Who Was To Blame For Pearl Harbor Essay

This event made President Roosevelt upset and fueled his concerns with Japan. It was not really known if this was an intentional attack or unintentional. The Japanese claimed that they did not know that this was an American ship. They did apologize for the attack and paid for the damage they did.

World War II, lasting six years, was a brutal war in which the US joined. In fact, this was the most widespread war in history, In other words, this war affected over 30 countries and death tolls were as high as 85 million. Disputes began when Poland was invaded by Adolf Hitler, the leader of the Nazi Party. As a result, Britain, and France saw the action as a threat and wanted answers.

Former United States Representative, Joe Baca, states, “Pearl Harbor caused our Nation to wholeheartedly commit to winning World War II, changing the course of our Nation’s history and the world’s future.” What this quote purposely left out was how the United States needed a way out of the Great Depression. The only way out of the depression was war. Even with all the acts and plans Franklin D. Roosevelt put forth, none would truly be able to turn the economy around. Pearl Harbor was an emotional time for America; however, it was also an extremely key time for the American Government.

Japan was getting furious and furious as the U.S would keep stopping them which made Japan want revenge to bomb something that meant a lot to the United States and chose pearl Harbor where most of the Naval base

knowledge with regards to the whereabouts of this attack, furthering the argument that the attack was a genuine surprise. American intelligence was unable to speculate or guess the Japanese nation’s intention (source B). This statement is supported by the fact that Japan had meticulously planned the attack, taking various precautionary measures to safeguard the security of their plan (source A). The United States would have found it tremendously difficult to completely decipher the Japanese plan. The messages that were recovered by American intelligence gave no indication that there would be an, “outbreak of hostilities” (Source B).

However, many historians have conducted research and proved that Franklin Roosevelt and the government had insight about the attack days before it took place, though they did nothing to defend for the attack, nor warn the commanders at Pearl Harbor (Perloff). To make the attack seem like an aggressive attack toward America, Roosevelt said to the American people, “I have said this before, but I shall say it again and again and again: Your boys are not going to be sent into any foreign wars” (Perloff). By saying this, Roosevelt made the nation seem totally surprised that the Japanese would bomb them. This was all the government needed to fire the nation up for war with the destruction of “18 naval vessels sunk or heavily damaged, 188 planes destroyed, and over 2,000 men killed” (Perloff). James Perloff, author at New American, also states, “Before the bombing of Pearl Harbor, 88-percent of Americans were against joining the war in Europe, but after the war only 23-percent were against it.”

Fear is one of the main reasons that we do anything in our lives. We try to do well in school because we are afraid that if we do not, we will be homeless. We lash out and drive friends away in fear of somebody hurting. America tried on countless occasions to ignore any fear that we had but in the end, we entered the war because of that one, powerful emotion. After trying to remain calm and have civil conversation with Germany and Japan, that calmness was mistaken for weakness which resulted in Japan making a huge mistake.

Collaborative Intelligence Operations Won the War in the Pacific December 7, 1941 will forever be remember by Americans as the day the Japanese launched a devastating surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. It shocked the American people and was the direct cause for the declaration of war against Japan issued by President Roosevelt the next day. Among the losses were 18 warships sunk or damaged, 174 aircraft destroyed, 2335 military personnel killed with 1143 wounded, and 68 civilians killed with 35 wounded (Dowswell 29). The worst part, however, was knowing that all these losses could have been avoided. Roosevelt proclaimed December 7 “a date which will live in infamy,” because Japan launched an attack without a declaration of war.

Pearl Harbor was a day that was unexpected to all mankind. It was a day that President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed would "live in infamy. " Way before the attack Japan had spies in flight to see how our ships were set up. This gave the Japanese an idea of how they were going to attack us. That is when it all happened, early Sunday morning of December 7, 1941. Paul K. Davis stated in his article, “Not until the bombs began to fall did the Americans respond” (Davis).

For the attack, Japan split their attack into two waves, each of which would have different targets. (World War II in Europe) Japan had also modified their torpedo bombs so that they could still work in shallow waters. (Van Der Vat, pg. 86) The attack would include a total of four hundred twenty-three planes, and would last approximately two hours.

On December 7th of 1941, an attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese changed the course of history of the United States and the world. This attack on an American naval facility claimed a staggering 2,403 lives and wounded 1,178 others forcing the United States’ formal entrance into World War II. I was very fortunate to visit and participate in a South Washington County ISD 833 group band performance at this historic site, in honor of the 75th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack. While visiting this monument, I learned about the significance of this International aggression on the American soil. This attack symbolized a threshold point for Americans from just offering support to the Europeans to becoming actively involved in the war.

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.

Well, there were at least three reasons why the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. These were that the US had cut off their supplies, Japan wanting to be the new "Leader", and the US having stronger armed forces. One reason for the attack was Japan wanting to be the new leader like Germany was before WWI. In 1938 Japan declares its policy to establish a “new order in East Asia.”

On December 8th, 1941 Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivered a speech to the House of Representatives, Members of the Senate, the House Speaker, to the Vice President, and to the American people. Franklin spoke of the incident of the attack on Pearl Harbor the day after it occurred. Mr. Roosevelt was stern and concise. He spoke on the occasion of tragedy to inform the House and the American people what the Japanese have done.

Franklin D. Roosevelt, the president of the United States at the time, stated in the beginning of his speech that December 7th, 1941, is a day that will go down in infamy. On December 7th, 1941, the Japanese air force came and bombed U.S. territory. Many of the countries were fighting in World War II at the time, and the United States had claimed neutrality, staying out of the war. However, the Japanese attack on the U.S. caused President Roosevelt to write a proposal speech for Congress to declare war with Japan the next day. The purpose of this speech was to inform the United States about the effects of the Japanese attacks and the next steps that the government were going to take.