The American naval base at Honolulu, Hawaii was home to one hundred vessels, eight of which were battleships. On December 7, 1941, a swarm of hundreds of Japanese fighters attacked the base known as Pearl Harbor. The Japanese surprise attack was able to destroy twenty American vessels with all eight battleships included. The Japanese also took down over 300 planes and killed over 2,000 American soldiers. On the day proceeding the attack President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared war on Japan. Three days following the attack the Japanese declare themselves as allies to Germany. Italy also declared war on America. This confirmed America’s involvement in World War II. The Pearl Harbor attack was the final straw for America. It was an attack that …show more content…
The United States initiated its resistance to Japanese expansion by freezing Japan’s assets on July 26, 1941. Britain and the Dutch East Indies also froze Japan’s access to resources. The result for Japan was a devastating loss of 75 percent of its overseas trade and 88 percent of its oil. Japan’s economy could not continue without access to these key imports. Japan was to prideful to withdraw their forces in East Asia and hope for the US to withdraw its embargos. The result was the attack on Pearl Harbor. The Japanese saw this as the best course of action for three reasons. First, the attack would destroy America’s navy and establish the Japanese navy as the best in the world. Second, the attack would be easy because America would not expect it. Third, the Japanese actually thought that they would have a chance to win a war against America. Captain Yamato would lead the Japanese fleet to immobilize the American fleet which would be weakened by the Pearl Harbor attack. The biggest factor to consider in the events leading to the attack is that Japan never declared war on America. Without a formal declaration of war on America, the US would be completely vulnerable and not ready to fight …show more content…
On November 26, 1941 the fleet embarked on its voyage to Hawaii. The operation was top secret in order to prevent any risk of the US knowing about the attack. The convoy of ships was to travel through the North Pacific and avoid any popular trade routes. It remained to be unnoticed when the fleet reached a point nearly 200 miles north of Oahu. The US fleet was on its way back to Pearl Harbor at this time. On November 28th Admiral Kimmel sent the USS Enterprise to deliver Marine fighter planes to Wake Island. It was to return to Pearl Harbor on the seventh. All ships were to be returned to Pearl Harbor by the
The Japanese, who were part of the Axis allegiance, attacked Pearl Harbour on 7 December 1941. This was the catalyst for America to become involved in WWII and it ultimately
Therefore, they would not have been capable of this without the distraction at Pearl Harbor. The United States’ imposition of an embargo for aircraft caused a stir in Japan. Two years after, America imposed a second embargo, only this time stopping oil shipments. Considering 80% of Japan’s oil was imported from them, this left the island country with an insufficient supply of petroleum (Doc D).
The Japanese were irrational minions to their follower. If you can’t make a deal with this country which the United States tried to do you're just going have to put your foot down and stop them. Additionally the bombing of pearl harbor before the attack the United States was a neutral country in the war. Seen in the history book Franklin Delano Roosevelt passed the neutrality act and this new law made it illegal to sell arms or trade with a country at war.
Aircraft carriers were the most important naval vessel, and all of them were away from the base on the 7th of December. The assault also left the base’s most vital onshore facilities such as oil storage depots, repair shops, shipyards, and submarine docks intact, and so the American Navy was able to rebound quickly from the attack (Source F). War was not declared between the two nations before the attack took place, the Japanese plan was to send out a declaration 30 minutes before the first bombs were dropped, but the message took too long to decode (Source C). This is considered dishonorable, according to Japanese traditions called “Bushido” which states that you may not hurt your opponent if he is sleeping. The assault violated their nations ideals.
In July 1941 Japan became more aggressive and the U.S. takes action by freezing all Japanese cash and goods in the U.S. and cuts off all oil supplies to Japan. On December 7, 1941 Japan launched an attack on against the United States Naval base in Pearl Harbor (Pearl Harbor 9). Japanese planes were flying everywhere, guns blasting and bombs were dropping. It only took minutes for the skilled pilots to turn the harbor into a disaster. The Japanese flew so low that they could see the pilots from the ground(Pearl Harbor).
The U.S could sense some tension going on between them and Japan and decide to put an embargo on oil, in attempts to stay neutral with the war. The embargo was declared in August, 1941, the attack on Pearl Harbor took place in December that same year, four short months after (Doc C). Without the oil from the U.S Japan’s resources were running low. According to the chart in Document D, in the late 1930’s roughly eighty percent of Japan’s oil was imported from the United States. In 1938, Japan had a total of three hundred ninety-two tons of oil, Three hundred and sixteen tons of that total was from the United States (Doc D).
In the chronology adapted from Akira Iriye, Pearl Harbor and the Coming of the Pacific War mentions many times in which the U.S. made it very uncomfortable for Japan. These uncomforts stem from Japan feeling threatened as well as the U.S. cutting them off of certain products that are necessary for Japan. In 1939 the U.S. placed an embargo (or stopped the trade) of aircraft and aircraft parts (Doc C). This makes things difficult for Japan because Japan is an island and their only real mode of transportation for troops or other goods was airplane or ship. In fact according to Wiki, the Japanese alone built over 3,000 transport airplanes because of U.S. parts and taking that away had a huge impact on their mobility.
World War ll was one of the deadliest and most widespread conflicts in history. It involved the majority of the world's nations, and it is estimated that around 70 million people died as a result. The United States' entry into the war is often attributed to the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor by Japan on December 7th, 1941. It led to the United States’ entry in to the World War and ulimately led to the Allies’ victory over the Axis Powers. However, it is reasonable to argue that if Japan never attacked Pearl Harbor, the United States would not have joined the war.
Rahul Bagga Mr.Campbell US History, Period 0 16 December 2015 Why did Japan attack Pearl Harbor? One day that will always be remembered by America is the date of December 7, 1941, which changed American history forever. December 7, 1941 was the day the Japanese warplanes attacked Pearl Harbor (Hawaii) which stationed many of American ships and airfields. Immediately after the bombings, United States President Franklin Roosevelt declared war on Japan, leading to a direct involvement into World War ll. Japan had many reason to do so but Japan attacked Pearl harbor for three reasons which were that they had a plan for a new world order, United States were expanding their number of naval ships rapidly, and an oil embargo was placed upon Japan
Japan wanted to expand more and keep on attacking more people, while the U.S. had a different view on expansionism. The U.S. did not support Japan in their expanding, leading to Japan fearing of losing strength and power. These are the reasons that Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7th,
Japan was at war with China and despite being a military superpower; this war was using up all their resources. When Japan invaded southern Indochina the American Navy had broken the Japanese diplomatic codes and intercepted all the messages that were being sent to Tokyo. I for one didn’t approve of the aggression in China and therefore declared an embargo on Japan. The embargo had permanently stopped all trade with Japan. If they wanted to resume trade, Tokyo would have to end its aggression.
December 7, 1941 was a normal Sunday when, all of a sudden, Japanese planes attacked the American territory of Hawaii. The attack surprised the country, especially the unprepared Pearl Harbor. Along with killing more than 2,300 innocent Americans, it destroyed the USS Arizona and capsized the USS Oklahoma, sank or beached
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
On December 7th, 1941 Japan held its first major victory against the United States. Japan attacks the main U.S Navy Base at Pearl Harbor. In less than the two hours the enemy was there 20 American naval vessels and 300 airplanes were destroyed. One thousand Americans were wounded and more than two thousand American soldiers and sailors were killed. The day after the attack President Roosevelt and Congress declared war on Japan.
On the morning of December 7th 1941, the Japanese Imperial Navy launched a surprise attack on the Pearl Harbour Naval Base, on the isolated U.S. controlled tropical island state of Hawaii. The Japanese attacked with 353 aircraft, from fighter planes, bombers, and torpedo planes launched off of 6 Japanese aircraft carriers. The U.S lost 4 of their 8 battleships and another 4 were damaged. The Japanese also sank 3 cruisers, 3 destroyers, an anti aircraft training ship, and a minelayer. 188 U.S aircraft were destroyed and 2403 Americans were killed with another 1178 wounded.