) with the authority of the Vichy government, a puppet state created after the fall of France. In response, the United States imposed a comprehensive embargo on all trade with Japan. President Roosevelt also moved several US Pacific Fleet from the West Coast to Pearl Harbor.
The ban caused problems for Japan. The Japanese depended on American resources to promote their war, and eventually concluded that they needed to conquer the rich regions of Southeast Asia in order to advance. In July 1941, Japan moved to the southern part of Indochina, at the entrance of territories controlled by Western powers such as India, Singapore, the Dutch East Indies, and the Philippines. Japan knew that this trip could lead to war with the United States.
Attack On Pearl Harbor (1941)
The attack on Pearl Harbor was the brainchild of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, the Chief of Staff of the Japanese Allied Forces, who argued that it would “make the enemy’s fleet deadly” (Rhodes 392). In October 1941, the Japanese navy supported the attack. Commanded by Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo, the Japanese fleet included six aircraft carriers, 24 support ships, and one submarine.
The United States was expecting an attack. Continued negotiations to stop Japanese expansion have not produced results, especially since the beginning of the American trade embargo. Just a few hours before the attack on Pearl Harbor, Admiral Di Kimmel, Commander of the US Pacific Fleet, received a message from the Navy: “This message will be taken as a war warning. Talks with Japan aimed at stabilizing the situation in the Pacific have ended and Japan’s move is expected in the next few days. Carry out appropriate security measures to carry out assigned duties” (390). However, the message did not mention Pearl Harbor as a place of attack, because the United States was expecting an attack on the Philippines. .
The first sign of a Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor came at 7:00 a.m. on December 7, when two US warships on the Hawaiian island of Oahu tried to turn off their mobile radar stations. has been working since 4:00 AM. A small commotion on the screen caused a pause in their actions – an incredible fire, which means that men came from 50 planes, seems to be going to the island. Confused, one of the privates called the information center across the island, reached the military commander who assured them that the light was just an American B-17. The president had heard the Hawaiian song playing on the radio earlier that morning, the signal that usually indicates an American plane approaching Hawaii, and determined that the hole on the radar oscilloscope screen must be a ship. come in.
Japan’s meticulous precautions and detailed planning made the attack on Pearl Harbor completely safe from US intelligence. In almost two weeks before the war, Japanese forces and destroyers had carried 43 fighters, 51 bombers, 49 high-altitude bombers, and 40 aircraft carriers. from six planes floating 200 miles north of Pearl Harbor. The plane had traveled with enough radio frequency to catch the Americans by surprise.
How The Attack On Pearl Harbor Changed History
At 7:58 a.m., the Ford Island command center finally sent a radio message: “AIR RAID PEARL HARBOR. This is not a joke. “When they arrived at Pearl Harbor, the Japanese bombers cleverly placed themselves in the harbor in groups of two and three in a surprise and powerful attack that lasted only a few minutes. In another hour , the second plane of 167 Japanese bombs dropped on the site.
Americans who watched the attack from afar were horrified as the screams of the men aboard the downed battleship echoed through the air, smoke billowing from the sea, the the wounded and the dead swimming in bloody waters fueled by burning oil. When the effects of the attack subsided, the terrible toll became known: 2,403 American civilians and soldiers were killed, and 1,178 were wounded. Two battleships and 188 aircraft were destroyed.
The attack caught the American military by surprise and was certainly costly, but it did not crush the US Navy as the Japanese had hoped. By luck, the three American aircraft carriers stationed at Pearl Harbor were not there on the morning of December 7th. USS
Messages have already been sent over the past few days. Aircraft carriers were larger and more difficult to build than other ships, and their lives would be important during the Pacific War.
The Forgotten Reason Japan Attacked Pearl Harbor
On December 8th, President Roosevelt gave his famous speech calling the attack on Pearl Harbor “a day that will live in infamy,” while Congress quickly approved a declaration of war on Japan. Three days later, Germany and Italy declared war on the United States. The military department is completely self-organizing, since different positions are changed and different employees are trusted to prepare for the new fight.
Before Pearl Harbor, the United States had sent large amounts of financial aid and military equipment to allied causes. The invasion of Japan brought the US into full-scale combat against the Axis powers and brought American troops into the war for the first time. It also united the country, as a Gallup poll conducted within days of Pearl Harbor showed that 97% of Americans supported a declaration of war.
A report from December 9th reported that the army was “accepting applicants in numbers unprecedented in the history of the country” and that “many of the men have been in “the line [at the recruitment center] all night.”
Added the next day that the military had received 2,684 applications in the two days since they declared war on Japan.
Why Japan Attack Pearl Harbor? Free Essay Example
Pearl Harbor also had a significant impact on the Manhattan Project. Committee S-1, which carried out atomic research before the creation of the Manhattan Project, held its first meeting on December 18, 1941. This meeting began the change of government from the research to the development planning of the project. According to S-1 operator James Conant, “There was excitement in the air—the nation had been at war for nine days, and the expansion of the S-1 program was now a reality. Enthusiasm and optimism reigned” (Rhodes 398).
Japan rapidly expanded its Pacific empire, invading American and British territories in the Philippines, Guam, Midway Island, Wake Island, Malaya, and Hong Kong. Their system was brutal and many Americans lost their lives. The attack on Pearl Harbor and the Bataan Death March are often cited as justifications for the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. President Truman’s speech to the American public about the bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, included the following words: “The Japanese started the war by bombing Pearl Harbor. They have been paid many times over.”
Today, there is a memorial at Pearl Harbor to honor those who lost their lives that day. It includes the USS
Memorial, part of Ford Island, on Battleship Row. Built on the battleship that bears its name, the USS Arizona Memorial receives more than 1.8 million visitors each year. You can read Alexandra Levy’s story about her visit to the memorial here.
The Attack On Pearl Harbor: December 7, 1941
In December 2016, Shinzo Abe became the first sitting Japanese Prime Minister to visit Pearl Harbor. Abe declared, “We will not risk war again. This is a firm commitment that we, the Japanese people, have made. He also spoke of the “spirit of perseverance and the power of peacemaking” and delivered
Why did the japanese decide to attack pearl harbor, reason for japanese attack on pearl harbor, japanese attack pearl harbor, what made the japanese attack pearl harbor, japanese attack on pearl harbor date, what caused pearl harbor attack, what provoked the japanese to attack pearl harbor, how did the japanese attack pearl harbor, why japanese attack on pearl harbor, date of japanese attack on pearl harbor, why did the japanese attack pearl harbor, what year did the japanese attack pearl harbor
