In July of 1941, the world was engulfed in turmoil that differed greatly with the calm that the mid-summer days would suggest. World War 2 was well into its wide campaign. The Japanese government, in particular was not fairing to well. Officials in the Japanese government were trying to decide how to handle the situation with China and the United States of America.
Japan had invaded China for expansion purposes. Japan’s trade was suffering due to embargos and high tariffs that the US had enacted on imported goods. The US had also ceased trade with Japan because the small country had invaded their much larger neighbors to the west, China. Japan wanted to expand, gain resources, and establish their power in the world. Japan invaded China not through sheer numbers and military size, but through highly trained troops and unrivaled tactical enforcement.
The small island of Japan relied heavily on the trade of their goods. The vast number of people and lack of space make the country a poor agricultural and resource dependent country. In order to survive, Japan needed to be able to trade goods to be able to receive food and other goods. One of Japan’s biggest trading partners was the US, until the US ceased trade with Japan.
Japan tried to make negotiations with the US, but could gain no leverage unless they pulled out of China. This was something that Japan would not submit to. The US cut off nearly all of Japan’s oil supplies and many other supplied goods necessary for war.
Japan felt that the only option left would be to go on the offensive in terms of dealing with America. This was an underestimation of power that Japan has never repeated since. On November 29, 1941, the Japanese government sent the green light to go to war.
Japan wanted to control the natural resources in Malaysia and the East Indies. These territories were Dutch and British colonies, but Japan had no fear of the larger countries because they were already occupied by the war in Europe. This area was also occupied by the Philippines which were an American commonwealth. The Japanese military planned to attack the Philippines so that the Americans could not possibly try to attack from those islands.
Another American site was also chosen for initial attack. Japan new that America’s Naval Fleet was strong, but they also believed the Army was weak. Japan needed to choose a target that would cripple the naval fleet so that the US would have no hope for retaliation. When the attack was accomplished, Japan could take the territory that they wanted and would defend the area with their Navy.
The commanders of the Japanese military believed that the United States of America was weak and would beg for peace when they saw what Japan did. The only other incident that I can think of that completely underestimated the heart and fighting spirit of Americans to this extent would be the attack of 911. Japan chose to attack Pearl Harbor, a strategic naval base in Hawaii. Wrong choice.
The date was December 7, 1941. Pearl Harbor, located in Hawaii, sat in peaceful calm on the morning of the attack. Within moments, that calm turned into chaos. The United States War Department intercepts Japanese messages and decodes them. The messages reveal of an attack. A warning message is sent to Pearl Harbor but due to delays does not reach the base until 12:00 P.M, four hours after the attack has started.
230 miles from Oahu, Hawaii, six Japanese aircraft carriers, armed with 423 planes, prepares for attack. At 6 A.M, the first wave of planes, 183 to be exact, heads for Pearl Harbor. Two American’s at the North Oahu radar station detect the assault fleet. They tell a junior officer to relay the news, but the officer didn’t relay the message because he thought that the planes were American B-17’s that were scheduled to come in that day.
By 7:15 A.M, a second wave of 167 planes launched from the Japanese carriers and headed to Pearl Harbor. By 7:53 A.M, the first wave of planes had reached Hawaii. The Americans were basically sitting on a silver platter waiting to be devoured. The first wave of planes began bombing and firing on the airfields and battleships that sat in the harbor. The second wave of planes continued the bombing of the harbor, but they additionally attacked ships and military facilities.
The Americans were completely unprepared for attack. They had parked all of their aircraft together to make it easier to protect them from sabotage. Munitions and anti aircraft weapons were locked away and the military forces were scrambled harem sacrum.
For the next two hours, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, but not without loss on their own part; the Japanese lost 29 planes, 5 midget submarines, and 1 big submarine. The submarines had tried to enter the harbor from the water and destroy the base with torpedoes.
A number of Japanese planes were lost not by the hands of American gunners defending the base, but by the crazy Japanese pilots themselves. They would use a technique called Kamikaze. The technique is really quite simple; crash your plane into the enemy killing them and yourself. Why on Earth would anyone want to crash and die on purpose? Because the Japanese were idiots! There were diehard pilots who felt honored to die for their country while also doing as much damage to the Americans as possible. This tactic proved to be very costly for the Americans.
The attack ended with 2,403 dead Americans, and 6 out of 8 destroyed battleships. Luckily, three aircraft carriers had been away that day and avoided destruction.
President Roosevelt referred to the attack as “a day of infamy”. This marked the day when the Japanese would begin to put their little tails between their legs and scamper on home.
The American people vowed that they would retaliate. They would fight and fight and continue to fight until their overwhelming resources and unparalleled spirit would bring a complete and total victory over their adversaries to the west.
“It was not just the Japanese who acted against their own best interests at Pearl Harbor. On December 11, 1941 Hitler declared war on the Americans. The USA now had to fight in the European war as well.”
The result of the attack on Pearl Harbor led to the Americans gathering up their forces for retaliation. The draft was issued and boys became men. Women took the places of the men in the factories and supplied weapons, planes, and other necessities of war for the troops.
The Americans also bombed two major Japanese cities with the most devastating man-made power ever unleashed on the planet… the Atomic bomb. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed, resulting in the deaths of nearly 250,000 Japanese civilians during the initial attack, and many, many more deaths from the affects of the bombs.
The attack on Pearl Harbor marked a day of no return for both Japan and the United States of America. The U.S. entered the war on two different sides of the country. Japan showed their true colors. Hitler made perhaps his deadliest decision. The hatred that people from these countries felt for each other was enormous.
I cannot begin to fathom the thought process in all of these incidents. I know what it is like to have family members fighting in a war, my uncle served two terms in Iraq. Iraq and Afghanistan are in the process of being liberated. That is a worthy cause and the fight for freedom like that is understandable and morally right. Now Japan attacking Pearl Harbor, on the other hand, that is totally different.
Japan could have prevented any conflict by pulling out of China, or just never invading China in the first place. They just wanted resources and to show how tough they thought they were and how weak the US was. Thousands of lives were destroyed in one day, and the ensuing conflict took the lives of millions. I just cannot see the justification in such a thing. We are all humans. We really need to learn how to get along or we are going to destroy everything. We need to eliminate those who seek to ruin and crush freedom, and replace them with people who truly seek the greater good for all.
Pearl Harbor must be remembered. We cannot allow another huge mistake like that to occur. If we do, as we did with 911 (although that is a different case) we may not ever have the chance to prevent it again.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_and_Nagasaki
http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/timeline/pearl.htm
“The Ultimate illustrated History of World War II.” (a book)
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