How Did Pearl Harbor Change American History

“December 7, 1941 a date which will live in infamy… no matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people, in their righteous might, will win through to absolute victory (President Franklin Roosevelt).” This attack was a surprise attack by the Japanese military without any formal declaration of war. The Japanese could’ve possible done this surprise attack, because they knew that the United States Navy was strong enough to defeat them. Many people question if the United States would have formally warned could this attack have been stopped. Well, the chances are that the attack would still have occurred. There is a strong chance that if the naval base was warned, then the United States Navy would have won.

Even though it was very inhumane to cause a fellow breed of the human race such a severe amount of suffering, we fairly warned Japan that disaster would come if they didn’t surrender. Furthermore, we had still been pondering among our hostility from Pearl Harbor, in which we never retaliated to. Most importantly, to prevent the loss of American lives, we had to strike at once. Therefore, President Truman’s decision to drop both bombs on Japan was extremely necessary to ensure the safety of American citizens. On account of us presenting Japan with a fair warning that calamity was coming, it was an entirely fair match.

The military would tell their soldiers that the kamikaze attacks were for the good of their country, which led the soldiers to believe that their patriotism and pride was more important than their own lives. The Japanese’s apathy for their people and their inhumane warfare needed to be stopped. The US found significant issues with firing of an atomic bomb, such as the civilian casualties it could cause and the post-war problems it could create with the Russians. Despite the possible repercussions of the atomic bomb, Truman would be right to fire off the atomic bomb into a major Japanese city. He would be right to do this because of how it would protect the american citizens from future attacks on American soil.

He stated “Japan has, therefore, undertaken a surprise offensive extending throughout the Pacific area. The facts of yesterday and today speak for themselves.” (Roosevelt) Which pushed the American people to a decision, because what would stop it from happening

The Bombing of Hiroshima The bombing of Hiroshima was the right thing to do due to the military lives that were going to be lost if the bomb did not get dropped, America also wanted to impress Russia or intimidate them by dropping it and the president saw this opportunity to make japan surrender as well. This all supports the main point on why it was the right thing to do but many to all Japanese say otherwise Lots of soldiers lost their lives because of the conflict with japan, in document B, it states,”123,000 Japanese and Americans killed each other”. Paul Fussell, a WWII soldier also stated, ”war is immoral, war is cruel”. This is speaking for all the soldiers in the war or most of them, this also means that he doesn’t like war and it would

World War II was one of the biggest wars the world has ever witnessed. If the US hadn’t stopped the Japanese and Germans our way of life could be completely different. The balance of the world could be shifted forever. Although many Americans give credit to the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki for ending the war other things or people contributed majorly to the ending of World War II. A code, still undeciphered to this day, should be given major credit for the US’ success during the war.

Truman’s Decision President Truman was justified in his decision to drop the atomic bombs in Japan. Truman faced many pros and cons of his decision, however, the pros outweighed the cons. There were very few alternatives to the extreme, the casualties in the Pacific were growing and the rate the war it would save lives. Although, there were many lives lost Truman made the right decision for his country. Firstly, Truman had to look into the different options of attack.

By the middle of 1941, this war brought countries from all over the world in to fight, including Germany, France, Great Britain, and Japan. However, at this point the United States of America was uninvolved. The country had just gone through the Great Depression and morale was low, so the USA stayed out of the fight on both sides. However, in December 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, shocking millions of US citizens. The day after the bombing, President Roosevelt declared his nation would join the war.

In September of 1939, World War II had officially begun. Before the war started, Germany, lead by Adolf Hitler had begun to take over many other countries around Europe including Austria and Czechoslovakia while also allying themselves with other countries such as Russia and Japan(Sharpe 6). When Germany sought after Poland, Britain gave them un ultimatum to pull out of the country and when they did not do so Britain was at war. In December the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor which is when the United States declared war against the Japanese. Due to our close relations with the U.S at this time, it also created a huge hatred for the Japanese in Canada(Sharpe 8).

They turned makeup companies like Revlon into a bullet making company for the war. The war ultimately brought America out of the great depression. This was a great thing for America however it never would have happened without the attack on pearl harbor. The attack on pearl harbor on December 7th 1941 put America fully into the war instead of just supplying for allies. “Japanese Americans faced more racial discrimination than the people of German or Italian ancestry because they were of nonwhite, non-European ancestry.” ( History Alive 454) Since the Japanese bombed pearl harbor everyone thought that Japanese Americans could have been Japanese spies.

After the war, they may simply replace Nazi Germany as the new tyrannical power in the world. This bomb, however, would dissuade them. President Truman’s decision to drop the atomic bomb was a necessary evil. Many millions of US and Japanese casualties would have resulted if an invasion of the Japanese home islands was required. By the taking of these Japanese lives, the President has saved the rest.

Also Hitler claimed that Austria was on there side and then invade and took it over. That did not last long because when Germany started to get defeated they attack and got back their land. Some of the long term impacts are an effect of some of the short term impacts. A major thing that affect a short term impact is many Austria were killed because United nations failed to do anything to help them before it was too late. One thing that stands on its own is the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

Thus, America joins World War Two. Although a tragic experience for most the bombing of Pearl Harbor was very important. The Bombing eliminated America’s isolationist ways. After the attack, America got this sense of patriotism that gave people the desire to fight japan. Others were so upset that they started making prejudices against Japanese-Americans.

I find that weird because they already bombed us twice. Then because of this the US declared war on Japan and then Germany declared war on the US. It was all a domino

Winning the war would require the United States to abandon its absolute commitment its core values of isolationism, humanitarianism, and democracy At the time, it appeared that both Hitler and Japan were bent on total domination. Hitler had taken over nearly all of Europe, and the Japan was expanding its influence in the Pacific. Both nations had demonstrated that they were willing to do anything to achieve their goals. It was not hard to conceive that if Germany was successful, nearly all of Europe would fall. This would not bode well for the United States economically because it would close off our trade connections with Europe.