Pearl Harbor Imperialism

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Many people know that Pearl Harbor was attacked by the Japanese. However, most people don’t know it like this. The bombing of Pearl Harbor was caused by Japanese military aggression, due to the fact that they were trying to conquer the Pacific. This is the story of Pearl Harbor. Many people may wonder, “What caused Japan to attack the U.S.A.?” or even “What caused Japan to be so imperialistic?”. The reason was because Japan was trying to conquer all of the Pacific and Asian mainland to compensate for overpopulation and was trying to become the major, supreme Asian country.(AirRaid: Pearl Harbor) They started off by attacking China and all of the islands surrounding Japan. Unfortunately, the Japanese were conquering one island after another …show more content…

The Japanese had sent spies to the United States to learn and study Pearl Harbor. (Airraid: Pearl Harbor) One of the most renowned spies that contributed mostly to the attack was Takeo Yoshikawa. He was a young boy that spied on the Pearl Harbor Naval Base by flying privately rented airplanes and taking pictures of the base as well as study it. (AirRaid: Pearl Harbor) Yoshikawa concluded which days were less busier and less armed with men so Japan could attack easier, with fewer casualties. Once Yoshikawa had found information, he sent it through an encrypted code. Little did the Japanese know that America had already broken the Japanese code. The U.S. had a top secret code-breaking machine called Purple. This machine was one of America’s greatest advantages to intercept Japanese code and decrypt it. (Airraid: Pearl Harbor) Takeo Yoshikawa sent his codes to Tokyo, but due to high code traffic, America considered codes to Tokyo a low priority. (Airraid: Pearl Harbor) “Purple” also decrypted codes about military advances to Indochina and China. Since America placed an embargo on Japan, the Japanese needed to find resources. So they started expanding toward China and Indochina. (Pearlharbor.org) “ The U.S. demanded that Japan withdraw from China and Indochina, but would have settled for a token withdrawal and a promise not to take more territory” (Pearlharbor.org) After some time, Japan had set its sights on the Pacific Islands such as the Philippines, Guam, and the Asian Oceanic Islands. The U.S. was prepared for an attack on Guam and the Philippines, due to the mobilization of Japanese troops near the Oceanic region and decrypted PURPLE code the US obtained. (Airraid: Pearl Harbor) Many expected the Philippines as a primary target, but not Pearl Harbor. A few weeks later, PURPLE intercepted a code about Pearl Harbor.

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