Dbq Attack On Pearl Harbor

Imagine how the history of the United States and the lives of thousands of Americans would have been different if it were not for the attacks on Pearl Harbor. Is it possible the United States could have avoided the conflict? The day following, these famous words were said to the world. “December 7, 1941 - a date which will live in infamy - the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.”- 32nd President of The United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The infamous attack happened on Sunday morning, December 7th, 1941. It was just before 8:00 a.m when hundreds of Japanese airplanes appeared across the horizon nearing Honolulu Hawaii (“Pearl Harbor”). The attack itself lasted

The casualties included over 2000 American soldiers and sailors. December 8th, the day of Roosevelt's speech, the President asked Congress to declare war on Japan. They approved the declaration with only one member of Congress voting against it. In the year 1941, most of the world had already been at war. America had been the only large nation that remained neutral. Most Americans had thought that one day entering the war was inevitable, to some it was desirable. Those people thought that being apart of the war would benefit America. While the attack of Pearl Harbor occurred, Hitler's armies were in Russia working their way toward Moscow. They had already taken out France and drove Britain troops out of their lands so fast they left their equipment behind. Germany's biggest ally, Japan, had plans of world domination. Their armies in China brought shock to the world. They were fearsome and brutal and left their enemies terrified. Their biggest obstacle in the Pacific was the United States (“Lend-Lease Act”). It is possible, had the right precautions been taken, that the attacks on Pearl Harbor could have been prevented, changing American history

Radios, telegraphs, and other inventions were used in between allied nations. On January 27th, Joseph Grew informed Washington officials that he had reason to believe that Japan planned a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. Officials ignored his warnings because of their beliefs that if Japan were to attack, they would have attacked somewhere easier and closer, such as Manila in the Philippine Islands. In the United States’ program Magic, U.S intelligence used machines to decode Japan’s diplomatic dispatches. Information gathered from deciphered messages was not shared with commanders, including Admiral Kimmel and Lt. General Short of Hawaii. Japanese officials had reasons to believe that their code was deciphered, but being stubborn thought it wasn’t possible and continued to use it (“A Pearl”). Another incident in September also hinted that the Japanese planned to attack Pearl Harbor. In the “Bomb Plot”, a message from the Japanese Naval Intelligence to Japan’s Consul General in Honolulu that requested a grid of exact locations of ships in Pearl Harbor had been deciphered and the message was ignored. Admiral Kimmel and General Short of Hawaii never received information of the message and no actions were taken. Finally on the 27th of November, Kimmel and short received a ‘war-warning’ from Washington that indicated that an attack from Japan in the Pacific was