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Pearl Harbor Research Paper

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December 7, 1941 is a day that is remembered by Americans across the nation. President Franklin D. Roosevelt called the day, “a date which will live in infamy.” Pearl Harbor is known as a moment of betrayal as well as a moment of horrific surprise for the American people. The attack on Pearl Harbor led to changes in the lives of most Americans and even the Japanese. The attack is known as the only time in history where warfare had spread to the whole world. The strained relations between Japan and the United States can be traced back to their first meeting, and the events that followed.
On July 8, 1853, Commodore Matthew Perry fired upon Japan thus opening them to American merchants and missionaries. Mortified by their defeat, Japan modernized …show more content…

Tokyo wanted to negotiate their victory in China, while Washington wanted to negotiate Japan’s withdrawal. When Japan seized northern bases in Vietnam, Roosevelt froze Japanese assets, and placed an embargo on trade of oil, steel, machinery, and other goods. This embargo hurt Japan greatly considering the United States provided them with more than half of their goods. This helped Yamamoto to convince the high command to set an attack on Pearl Harbor on December 8th, according to the Japanese calendar. While this was approved, Japan’s Foreign Ministry wanted to make a final effort for peace in Washington. Both sides could not find a compromise, and negotiations were terminated. Following the termination, the United States War Department sent out a “war warning” to Hawaii as well as other outposts. Since the warning was not specific to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii’s commander Lieutenant General Walter Short parked the aircrafts together and kept ammunition locked up. Also in 1941, the United States military deciphered Japan’s diplomatic code. Although this was a triumph, the United States intelligence officials were required to look through an enormous amount of information failing to react to the important messages such as the exact locations of Pearl Harbor ships. The Nazis had warned the Japanese that their codes had possibly been broken by the United States, but Japan believed …show more content…

The message was taken to the War Department, but arrived late in Hawaii. Headed to Pearl Harbor, Japanese bombers listened to a Hawaiian radio station to learn the weather in Honolulu. The Japanese Commander gave the signal, and the bombers struck at the cruisers, destroyers, supply ships, and Hawaii’s military airfields. The surprise attack only lasted for thirty minutes, but after a short break, the second wave came in and Americans were on high alert. Two army pilots took off in P-40 fighters looking for Japanese planes. They shot down seven planes, close to one-quarter of the total of Japan’s losses at Pearl Harbor. By noon the attack was over, and all of the Japanese ships had returned

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In May 1940 President Roosevelt moved the US Pacific Fleet from California to Pearl Harbor. In July of the same year the US Congress passes the Naval Expansion Act which promised to triple the fleet size by 1944(Doc C). This gives evidence that the US did not stop at a simple embargo on aircraft. It demonstrates that the US was keeping a close watch on Japanese affairs so that they could be ready to attack if they needed to. The Japanese were aware of the actions being taken by the US.

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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.

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The attack happened in the island of Oahu, located near the center of the Pacific Ocean, it was about 2,000 miles from the United States and 4,000 miles from Japan. Hawaii was part of the U.S. during this time; they had no idea that Japan was planning to attack Pearl Harbor. To the Japanese, Pearl Harbor was an easy target, and the U.S. was not expecting it at all. Japan won, and destroyed nearly 20 American ships and around 300 airplanes. More than 2,000 Americans were killed, and about 1,000 people were

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On Sunday, December 7, 1941, Japanese planes flew into the American Naval base, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii with a surprise attack that heavily damaged and destroyed planes and navy vessel as well as killed over 2,000 servicemen. This attack was a huge surprise for the commanders on base, but many historians do not believe it was much of a shock for President Roosevelt or other important individuals in Washington. Immediately after the attack, Japan declared war on the United States, which also meant that the United States would eventually go to war with Japans ally, Germany, which the President had wanted for many months prior to the attack. President Franklin Roosevelt had previous knowledge of the surprise attack, but withheld it from any generals,

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made an “embargo of aircrafts and aircraft parts against Japan.” In addition, the U.S. “freezes all Japanese assets and bank accounts” and placed another “embargo on oil shipments to Japan” right after they move their US Pacific fleet to Pearl Harbor, which they had planned to increase by three time within the next 3 years. Considering all the losses, and the poor treatment Japan faced by the U.S., Pearl Harbor seemed to be an important investment to America, as well as a perfect target for the Japanese to attack and show off their power through revenge. In Document E, Prime and War Minister of Japan, Hideki Tojo states that the U.S. never had a real reason to treat Japan in such a manner and “make[s] strong demands.” Part of the reason Japan attacked Pearl Harbor was because it was strategically necessary for

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This was a risky move for the United States because Japan did buy a large amount of oil from them, Roosevelt didn’t want to lose a partner. (Document D) Japan wanted to prove that they had grown and had become stronger, the only way they thought to do that was to bomb Pearl Harbor, one of the most packed U.S. military bases in the country. The bombing showed dominance but also lit a fire in the American people to prove their strength and power. These acts had simply pushed Japan to the edge and they couldn’t take it anymore. They bombed Pearl Harbor almost in spite of the U.S. and their ability to grow out of the depression.

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It had been attacking Manchuria, part of present-day China. In Document C, we can tell that tensions build up throughout the years in Eastern Asia, and the U.S. makes a comprehensible action; beginning an embargo. This was a way of the United States telling Japan to stop attacking other countries. The U.S. also did not want to be contributing to all the attacks in Eastern Asia. The text shows us how Japan decided it was their turn to take action after just two

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By time it was 10:30 p.m., it was clear the Japanese were going to break diplomatic relations with the United States. A high-ranking U.S. officers began to be informed of the coming breach” (Paschall). The U.S. became alert about the imminent attack of the Japanese by decrypting a secret message that was being sent from Japan. Although the U.S. officials knew that Japan could be delivering a deadly attack, they lacked the information to know what the attack was about and where it would occur. The Japanese naval fleet, in order to prevent being discovered, arrived at the coast opposite of Pearl Harbor in Oahu early in the morning on December 7, 1941.

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On December 7, 1941, 7:43 a.m. the Japanese sent their first wave of planes to attack Pearl Harbor, and “... the dive bombers, torpedo bombers, and fighters of the strike force set about attacking the unsuspecting American ships…” (Hope 2017). Going into the attack, the Japanese pilots’ primary target were the American aircraft carriers. At the time the aircraft carriers weren’t present so they shifted to their secondary target, the American battleships.

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Any attack on Pearl Harbor was expected to be low key, like sabotage or a submarine attack. On the morning of the attack, around one-third of the ship’s officers were on shore leave, no anti aircraft batteries were manned, and ammunition for these vital air defense weapons was locked up in stores away from the guns. As one can see, no one at Pearl Harbor was prepared whatsoever. In fact, approaching Japanese planes that were detected by radar at approximately 7:02 A.M. were thought to be an incoming flight of U.S. bombers (Dowswell 30-31). By the end of the attack, America

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1481 Words | 6 Pages

The plan of the attack began when Japan was becoming greedy and wanted to begin expanding to different Pacific land. To the Japanese, the attack was only seen as strategy, to secure the Pacific for oil shipments (“Pearl Harbor” International). The operation for the attack was formulated by Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto (Advantage “Military”). Under commands, the Japanese fleets had based themselves 200 miles north of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 at approximately 06:00 am Hawaiian time. For little over the next hour, the Japanese launched the three waves of approximately 360 aircrafts for the attack (“Japan Launches”).

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Kanny Huang U.S. History Mr. Jones 3/17/2017 Surprise Attack A surprise aerial attack hit Pearl Harbor, a naval base in Hawaii, on December 7,1941. Conflicts arose when the negotiation between the United States and Japan were not going as planned. The surprise attacks on Pearl Harbor ignited the entrance of the United States into World War II due to the casualties, the devastating aftermath which lead to the planning of retaliation. There were multiple causes for the bomb on Pearl Harbor.

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So the President of the United States did not allow intelligence to leak out to the commanders, which left them completely bewildered. Not only were the commanders not aware of an attack, 48 hours before the attack, a code was sent out to an intelligence officer. The code stated “The Japanese will attack at (the approximate time). Do not prepare retaliatory forces. We need the full support of the American nation in a wartime effort by an unprovoked attack upon the nation in order to obtain a declaration of war.”

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The first wave of Japanese aircraft arrived at 7:55 a.m., local time, this included 181 dive, horizontal, and torpedo bombers (“Military.com Resources”). At 8:40 a.m., the second wave of bombers were in route to Pearl Harbor (“Military.com Resources”). This consisted of 170 various aircraft (“Military.com Resources”). The American Navy was in shock from the first attack and was not expecting a second attack. Due to the loss of most of the Pacific Fleet, aircraft, and loss of life, the Americans had little to no chance to successfully fight back.

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At 7:55 in the morning on Sunday December 7, 1941, two waves of Japanese aircraft began to attack the US Pacific Fleet stationed at Pearl Harbor in Oahu, Hawaii. Within two hours of Japanese attacking, eighteen ships had been sunk or damaged, one hundred eighty eight aircraft had been destroyed, and two thousand four hundred and three men and women had been killed (Robinson). Leaving Pearl Harbor, in one huge mess. This paper will discuss all aspects of Pearl Harbor. The bombing on Pearl Harbor was done in two waves.

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