Causes Of The Failures Of Pearl Harbor

The intelligence failures of Pearl Harbor led to the biggest war disaster in the United States history. On the morning of December 7, 1941, the United States Naval Base in Pearl Harbor was “surprised” attacked by the Japanese. The Japanese launched an all out offensive. For two hours, 21 American Naval Ships were damaged or sunk, more than 2,400 Americans were killed, and 188 United States aircrafts were destroyed. The following day, the United States disregarded their policy of isolationism with Japan and declared war against them .
A year before the attack, the United States placed an embargo act on Japan. This act prohibited Japans exports of scrap iron, aviation fuel, and steel . Leading up to the war, Japan took over French Indochina and planned to acquire more land. To prevent Japan from spreading even farther, the United States, Netherlands, and Britain put a stop to all of Japan’s assets . This caused a problem for Japan to purchase oil, which would then cause an oil epidemic for Japans navy and air force. As the negotiations between the United States and Japan headed south, Japan decided to attack Pearl Harbor to show negations were over, it was time for war.
Before we take a look at the specific intelligence failures, we have to mention the people who were involved in cracking the Japanese codes. Years before the war, 1928 an American cryptanalyst Herbert O. Yardley and his assistants were able to crack a few codes transmitted by the Japanese. Since this happened more than ten years before the war, the United States didn’t think much of the cracked codes. One year later, 1929, the Secretary of State at the time, Henry L. Stimson, made a crucial mistake. Stimson believed that “mutual trust worked best for internationa...

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...days of court, the Roberts commission found Kimmel and Short guilty of “dereliction of duty”. The two were immediately stripped of the ranks and basically exiled from the United States. For the rest of their lives, Kimmel and Short found themselves defending themselves form numerous death threats and trying to clear their name. Unfortunately for them, the names Kimmel and Short will always be associated with being traitors.
To many people, Pearl Harbor is seen as the biggest war disaster in American history. This is due to the many failures of this war: the intelligence failures, preparation failures, communication failures, and the US ignorance towards the Japanese. However, the war ended many years ago and there is nothing that can be done of it. We the people of the United States have to recognize that we may have lost this battle, but we did not lose the war.