Pearl Harbor was the first serious foreign attack on American soil. Being an attack from a foreign military, carrying out an order from the government. Resulting in large a amount of American casualties and forcing America to enter the war against the Axis Powers. But, could this attack been avoided all together? The Japanese invaded China in 1937, which forced America to take action. To protest, “Japan 's activities in China, Roosevelt had put an embargo on the export of aviation fuel and iron ore to Japan, and had frozen all Japanese assets in the United States” (“Could Pearl Harbor Have Been Averted?”). The Japanese were vulnerable without American materials of oil and metal (80% of Japanese oil and metal were from America). Prince Konoye, Prime Minister of Japan, wished for a meeting in Hawaii with President Roosevelt to resolve their conflicts with one another. …show more content…
Throughout all of this conflict, Joseph Grew, the American ambassador to Japan, had been collecting knowledge from the Peruvian ambassador to Japan that plans to attack Pearl Harbor were being made. The intelligence were gathered on January 27, 1941, close to full year before the bombardment. Once Grew received the knowledge, “Grew passed this information along, but his information was cursory at best and he seemingly believed it to be unlikely” (“Attack on Pearl Harbor: Could it Have Been Avoided?). If the government took the knowledge seriously and did not underestimate Japanese capabilities, they would have been
Abstract On December 8, 1941, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt stood before “Mr. Vice President, Mr. Speaker, Members of the Senate, and of the House of Representatives” and gave what is now known as his "Day of Infamy" or "Pearl Harbor" speech. Roosevelt’s speech tells the numerous problems that had happen the day before listing details about Japan's surprise attacks throughout the Pacific. He explains the peace in the Pacific and the harmony with Japan before the surprise. He wanted to go to war after the vicious attacks by Japan hitting the entire Pacific especially Pearl Harbor.
The distance between Hawaii and Japan made the attack a bit difficult for Japan. The American intelligence officials weren’t prepared for the attack on Pearl Harbor, due to the fact of over confidence of the Japanese keeping the attacks in European colonies in the South Pacific: the Dutch East Indies. Because American military leaders were not expecting an attack so close to home, the naval facilities at Pearl Harbor were undefended. Almost the entire Pacific Fleet was moored around Ford Island in the harbor, and numerous amounts of airplanes were packed onto nearby airfields. To the Japanese, Pearl Harbor was an inevitable target.
As soon as Japan sees that they had stopped trades with them and were limiting rights to the Japanese it gave them a shock and from then they knew they must get revenge. The Japanese have had a plan to take over the world but they had countries in the way that were stronger but soon the US started to back away from the Japanese. So why did Japan attack Pearl Harbor? Japan cannot get to take over the world with the US embargo on materials and the naval expansion act.
While the Imperial Navy’s Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto, who was also known as the “chief architect of the attack on Pearl Harbor, stated that he believed it was impossible for Japan to win such a war but Japan had to gain the upper hand at the very beginning so that the United States just might be enticed to the negotiating table” (Timms). Hotta revealed her own interpretation by reviewing relevant published primary sources and the reasons why Japan decided to attack the Pearl Harbor. In addition, everyone talked about going to war such as the “Japan’s top brass referring to the prime minister, the foreign minister, the army and navy ministers, and the chiefs of the army and navy general staff”
December 7, 1941 is considered one of the most impactful days in United States’ history: the day Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Despite their size, Japan left an incredible amount of damage with their 5 submarines and 408 planes. President Roosevelt had been avoiding scuffling with Japan since their pact with Germany and Italy; war with Germany was sure to erupt soon enough. However, soon after the ambuscade, the United States’ declared war on Japan and launched their involvement in World War II. Japan’s leaders recognized the risks of invading one of America’s naval bases; yet they persisted.
Pearl Harbor When considering knowledge on Pearl Harbor previous to the occurrence, there is substantial indication to justify that the US government clearly knew Japan intended to attack at some point. Despite the awareness of their potential threat, it would've been nearly impossible to have known the time and date it would take place, being one reason a multitude of people conceived this as a surprise attack. Contrary to this belief, FDR was well warned and cognizant of what was expected in response to his counteractions against the Japanese, being influenced by McCollum's eight point plan. One of the US Government's top experts on Japan was Lieutenant Commander Arthur McCollum.
On that day more than 2,400 Americans died in attack, including civilians, and at least 1,000 were wounded. The surprise attack on Pearl Harbor was devastating for the U.S. and which made World War II. " With confidence in our armed forces, with the unbounding determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph—so help us God," President
When the voting took place on the decision to declare war on Japan, only one member of Congress voted against. So with all this considered, the main question would be: Would the Americans have eventually joined the war even if Pearl Harbour had not been attacked? My take would still be that the US would have eventually joined the war regardless of whether the bombings took place, but at an even later date, possibly having dire consequences and affecting certain outcomes of the war. December 7 1941 The attack on Pearl Harbour came as a surprise to all of America for multiple reasons: no one expected the Japanese to attack them due to the great distance between Japan and America, also there was no declaration of war made on America by the Japanese.
began an embargo of airplanes and airplane parts; and after that in1941 places an embargo on oil shipments to Japan (Doc C). In the years 1937-1940 the U.S. exported about 3,000,000 tons of petroleum, and about 80% of all of Japans oil imports were from America, but in1941 when the U.S. placed its embargos it only sent Japan 880,000 which is significantly less than three million, which resulted in Japan having about2,590,000 less than their averages from the years leading up to the attack (Doc D). Also, in a meeting with the Emperor, Hideki Tojo, Prime Minister of Japan as well as Minister of War of Japan, said regarding the oil embargo, “Two years from now we will have no petroleum for military use. Ships will stop moving… I fear that we would become a third-class nation after two or three
Prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor, there were a wide variety of opinions regarding the country’s involvement in the war. Furthermore, there was a large difference between the opinions of the American citizens that stayed home and were merely ‘witnesses’ to the war, verses the soldiers that fought in the war. Aside from this, there was generally a very similar attitude towards the war from most Americans. Within the southern states, there seemed to be an immense support and trust in the President’s actions.
Rahul Bagga Mr.Campbell US History, Period 0 16 December 2015 Why did Japan attack Pearl Harbor? One day that will always be remembered by America is the date of December 7, 1941, which changed American history forever. December 7, 1941 was the day the Japanese warplanes attacked Pearl Harbor (Hawaii) which stationed many of American ships and airfields. Immediately after the bombings, United States President Franklin Roosevelt declared war on Japan, leading to a direct involvement into World War ll. Japan had many reason to do so but Japan attacked Pearl harbor for three reasons which were that they had a plan for a new world order, United States were expanding their number of naval ships rapidly, and an oil embargo was placed upon Japan
In this, I mean that the Pearl Harbor Bombing was taken as a threat and in an effort to protect the people, the US took the available information and made decisions that would protect the people from as much future danger as possible. A quote from an article published in regards to the bombing reads, “suddenly the japanese . . . threatened our very national existence.” This quote, it shows just how threatening the situation was; this just goes to show the true magnitude of the situation.
Why did Japan attack Pearl Harbor? If you were threatened by an individual, would you throw the first punch or wait for the attack. This is how Japan felt when they were trying to dominate Asia. On Sunday December 7, 1941 the Japanese attacked the United State’s biggest naval base, Pearl Harbor. This attack was a turning point for the United States because this was one factor that brought them into World War II to fight against the Axis Powers.
The ambush on Pearl Harbor was a simple, yet carefully planned attack. Every ship in Pearl Harbor was crippled, yet later on, restored. Japan came up with the cunning plan to take out the fleets in Pearl Harbor. The plan was by taking out the Pearl Harbor fleets, the American soldiers and other battle forces would back away from their attempts in ruling Southeast Asia, and America would be left defenseless by Japanese forces. The American could not intervene with their spree over Southeast Asia.
Com stated that “The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise, but Japan and the United States had been edging toward war for decades.” Even if the attack was a surprise it was still gonna at one point or another because of a few reasons one of them being that the United States was not very happy with Japan’s hostile behavior towards China and