Pearl Harbor
The real war between the U.S. and Japan began in the 1930's when they had differences over China. In 1931 Japan took over Manchura, which had been apart of China, then in 1937 Japan decided to try to take over all of China. Then in the 1940's Japan allied with the Nazi Germans. The American's didn't agree with all of these moves that Japan was making, because they had an economic and political interest in East Asia. The U.S. increased their aid to China and wanted to make their military in the Pacific stronger. They later cut off all ties with Japan. The Japanese were worried because they were low in natural resources now that the U.S. didn't give them any, so they decided to take over Southeast Asia for the resources. That is what resulted in the attack on the U.S.
-
The Japanese bombed the U.S. on December 7, 1941. It was an unannounced military strike on the U.S. navy. The U.S.'s naval base was located at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The attack was supposed to keep the U.S. Pacific Fleet from influencing Japans plan against the Netherlands and Britian, in Southeast Asia. There was two aerial attacks on Pearl Harbor. The Japanese sunk four U.S. naval battle ships, four others were damaged, three cruisers were damaged, and three destroyers. 2,402 people were killed and 1,282 were injured from the bombing. The bombing on December 7, 1941 on the U.S. is ultimitly the reason the U.S. decided to get into the war.
Even though the bombings were so major the Pacific Fleet's aircraft carriers, submarines, and its fuel oil storage facilities were untouched. These assets helped the United States victory at the Battle of Midway. The American people were in complete shock. The support for isolationism disappeared. Three hours after the attack in Pearl Harbor the Japanese started an all day attack on the U.S. in the Philippines. They also surprise attacked Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Thailand, just to keep the damage as quick as possible on major targets. On December 8th the United States and Britain declared war Japan. President Roosevelt called December 7, "a date which will live in infamy.."
I don't know everything there is to know about the attack on Pearl Harbor, but from what i do know i do think it was the reason the U.S. joined in on the war. Its weird to now think of Japan as our ally after what happened and our history with them.
SOURCES:
Comments