The bombing of Pearl Harbor has always been considered a major Japanese victory. President Roosevelt called December 7, 1941 the “day that will forever live in infamy” because of the destruction following this assault. Japanese forces brutally impaired the American naval fleet stationed at Pearl Harbor and caused unimaginable horror for both the citizens of Hawaii and the United States as a whole. As a result of this attack, the United States entered World War II and four years later, was able achieve victory against the Axis Powers. However, was the bombing of Pearl Harbor truly a Japanese success? I will explore this question by studying journal entries written by Japanese officials involved in the attack, the writings of American military officials, informational texts, and an outlook by the American Department of Defense.
The Japanese did have some notable successes. They succeeded in taking out a major portion of the American fleet and hundreds of airplanes with very minimal losses. This greatly impacted the ability to immediately strike out against the Japanese. “With the US Pacific Fleet essentially neutralized, the United States was unable to play a significant role in the Pacific War for more than sis months, so Japan was free to conquer Southeast Asia and the southwest Pacific region as well as penetrate well into the Indian Ocean” (Nojeim). Also, the Japanese was able to completely surprise American forces in Pearl Harbor. The bombers attacked the fleet at the same time as the airfields to hinder the ability to fight back (Department of Defense). However, both of these two sources go on to identify the three major failures that are included in the following paragraphs.
The failure to eliminate the aircraft carriers...
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World War II. N.p.: Castle Books, 2001. Print.
Nojeim, Michael, and David Killroy. Days of Decision:Turning Points in US Foreign Policy. N.p.: Potomac Books, 2011. Print.
PAST Foundation, and Submerged Resources Center of the National Park Service, comps. "The Attack on
Pearl Harbor." USS Arizona Preservation Project 2004. U.S. Department of the Interior, 18 Dec.
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Smith, Carl. Pearl Harbor 1941: The Day of Infamy. Ed. Nikolai Bogdanovic. Oxford: Osprey Publishing
Ltd. , 1999. Print.
To begin, the attack on Pearl Harbour was devastating to U.S. naval capabilities in the Pacific at the onset of their entry into the war. Japanese officials had grown tired of the U.S. oil embargo, which was meant to limit their territorial expansion and aggression in South-East Asia as well as China, and as negotiations weren’t reaching any conclusions they decided that the only course of action was a first strike on the aircraft carriers at Pearl Harbour to cripple U.S. naval capability in the Pacific (Rosenberg 1). The attack, which lasted about two hours, had resulted in the sinking of four battleships, among ...
The Battle of Pearl Harbor was one of the most atrocious events that happened in U.S. history. On December 7, 1941, Japan made a surprise aerial attack on the United States naval base and airfields at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. More than two thousand Americans died and a thousand two hundred were wounded. Eighteen ships were badly damaged, including five battleships. The next day, President Franklin Roosevelt with the support of the Congress, declared war on Japan. It led United States’ official involvement in World War II. Japan attacked Pearl Harbor because of a deteriorating relationship with the U. S. The “New World Order”, expansion and resources, and economic sanctions were factors that conducted to another disaster on the Second World War.
Gordon W. Prange, At Dawn We Slept - The Untold Story of Pearl Harbor. 1991 (Penguin Books, New York, NY 1981, 1982, 1991),725-738.
The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was one of the most atrocious attacks to have ever happened on American soil, starting with disagreement on the Potsdam declaration. Japan’s greed for more land and industrial materials led the Japanese to make a plan to keep the United States out of the war, which consisted the use of kamikaze pilots and bombs to destroy our aircraft carriers and boats in an attempt to control the Pacific. While leaving the drowning, and dead bodies of thousands of American seamen and battleships at the bottom of the sea, seemed to be a good idea to the Japanese; America joined World War II and introduced the first nuclear weapons as reprisal for the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. Had the Japanese agreed to an unconditional surrender and end to militarism during the agreement on the Potsdam declaration, the introduction to nuclear weapons and the death count wouldn’t have been so high and devastating on both the American and Japanese sides.
Pearl Harbor was attacked on December 7th, 1941 at approximately 7:55 am by the Japanese. The day after Pearl Harbor was bombed President Roosevelt spoke the words, “ a date which will live in infamy” he was discussing the day that Pearl Harbor was bombed. Around the world during this time, people were taking in the impacts of WWll. Japan also allied with Italy and Germany, all three countries were greedy for expansion, but Japan wanted oil as well, and the American Naval fleet was in the way. Japan attacked Pearl harbor because they felt that the Americans were standing in the way of their treasures and world expansion.
Prange, Gordon W., Donald M. Goldstein, and Katherine V. Dillon. At Dawn We Slept: The Untold Story of Pearl Harbor. New York: Penguin Books, 1981. Print.
Cressman, Robert J.; et al. (1990). "A Glorious page in our history", Adm. Chester Nimitz, 1942: the Battle of Midway, 4–6 June 1942. Missoula, Mont.: Pictorial Histories Pub. Co.ISBN 0-929521-40-4.
Zimm, Alan D. Attack on Pearl Harbor: Strategy, Combat, Myths, Deceptions / Alan D. Zimm ; Graphics by Matt Baughman. Philadelphia, [Pa.: Casemate, 2011. Print.
On December 7th 1941, Japanese Planes and submarines attacked the United States Naval base at Pearl Harbor. This event singlehandedly brought the U.S from its then neutral stance in World War Two to a fighting member of the “Allied Powers.” Pearl Harbor was the first of a long series of confrontations between the U.S and the Japanese in an effort to gain control of the Pacific. Unlike the “War in Europe” the Pacific strategy was dominated by naval and aerial battles, with the occasional land-based “Island Hopping” Campaign. As such, one of the most important factors in the war in the pacific was Fleet Size, the more ships a country could send to war, the better. Pearl Harbor was the Japanese’s way of trying to deal with the massive U.S Pacific fleet. However, Pearl Harbor was not the turning point of the war. After December 7th the United States began work on numerous technological developments which would ultimately help them in one of the most important battles of WWII, the largest naval confrontation of the war, The Battle of Midway. The battle, which took place from June 4th to June 7th , 1942 is widely considered the turning point of the Pacific Theater (James & Wells). Through the Post-Pearl Harbor desire for “Revenge” and various technological advantages including code breaking and radar, the U.S were able to outsmart the Japanese at Midway and ultimately win the battle, eventually leading to a victory in the Pacific.
Allen, Thomas B. Remember Pearl Harbor: American and Japanese Survivors Tell Their Stories. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, 2001. Print.
25.Griffin, David Ray The New Pearl Harbor Revisited: 9/11, the Cover-Up, and the Exposé 2008, Olive Branch Press
Introduction – Pearl Harbor was vulnerable to attack because of the obstruction of defense and warning.
As the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 the United States officially entered World War Two. The Japanese government later learned later that this single event sets off an explosion that subsequently caused the United States to attack the Midway Islands in the Pacific Ocean. Pearl Harbor was one of the United States largest naval bases and the largest in the Pacific Ocean. This attack ceased all trade with Japan and officially added Japan as one of the US enemies. With a new world war started it created new concerns for the army. “World War II introduced a whole new set of problems in naval tactics” (Smith, 1). The main change driving these changes was the fact that aircraft carriers became more prevalent and common in every major countries naval force. Japan was able to pull off the Pearl Harbor attack as a result of aircraft carriers to launch their airplanes. As a result of the battles leading up to the Battle of Midway and conflicts with Japan this created a lot larger of an impact on WWII as a whole and to boost unity in America leading to a more prosperous period of history following the war.
Leckie, Robert. Okinawa: The Last Battle of World War II. New York: Penguin Group, 1995. Print.
“What caused the attack on pearl harbor to happen ?” wiki answers.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Mar. 2011. .