Pearl Harbor's Attack On Pearl Harbor

President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered his war speech and asserted December 7, 1941 as, “a date which will live in infamy.” The United States’ naval bases stationed in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii were struck by Japanese planes intentionally and promptly. The news of this attack on the Pearl Harbor shocked the world. It was devastating to the nation that were still in the throes of depression. Witnesses of this event painted a portrait of a nation stunned, but determined to rise again. The United States’ government had not disclosed a Pearl Harbor story to the public--that the U.S. had failed to act on advance information about a planned Japanese attack. Japan 's move against the United States was audacious enough to be considered no more than a slight possibility, although the potential for an attack had been widely discussed.

On December 7, 1941 Japan stealthily attacked the U.S. Naval base located at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii resulting in many casualties. This IMC plan will outline the objectives, strategies and tactics in order to promote awareness of the attacks as well as develop positive community involvement.

The attack on Pearl Harbor, this caused many people to be afraid and angry of the Japanese, American or foreign. This escalated so quickly that President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1941(Timeline 6). The Executive Order declared that all people of Japanese ancestry were to be sent to internment camps away from the west coast( Timeline 6). The West coast had many military bases, and other places important to the war effort(Newsreel). With this information it can be can concluded that placing the Japanese people in the internment camps was unjustified. The internment of the Japanese was unjustified because The Germans and Italians were not sent to the internment camps as well, most of the Japanese people didn’t have a job that would allow them to sabotage the United States and the decision was not based on military conditions like it was said to.

My paper is about the events leading up to Pearl Harbor and if the attack plans were known

23607352 Apart from the political aspects behind the main motivations to initiate the attack, the strategic implications that Pearl Harbor had on Japan’s potential use of the Pacific is a factor too large to ignore. Home to the United States pacific fleet, Pearl Harbor at the time had some of the United States Navy’s key ships anchored in her harbor. Of the more than 90 ships at anchor in Pearl Harbor, the primary targets were the eight battleships anchored there. Seven were moored on Battleship Row along the southeast shore of Ford Island while the USS Pennsylvania (BB-38) lay

It is no question that people living in the United States in this current generation blame the Japanese for the attack on Pearl Harbor and will seize any opportunity to bring it up as an insult. However, do they consider why the Japanese did it? What was their reason for committing such an act? Why would Japanese soldiers give up their lives for such an act? It is never brought up and dismissed as if they were simply soulless monsters who attacked the U.S. out of hate. Another thing people don’t consider is the time this attack occurred: World War II— a time of war. The Japanese had a reason for such a risky attack and it was not an easy decision for them to make. This is not to justify their actions, but rather to take in consideration of the time period and making it clear as to why it was a reasonable decision to the Japanese at the time.

The attack on Pearl Harbor was just before 8 in the morning, on December 7, 1941. Hundreds of Japanese war pilots attacked the base near Honolulu, Hawaii. This attacked lasted about two hours or less, the Japanese managed to destroy about 20 American vessels, eight massive American battleships, and more than 300 of their airplanes. About 2,500 American soldiers and sailors died during this attack and about 1,200 were found wounded. This attack on the base led the US entry into World War II.

There are not two more tragic dates in the last century that reside in the collective American psyche than that of December 7, 1941, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and September 11, 2001. On these dates, two surprise attacks on American civilians and military personnel showcased U.S. vulnerability to outside forces and united a nation against those that wished to harm her. Both horrific events have many similarities and many differences in regards to who carried out the attacks, what the objectives were for the attacks, and the American response after these infamous dates occurred. Unlike September 11, 2011, where a terrorist organization utilized U.S. civilian aircraft to attack the Pentagon, New York, and intended to attack targets in the nation?s Capitol (the last plane crashed into a field in rural Pennsylvania after the passengers attempted to retake control of their plane from the terrorists), on December 7, 1941, the nation of Japan audaciously attacked the U.S. naval fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

Hopes of American-Japanese relations came crumbling down when Japan launched a surprise attack on America during World War II (WWII) that would kill thousands. As the Empire of Japan expanded land into China, Americans became angered. The United States stopped all shipments of oil and steal to Japan which was being used to make various war machinery and thereon began sending other military hardware to the military leader of China. Numerous negotiations still did not sway the United States into allowing Japan to continue expansion, nor did Japan adhere to America’s terms of ceasing expansion. Japan acted on America’s decision to end all shipments by sending six aircrafts southward toward Hawaii and dropping bombs on Pearl Harbor, causing great damage and many casualties President Roosevelt declared the United States at war with Japan and sent Lieutenant J. H. Doolittle and other commanders on a mission to bomb Japan after their attack on Pearl Harbor.

Pearl Harbor occurred in the morning December 7th of 1941, which was a Sunday. There were six carriers with 423 Japanese fighter planes that attack Pearl Harbor. The Japanese attack in several waves, the first wave was 183 Japanese planes that took off 230 miles north of Oahu and were heading to Pearl Harbor. When these planes took off, at 7:02 a.m., a short radar station detected the planes and then contacted a junior officer who said it was American B-17 that was expected from the U.S. west coast. The second wave was 167 planes that took off from the Japanese carriers and headed to Pearl Harbor at 7:15 a.m. At 7:53 a.m., the first wave attacked the airfields and battleships and the second wave attacked other ships and shipyard

Japan had been preparing for this invasion for a while now and had practiced it for months. The people of the United States had become naïve and thought they were invulnerable because of their military strength. However, they were tremendously wrong. In the early hours of the morning, over 300 Japanese planes barraged Pearl Harbor unrelentingly with bombs. The bombs seemed to fall like a torrential downpour in a storm and decimated the ground below. Many people were still sleeping when the invasion occurred; this caused the death toll and the damage to be significantly higher because the soldiers were not ready or able to defend the base. Over “2,400 servicemen were killed, about half of them dying aboard the USS Arizona. Nearly 1,200 were wounded” (Laurie 2). In addition, many United States naval ships were significantly damaged. The Japanese wanted to “cripple the U.S. Navy” (Laurie 1) to prevent it from helping other foreign countries defend themselves from attacks from the Axis powers (the Axis powers were made up of Japan, Germany, Italy, Hungary, and many other smaller nations). In addition to this reason, the Japanese wanted to get revenge on the United States for helping the Allies (the Allies were made up of Great Britain, Russia, France, and other smaller countries at the time) by giving them materials such as food, weapons, and ammunition and to prevent them from continuing to do so. Part of the reason the attack was so successful at crippling the United States Navy and why it killed so many people was because “intelligence failures contributed to a lack of preparedness” (Laurie 1). Many military officials did not expect an attack on United States soil over 3,000 miles from Japan so they did not have a very good defense system in place. After the invasion, the Japanese thought the attack was a complete success and accomplished everything that they hoped it

Not only was the attack on Pearl Harbor a mistake on Japan’s part, but had it not happened, the axis powers would have won world war II. The Japanese attack, without the full backing of its nation’s power lead to a less than devastating effect on the American Naval forces. The declaration of war on Japan, lead to Germany declaring war on America, directly lead to America giving full support to the European war and further declining the Nazi power leading to its ultimate defeat.

Pearl Harbor was a very horrific attack on the United States. The attack was brought on by the United States not wanting to get involved in war. But Japan wouldn 't stop until they got more land and a way to produce their own resources. Japan being able to produce their own resources would make them stronger by not having to rely on other countries resources. The United States began to feel threatened by Japanese military actions toward China in hope of expanding their empire, because the United States had a piece of land that they owned. The United States then had no choice but to take action so that it would weaken their military. This action eventually lead to the main reasoning for the attack on Pearl Harbor. As the United States prepared to go to war with Japan, women were able to get jobs and American resources had to be conserved and reused. The U.S. would then go to war with Japan. So they bombed Nagasaki and Hiroshima killing almost double. The bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima would then make other countries know just how powerful the U.S military is and what they could do if japan continued to try and expand.

The submarine sinking was handled with no reaction, and the radar sighting was passed off as a group of American planes approaching that morning. The United States’ did not have any aircraft carriers at Pearl Harbor on December 7th. They were all out at training. The attacking Japanese planes came in two waves with high level bombers, dive bombers, and zeros(japanese fighter planes) strapped with torpedoes. By 9:55 am the attack was all over only two hours after it had begun. Behind them they left a crippled Pacific Fleet that included 8 damaged or destroyed battleships, 2,403 dead, and 188 destroyed planes.

Many American’s were shocked by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, however there were many signs that the tensions between the two countries was growing. Japan was desperate for economic growth. In 1915 Japan issued the “Twenty-One Demands” to China in order to gain control in certain areas of the country. These demands were in conflict of the “Open Door” U.S. policy to leave China a sovereign country. Leaving China sovereign would allow all other countries to have equal access to Chinese trade. Tensions were made even greater by the Great Depression in the 1930’s. The world could not survive without equal trade with China. Since early 1941, the U.S. had been supporting Great Britain in its fight against the Nazis. It had also been pressuring Japan to stop its military growth in Asia and the Pacific. Japan relied on the on the U.S. imports of steel and oil to continue their attacks on China and French Indochina. The U.S. had tried to remain neutral during the Japanese struggle for power but began to lay economic and military sanctions over Japan and China in order to end the struggle. This did nothing more than anger the Japanese and led directly into “a day that would live in infamy” with the Japanese bombing Pearl Harbor.