President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Incident In Pearl Harbor

There is always a reason behind every attack that occurs in the past. The incident that took place in Pearl Harbor in 1941 was not a mistake, but in fact a well thought out plan by the Japanese. It all began in the nineteen thirties when the relationship between the United States and Japan grew progressively worse. Around 1854 United States Commodore Matthew Perry opened trade with Japan and other nations. It was no secret that Japan wanted to become a modern industrial nation and wanted economic control of the Asia-Pacific region. By the nineteen twenties and thirties, Japan had become a strong country and their economy began to grow and develop rapidly. However, it lacked natural resources such as rubber, oil, coal, and petroleum. For this

Roosevelt. It was December 7, 1941 when the United States was deliberately attacked by air and naval forces of Japan. The Japanese targeted Pearl Harbor which is located on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. The Japanese naval forces caught America completely off guard. The Americans believed that the harbor was too shallow for an attack by torpedoes dropped from airplanes because the required depth for it to be possible is about 75 feet and Pearl Harbor is approximately 45 feet deep. Unfortunately, the Japanese developed the technology to create a shallow running torpedo that would skim the surface of the water after being dropped for planes flying at low levels. Japans main targets were the battleships and aircraft carriers that were surrounded by 92 naval vessels in the harbor. There were multiple Japanese spies on Oahu which helped the Japanese admiralty gather data on the locations and quantities of the vessels. At the beginning of the attack the Japanese had two concerns, the loss of surprise and the whereabouts of two aircraft carriers. The carriers Enterprise and Lexington were not at the harbor because they were dispatched to Midway Islands at the time of the attack. This could be seen as an advantage or disadvantage because it could of helped the Americans by having an extra two aircraft carriers to protect the harbor but luckily they were safe from the horrifying attack. Not only were the naval forces impactful but the air forces were just as awful. There were about 360 Japanese attack planes that were launched at dawn from approximately 33 aircraft carriers. The attack force was under the command of Vice-Admiral Chuichi Nagumo and once the bombers caught sight of the island, they split into two groups. One group flew overland at low altitudes across the island around 7:55 a.m. which was the time the first bombs and torpedoes were dropped. The second group