Reaction Paper On Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor is an American military base located in Oahu, named after the pearls that were found there. This base was originally a normal bay until the late 1800s when an agreement between America and Hawaii was made. At this time, Hawaii wanted to make their sugar industry stronger by taking away the money needed to send sugar into America. America accepted this, but in return gained access to Pearl Harbor and changed it into a refueling station for its army. 10 years after this agreement, America won a war against the Spanish, and gained land within the pacific such as the Philippines. America needed an army to support these new lands so, they started to change Pearl Harbor into an enormous army base. Although it suffered an attack from

Japan first took over Manchuria in 1932 (document 1). This was the first of many German- Influenced attacks prior to the bombing of pearl harbor. In the year 1939, two years preceding to the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the United States stopped all trade of aircraft and aircraft parts against Japan and two years later additionally froze all japanese assets and bank accounts, and imposed oil embargo against Japan. (document 1) From the year 1937 to 1941, the U.S exports of Petroleum to Japan in total decreased by 2,920,000 tons, the exports of steel to Japan decreased 403,000 tons, and the exports of scrap iron decreased by 167,000 tons. (document 5) From this data, it is hard to say that we remained neutral prior to the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The U.S. supported its allies with this embargo, but didn’t fully commence in the war until after the bombing of Pearl

The second and one of the more underrated reasons Japan attacked Pearl Harbor was because of America putting an embargo on their oil. In August of 1941, America stopped shipping goods to Japan. The many goods America shipped to Japan were vital because it was more of an underdeveloped country and couldn't get the good themselves. As provided in Document D, more than 70% of Japan's oil came from the United States. When that drastically changed it provided a valuable explanation to why Japan declared war.

There were numerous strategic and political reasons that lead to the bombing of Pearl Harbour on December 7th, 1941. However nationalism, militarism and imperialistic notions were key influential factors, which together contributed to the almost complete annihilation of the US Pacific fleet. Based on Japan’s nationalistic beliefs of superiority over Asian nations, the surprise attack attempted to fulfill a change in the balance of power within South East Asia and expose the vulnerability of the West.

Where was the battle fought? What was the geography like during this battle? The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor which is located on the island of O’ahu, Hawaii, which was at that time a territory of the United States. They bombed the Navy air bases at Ford Island and Kaneohe Bay, the Marine airfield at Ewa and the Army Air Corps Fields at Bellows Wheeler and Hickam. The island of O’ahu was considered important because of the good enclosed fleet anchorage at Pearl Harbor. Pearl Harbor is located 3,430 nautical mile southeast of Tokyo.

The attack on Pearl Harbor was the product of Japanese anger at the United States and President Roosevelt should have taken immediate action to prevent it.

Both Pearl Harbor and 9/11 are tragic events in United States history, that will likely be remember in American history by even the least historically educated of the American populace and likely much of the rest of the world too. Both events were surprise attacks on American soil and both led to a fervor of patriotism from the American people to get revenge for those that died in the attacks. This paper will compare and contrast the two events, while providing a basic outline of the events and affects the two had on American society, in both the immediate and long term.

December 7, 1941, was one of the worst attacks on the United States in U.S. history. Of that day 2,403 soldiers were killed in action, 1,178 were wounded in action. Numerous U.S. armed forces personnel were misjudged, which allowed the Japanese to carry out this terrible attack. Not only did the Japanese hit the U.S. where they knew it would hurt the most, but it crippled the United States’ entire Pacific Fleet.

World War II was a war that everyone will remember and will be remembered for many years to come. It could even be said that it killed more people, destroyed more property, and had far more reaching effects than any other war in history. New technologies were used in the war, such as the Atomic bomb, which opened up the nuclear age. Pearl Harbor was one of those events that will never be forgotten by Americans. Pearl Harbor was especially memorable to America because that caused us to get involved in the war and it outraged everyone in the country. The United States played a key role in the war. The bombing of Pearl Harbor was a major turning point in World War II.

During this time, Japan believed that they were superior to all other races, and that this allowed them to extend their rule over all other countries (Doc A). This lead them to occupy other neighboring regions, like Manchuria and French Indochina (Doc B). America did not agree with Japan's imperialist behavior, so they began to put embargos in place and froze Japanese assets. Japan was angered by this, as the Americans were willing to do what needed to be done to keep the Japan from becoming an imperialist empire. The Japanese were determined to spread their power throughout the world, so they viewed the bombing of Pearl Harbor as a way to keep the Americans from being able to stop

The attack on Pearl Harbor was a tragic event which occurred on December 7, 1941. As some call it, this was the awakening of the sleeping giant. World War 2 had already started and the US had attempted to stay neutral but as Japan dropped bombs over the island of Oahu on the US naval base the US was sent straight into war. Japan was upset and angry and the US for the things they have been doing lately so they finally got tired of it and they dropped bombs on Pearl Harbor.

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.

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.

In July 1940, the U.S. placed an embargo on Japan, hoping they would restrain Japan 's military aggression in China. Japan, a proud nation, would not hear of being dictated to by the United States and began to prepare for the attack on Pearl Harbor in early 1941. Meanwhile, there was some warning of the attack on America, but it went without being duly acknowledged. The day before the attack occurred, a code-breaker intercepted a message from the Japanese concerning the movement of ships at Pearl Harbor. The operator relayed the message to the superior officers who said they would get back to the radioman on Monday, December 8, 1941 (Socolow 43). Also, on the morning of the attack, a radar operator saw a large group of airplanes on the radar screen, and when he reported this, the senior officer said it was probably just some US Bombers and not to worry about them (HistoryNet.Com). The Japanese planes flew under the radar by flying through a pass in the mountains called Kolekole Pass. This maneuver added to the surprise of the attack. The frantic attack began on Sunday at 7:55 in the morning. A little before ten the entire attack was over (Pearl Harbor, Attack On). The men of Pearl Harbor fought with valor.

The event that brought forth the Idea to attack japan and destroy the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was Pearl Harbor. Japan had a history of executing surprise attacks before declaring war; one main example is when japan invaded Port Arthur in the Russo- Japanese war which would prove to be very successful . Many books were written prior to 1941 predicting an invasion of the Hawaiian Islands to gain access to the United States mainland including ‘The conflict of nations’, and ‘The valor of ignorance’ . The United States saw the military base on Hawaii as a point of power in the pacific and a last defense of their home land. Japan saw Hawaii as at point of expansion and an easy way for the United States to launch an attack on them. Attacking Pearl Harbor was not the original plan for japan. Japan wanted to bring the United States to them, but Japanese commander- in –Chief Isoroku Yamomoto pushed for an attack on the United States .pearl harbor was the home to the United States naval fleet and many fuel reserves. One of the main objects of japan was to destroy aircraft carriers and sink battle ships to put the United States fleet out of action and to discourage the people of the United States to not join the World War. The Japanese army spent over a year planning the attack and training pilots. The Japanese even created special torpedoes to operate in pear harbors shallow waters .