Pearl Harbor Research Paper

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What would have happened had assumptions not been made, had the radar indications not been neglected and early warning had been given to the ships in Pearl Harbor and the surrounding airfields. The initial wave of Japanese fighters consisted of 183 planes, of which only 43 were fighters (Lord, 1957). I believe that U.S. forces could have launched enough fighters to greatly reduce the effectiveness of the attack. The ships in the harbor would have had time to man defensive positions and some would have made it out into open waters making it much more difficult to target them. I believe that the second wave of fighters would not have been launched by the Japanese fleet if they did not have the element of surprise, Japanese commanders knew the risk of this attack and that …show more content…

carriers could have also played a factor in the outcome of the battle. Already out to sea that morning, the carriers could have launched a counter strike against the Japanese fleet, who would have only had 39 planes to guard the fleet during the attack (Lord, 1957). This would have been a major blow to Japan as they likely would have not been able to repel the counter strike. Thousands of lives could have been saved and the outcome may have been quite different had assumptions not been made and communication improved during the early stages of Pearl Harbor. Lessons learned from past mistakes provide a blueprint for the way ahead. Making assumptions is a key pitfall in intelligence doctrine taught in today’s military. Pearl Harbor is an example of what can be a catastrophic course of events when you make assumptions. Radar was a new technology at the time and still in experimental stages, the lack of understanding of this new technology contributed to the events surrounding the attack. Radar is still used today and has improved considerably since 1941; lessons learned from this battle played a key role in this technologies

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