Personal Viewpoint of the Attack of Peral Harbor Essay

On Sunday morning, December 7, 1941, at 7:55 AM the Japanese Empire led a surprise attack on the US Naval base Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, that would leave millions of Americans in shock, and heartbroken. Before the attack, the United States kept a low profile on International affairs, and concentrated on the domestic affairs at hand. This tragic moment in American history forever remembered. It is a mournful day for the American people, although, for the Japanese Empire it was an honorable day, one they would call a

The main focus on this essay is “Why Did Japan Attack Pearl Harbor?”. On a normal Sunday morning when the American navy units were busy doing their normal routine work, the Japanese navy planned a surprise attack that stunned the world. This attack was so unpredictable that the entire American navy went in deep shock. Very few of them realized the need to manage and control their position to save the naval power. All the staff and ships that were present at the Pearl Harbor suffered massive loss. Just a couple of hours of bombing gave the Pearl Harbor, a battlefield view with fire and smoke emerging from every corner. The attack left American navy at a loss of 2400 of her best men as well as 21 ships that were either sunk or completely demolished.

At approximately 8 o’clock in the morning on the 7th of Dec 1941, the United States of America faced for the first time in history, an attack on US soil. The Empire of Japan had strategically planned and executed a swift blow to the state of Hawaii, located in the mid-Pacific Ocean. Hawaii was our first line of defense from any westerly attack of an Asian country. By the end of the almost 2 hour ordeal, our Naval and Air Corps assets’ were brutally crippled preventing the ability of the US to conduct an immediate retaliation. In this study we will cover many of the events that led up to that moment in time, the actual attack and show the result that were to follow.

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.

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.

Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, the Commander-in-Chief of the Japanese Combined Fleet, was the principal architect of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Yamamoto himself was personally opposed to war with the UNITED STATES, but knew that Japan’s only hope of success would be to achieve a quick and decisive victory. Japan needed to knock out the UNITED STATES Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor. (Pearl Harbor’s History, Filmstrip)

In Pearl Harbor and the Coming of the Pacific War by Akira Iriye, the author explores the events and circumstances that ended in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, an American naval base. Iriye assembles a myriad of primary documents, such as proposals and imperial conferences, as well as essays that offer different perspectives of the Pacific War. Not only is the material in Pearl Harbor and the Coming of the Pacific War informative of the situation between Japan and the United States, but it also provides a global context that allows for the readers to interpret Pearl Harbor and the events leading up to it how they may. Ultimately, both Pearl Harbor and the subsequent Pacific War between

Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor seems unwise, ill-judged, and senseless. The attack was meant to keep the U.S. out of the war, but had the opposite effect and instead made them want to fight and join it. Japan, at this time, was not a major power and having them attack one of the biggest major powers by bombing the U.S. naval base in Hawaii didn’t appear like an appropriate idea for them. Then why did they do it? Japan’s reasons for attacking Pearl Harbor was their plan for a ‘new’ world order, the U.S. oil embargo, and the relocation and expansion of the U.S. naval fleet.

The events of December 7th1941 on Pearl Harbor are ones that along with many others will forever remain written down as a historic day in not just in history but in naval and military history as well. In this essay I will first explain and describe the Pearl Harbor attack. I will do that in the perspective of a male veteran who at the time was stationed at Pearl Harbor as a U.S. Navy cadet describing the events of that topic to a news anchor for a local newspaper. I also explain what happened after the attack and explain if there was any possible way to prevent it. Next, I will transition to playing the role of the news anchor and describe the events of September 11th 2001. I will interview a person who survived that terrorist attack and

One contributing factor towards the bombing of Pearl Harbor was Japan’s desire to be recognized as a world power. This is explicitly expressed in Document A, which states, “The ideals of Japan… are represented by the principle that the benevolent rule of the Emperor may be extended so as to embrace the whole world. The way of the [world] is to be loyal to the Emperor in disregard of self… ” This idea was not a mere suggestion, but rather it was a plan. Proven by Documents B and C, Japan managed to occupy nearly all of East Asia’s coast and “declare its policy to establish a new order” in the span of approximately five years.

On December 7,1941 Japan raided the airbases across the islands of Pearl Harbour. The “sneak attack” targeted the United States Navy. It left 2400 army personnel dead and over a thousand Americans wounded. U.S. Navy termed it as “one of the great defining moments in history”1 President Roosevelt called it as “A Day of Infamy”. 2 As this attack shook the nation and the Japanese Americans became the immediate ‘focal point’. At that moment approximately 112,000 Persons of Japanese descent resided in coastal areas of Oregon, Washington and also in California and Arizona.3

On December 7, 1941 -- the day that will always be commemorated as “the date which will live in infamy” by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt -- the Japanese unexpectedly attacked the United States’ naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. This crippling attack caused many American casualties, and American citizens quickly became filled with fury and abhorrence; the detestation that swallowed the hearts of the American citizens was shown through President Roosevelt’s expeditious appeal to Congress to declare war against Japan. The attack on Pearl Harbor was an unforgettable day in history and directly affected the United States involvement in World War Two and the patriotism of the United States’ citizens.

This racism remark is powered by this view of Japan being inferior to a western power. I’m wouldn’t say I’m shocked by the racism as much as them considering that Japan would never have the guts to attack a main navy base like pearl Harbor. I think underestimating your enemy is one of the greatest mistakes you can make while in command of military personal. What is worse is that I know from European history that Japan capable of preforming a daring attack. In the Russo-Japanese, Russia was surprised attacked by a Japanese naval fleet at Port Arthur, which was the main navel port of the Russian Empire on it eastern coastline. They utterly destroyed Russia’s Pacific navy and dealt a serious blow to Russia as a whole as they eventually won the war. So to think that Japan wasn’t capable of a surprise large scale attack was a dumb belief. Now, of course, most common men didn’t know about the battle of Port Arthur or Russian history in general, but I formally believe that some high-ranking members U.S military knew this, as confirmed by the warning to Short. So with this in mind, all the warning signs pointing to possible attack were present. They, however, saw their foes as inferior to them, which may explain the reason that Short believed that a saboteur attack would happen, or many other soldiers believing nothing at

Around 7:30am service members station at pearl harbor were awoken to the sound of bombs exploding. “More than 350 Japanese planes attacked about 33 American ships. America sustained a loss of nearly 170 aircraft destroyed and 160 damaged that morning, as well as three ships destroyed and 16 damaged. Three thousand seven hundred Americans lost their lives, including 68 civilians. The cost to the Japanese was 29 aircraft, five midget submarines, and 130 service personnel, all but one of whom was killed in action”

“Suddenly, in the early morning of December 7… the carriers released their planes, each stamped with a red sun representing the Japanese flag, swept down on the unsuspecting American naval base… dropping torpedoes and bombs.” President Roosevelt described Pearl Harbor as “a date which will live in infamy,” and launched the neutral United States into World War II. As every AP United States history textbook states, Japan suddenly attacked Pearl Harbor. Yet each book fails to mention a comprehensive explanation behind Japanese motives, such as Japanese politics, nationalism, and the divided nation. Although Pearl Harbor had one of the most significant impacts on the war, not much was mentioned from the Japanese perspective. If the United States adhered to their policy of neutrality, given the exceptions of the Lend Lease Act, shooting German u-boats at sight etc., why would the Japanese illogically decide to provoke the US? Every coin has two sides, and I wanted to learn about Japan’s perspective, instead of accepting the simplistic one sentence explanation I learned previously. This book certainly did not fail my expectations, for it provided a timeline of the complex year for Japan, detailed the failures of the government, the warring government officials, and thoroughly explained the decision behind why Japan decided to wage an unwinnable war, further slimming their chances of victory by inciting the United States to join.