Pearl Harbor Narrative Essay

Pearl Harbor; the beginning to the end of WW2

During the heat of WW2, a Japanese air fleet attacked a U.S. harbor in Honolulu, Hawaii. After weeks of preparation, the Japanese had prepared with heavy surveillance of the harbor and practice flying routes, the Japanese were ready to launch their attack.(Britannica) This very attack launched on December 7th, 1941 is the same attack that would lead to America’s immediate entrance into WW2, and their big part in the Allies’ victory.

America’s reaction to Pearl Harbor was a swift decision based on the motive of almost every American at the time.“The day after the assault, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan.” (History.com) It is not unknown to many that America

to get revenge.“Japanese national extremism arose from their complex ancient heritage, along with a culturally engrained xenophobia (hatred of the foreign). This xenophobia manifested itself even in attitudes toward people in the Asian territories occupied by Japan.” (Narratives of WW2) The mention of Japanese xenophobia helps us understand the Japanese’s extreme anger after we not only supplied their enemies, but also stopped supplying them with anything.(Britannica) Pearl Harbor was a way for Japan to show America their anger towards the U.S. for their actions, and how Japan now felt about America as a whole. Furthermore before the United States placed embargoes on Japan, Japan heavily depended on the U.S.;that is why it was a powerful hit to Japan’s economy. “By 1940, Japan found its fuel and ammunition resources to be severely depleted.(4.) America was an emerging new star within the oil-industry, serving as Japan’s primary resource for fuel.”(Narratives of WW2) Like many countries would do in this situation, Japan desperately tried to negotiate with no success. Feeling pressured, they felt the need to get their resources back by force, hence Pearl Harbor. The Japanese felt betrayed and made what could be easily seen as an irrational

While much of America’s naval force were destroyed as well as America sustaining heavy casualties, the U.S. joining the war sealed the Axis Powers’ fate. “The Japanese had wanted to goad the United States into an agreement to lift the economic sanctions against them; instead, they had pushed their adversary into a global conflict that ultimately resulted in Japan’s first occupation by a foreign power.” (History.com) Japan’s overestimation for our ability to give up after an aggressive attack was what worsened their situation from an economic crisis to a national security threat. Additionally, while it is obviously unknown when or if the U.S. would have joined WW2 without being provoked at Pearl Harbor, they still would have had a big effect in helping the Allied Powers. “Totaling $11.3 billion, or $180 billion in today’s currency, the Lend-Lease Act of the United States supplied needed goods to the Soviet Union from 1941 to 1945 in support of what Stalin described to Roosevelt as the ‘enormous and difficult fight against the common enemy — bloodthirsty Hitlerism.’ “(U.S. Embassy and Consulates in Russia) While if the U.S. was not in the war they might have been obligated to fund less, the amount donated when they were in the war shows the impact they had on the Allied victory. This impact had the long lasting effect of Hitler not taking over the