Attack On Pearl Harbor Essay

The attack on the naval base of Pearl Harbor in Hawaii was a major event in American history and a turning point in the Second World War. This unprovoked attack by Japanese forces would become a major factor for the United States of America to join World War 2 in the fight against the Axis powers. Just a day after the attack President Franklin D. Roosevelt would declare war on Japan. On the morning of December 7 1941 just before 8 a.m the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service would launch a surprise attack on the United States naval base located at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii with the intentions to destroy the United States pacific fleet. This was in order to take the ability to fight back against Japan's advances in the southern pacific. Japan released 360 airplanes from their aircraft carriers positioned approximately 200 miles north of Oahu and in less than two hours the attack was over. As a direct result nearly 20 American ships and close to 300 airplanes were lost. Most importantly 2,403 U.S. personnel were killed. Luckily most of the

Many United States political leaders and military leaders ignored the chance of an attack from Japan. A lot of United States leaders believe at some point we would end up going to war with Nazi Germany but many believed that we would be able to avoid conflict with Japan with negotiations. Many citizens and the military leaders of the United States did not want war before the attack on Pearl Harbor even a small amount of Japan's leaders did not want war but it was Japan's Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto who believed that this attack would have a positive outcome for the Japanese forces and so the training and plans began. The reason Japan believed Pearl Harbor would be the perfect target was because the destruction of the United States Pacific Ocean naval base would allow Japanese forces to attempt an advance on Southeast