Of Fog and War: A Comparative Analysis of Two Japanese Bombing Attacks on the United States during WWII

At approximately 715 a.m. the Japanese fleet launches their second wave of aircraft bound for the same objective. Unbeknown to the military stationed

Wars are often glorified in tone to give praise and respect for those on the battlefields. There is an overall understanding that there are sacrifices needed in order to accomplish a larger goal. Excluded from this understanding is the realization that the effects of war

Introduction. I chose this battle because I had been hearing about the attack on Pearl Harbor, but I did not know much about it. This paper talks about the countries that fought in this battle, where the battle was fought, what the geography was like during the battle, what the weather was like, what happened during this battle, how many casualties occurred, other things I learned about the battle, who won the battle, and how the battle was important to WWII.

December 7, 1941 was one of America’s darkest days. This was the day of the famous pearl harbor bombing. This attack came from the Japanese attacking the American Naval base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The attack had been in the planning for many years to attack and weaken the United States Naval force. Japan wanted to do this to gain more superiority in the Atlantic and to grow their ties with European nations. In this paper I will talk about the people, the planning, the attack, and the aftermath of the Pearl Harbor bombing.

The Battle of the Philippine Sea was the end of Japanese competiveness in the air. This Battle gave way to the United States’ ability to project its military power further into the heart of Japan with little to no resistance from the Japanese Fleet in the form of aerial warfare. It also left the Japanese desperate to find new ways of fighting American naval forces in ways other than the standard convention. The Battle of the Philippine Sea was “not the decisive battle in World War II”7; however, it did help accelerate the United States’ takeover of the auxiliary islands with the destruction of Japanese conventional air warfare.

Japan was one of the greater threats to America because of how close they were to the US. The

After they recount the intensity of these battles, the bombs follow logically as a pardon from further carnage by our amphibious invasions of the Japanese home islands. This was one political technique used to manipulate the decision of President Truman.

Jones, Sam J. "Japan, China, the United States and the Road to Pearl Harbor, 1937–41 -

With this in the back of my mind, my quest for the real reasons that the Japanese were targeted began. I thought of the conflict at Pearl Harbor first, so I set out to find what even incited this original Japanese-American divergence.

“December 7, 1941 - A Date Which Will live in Infamy.” (Roosevelt, Franklin D.). Even today, nearly seventy years later, we still remember the Pearl Harbor attack launched by Japan. This catastrophic attack on the United States naval base in Hawaii was what pushed the United States of America into World War two. A Japanese Admiral decided to attack the base secretly hoping to cripple the U.S. fleet, this eventually led to United States involvement in the war and prove to be a huge mistake for the Japanese. Today we can witness the long lasting affects Pearl Harbor had on us. We can see the affects it had on Japan because of our retaliation for the bombing and attack of Pearl Harbor. The cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki are witnesses to what the Pearl Harbor attack eventually led too. The United Sates government declared war on Japan, which led to fighting in the Pacific, which eventually led to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the surrender of the Japanese government. Even until today Japan has restrictions on its military capacity. The infamous day of The Pearl Harbor Attack and its aftermath affected both the United States and Japan greatly and even today, nearly seventy year later, we can still witness some of the long lasting effects.

"World War 2 was a war fought in two distinct phases. The first was the last war of a new generation. The second was emphatically the first of a new era" . <br><br>"The British strategic bomber campaign was of doubtful cost effectiveness" . Bomber Command was by far the largest claimant on labour and factory space within the armed forces. Relative to their size they suffered more casualties than any other sector. <br><br>The Anglo-American bomber force was divided in terms of strategy. Bomber Command believed it was too risky to bomb by day, while the Americans believed it was too difficult to bomb by night. Initially both forces lacked accurate navigational equipment, which deterred them from precision bombing. <br><br>Germany developed a

Throughout the work, Fujitani draws evidence from, and references, a plethora of different sources that add validity to his statements and accounts of not only what the Japanese and United States did, but also why they acted the way they did. In a time of war, both countries took different actions that were not readily understood. Japan

On December 7th, 1941, Japan bombed the United States Army, Air Force, and Naval Bases, in Hawaii at Pearl Harbor. The next day on December 8th, 1941, the U.S. entered World War II declaring war on Japan as they provoked us to do so with their sneaky aerial attack. Behind the scenes of the extensive fighting, American

Through the efforts of the “Manhattan Project” and the scientists within it, several nuclear bombs were created. Two of which, “Little Boy” and “Fat Man,” ended up being dropped on Japan. “Little Boy,” the only uranium bomb created was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 (Batchelder 99-105). “Fat Man,” the second nuclear bomb ever used in warfare, detonated above Nagasaki on August 11, 1945 (Batchelder 95-105). The leaders of the United States, decided that dropping the newly developed atomic bombs on Japan was the smartest action they could take at the time, given the current situation that the United States and the world was in. Dropping the bombs on Japan was mainly motivated by the belief that human lives could be saved. A massive invasion of the Japanese mainland was the only other option if no bombs were going to be dropped. The fact that the Japanese main army of approximately two million had never before been defeated on top of the Japanese terrain which was much better suited for guerrilla warfare than the mechanical ways of the U.S. put estimated American deaths alone well over the deaths at Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined (Batchelder 114-118).

Would you kill a thousand to save millions? Well the drastic actions taken by the United States did save millions. There were two actions that had to occur to save the millions and end the war, the dropping of the two atomic bombs being the first of their kind were to be the most powerful bomb ever invented using atomic and nuclear forces so create it and packed over 20,000 tons of TNT and was about ten feet long. The bomber that transported and dropped them was called the 'Enola Gay’. The two Japanese cities’ that were struck by such creations were Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In this essay I will be discussing on how the actions taken by the United States of America were completely justified in dropping the two bombs as is established a future power image, saved millions, ended the war and ended the axis of evil.