The Attack Of Pearl 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

After the bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese, I believe that FDR did make the right decision to ask Congress to declare war on Japan. During the beginning of World War II, the United States were isolated and not involved in the war between the nations. We were detached from the violence. After the bombing, our country was thrust into the war. America was not expecting for an attack to happen on American soil, this event was tragic and shocking. Japan cannot assume America would give in after destroying the harbor and families’ lives. Declaring war was the right decision to defend our country, quickly win victory, and cost the least lives of our soldiers. Pearl Harbor may looked like a success for Japan even though it would eventually come

Hours after Pearl Harbor was bombed by Japan, gaining worldwide headlines, giving millions unanswered questions, the speech, Pearl Harbor Address to the Nation was given one day after the event. On December 8th 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave a speech to be remembered today, by using rhetorical devices and figurative language to strongly picture his message to the public, making great use of parallel structure, personification, parallelism, and climax ordering to enforce his key point of wanting Americans to stand up against the Japanese forces for the deliberate actions done towards there peaceful country, with no threat or hint of war or of an armed attack. With hopes of gathering support for the decision to declare war on Japan.

On December 7, 1941, tragety struck America when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. During the aftermath of this horror, America declaired war on Japan thus taking a side in world war two. Presedent Franklin Delano Roosevelt presented a speech the next day to inform the nation of his declaration of war on Japan as well as to inspire Americans in to suport the war. Roosevelt used rhetorical devices including repetition, his perspective, and personification to further his point.

December 7, 1941: Attacks on Pearl Harbor: Around November 25, the US intercepted a message of an imminent attack on US soil. In addition, Japan started to move its navy towards Hawaii. Washington’s response to this was a warning to Hawaii, indicating the anticipated attack. However, on December 7, 1941, a fleet on Japanese bombers approached Pearl Harbor with the intent to bomb the navy port. US navy ships were left defenseless as the Japanese torpedoes starting to sink them. Within two hours, US lost eight battleships, two cruisers, and more than a hundred planes. About two thousand soldiers died and one thousand were injured. As a result of this attack, President Roosevelt addressed the Congress, asking for the declaration of war. On

Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt declared that the U.S. would enter World War II

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.

On December 6, President Roosevelt made his final plea to the Japanese Emperor for peace.4 The Japanese did not respond. Later that day the U.S. received and decoded 13 out of 14 messages from Japan. These messages led the U.S. to believe that Japan was on the verge of attacking somewhere in Southeast Asia. On December 7, the U.S. received the final part of the Japanese message that all diplomatic relations were to be severed. Another message was intercepted about an hour later. Due to delays the message could not be forwarded to Pearl Harbor until noon, 4 hours after the attack started. The first attack by Japan consisted of 183 planes, and took off for Pearl Harbor at 6 am. At 7:02 Army operators detected these planes and alerted Pearl Harbor. Pearl Harbor mistook these planes for American B-17’s due from the U.S. West Coast. At 7:15 the second group of Japanese planes took off for Pearl Harbor. At this point Pearl Harbor did not see itself in any danger and did not see an attack coming.5

Throughout the speech FDR presented facts and evidence to prove that the attack was a surprise and to demonstrate that he was familiar with the events that took place. One of the reasons why FDR was declaring war against Japan was because the attack on Pearl Harbor was deliberately planned. He stated that the distance from Hawaii to Japan made it obvious that the attack was planned many days or even weeks in advance. He gave details about the time leading up to the attack when the Japanese government misled the United States by giving false statements of hope for continued peace. By presenting these facts in his speech, FDR proved to his audience that the attack was intentional. Many people would believe that someone knew about the attack, and the President clarified that the attack was a surprise by giving information on the events that took place leading up to the attack. Parts of his speech were logic driven to provide evidence for why the United States was declaring war.

There were many events that led up to Japan making the decision to bomb Pearl Harbor. It all started with Japan wanting to expand their power. Japan was an island nation, it was

The event of Pearl Harbor resulted in a surprised attack which took place on 7th December 1941 and raised a lot of questions in those days. Some of those questions still remain unanswered. To analysts, this seemed strange how the Japanese did get to America at this point. The rumors of the conspiracy theories started rushing all around the globe after this deadly happening. The analysis came with the conclusion that the reason for which the Japanese got hundreds of American ships ready for battle was that President Franklin Roosevelt knew the Pearl Harbor attack was coming and he let it happen in order to get America involved in the war. The major news under this title broke when many authors started writing on it being a conspiracy theory. This tragic event resulted in a lot of casualties. It is best described as “At 7:49 a.m. on Sunday, December 7, 1941, 183 Japanese dive- and torpedo-bombers, accompanied by Zero escorts, launched the first of two attacks against the American base at Pearl Harbor. A second wave of 168 Japanese aircraft arrived at 9 a.m. where eighteen operational warships, including four battleships, were sunk or heavily damaged; 188 aircraft were destroyed. 2,403 Americans were killed, among them 68 civilians, and 1178 were wounded” (Lutton Winter 1991-1992)

Japan's Attack on Pearl Harbour In December 1941, Pearl Harbour was attacked by the Japanese. It was the consequence of a series of events which brought tension between Japan and America to boiling point. Japan was a country growing in power and stature and America soon came to realise that this growth could prove a threat to them. America aimed to stop Japan's growth in its tracks as they realised that if the situation was left to evolve much longer then the situation may be out of their control.

On December 7th of 1941, the Japanese Navy Air Service bombed Pearl Harbour. In the morning of the attack, hundreds of Japanese fighter planes attacked Pearl Harbour in Hawaii, this is where America’s naval base was located. The attack was devastating, not only did the Japanese manage to demolish more than 300 air crafts and almost 20 American naval vessels, but it also killed more than 2,000 US soldiers (another 1,000 were wounded). The day following this tragic attack, the President of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt had been approved by Congress to declare war on Japan; finally, two years after the war had began, America had joined. This is known as one of, if not the most, significant causes of the US bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Based on the evidence and arguments I believe that FDR had knowledge of an attack in the Pacific, but not specific to Pearl Harbor. There was evidence that implied that it could have been Pearl Harbor but that assumption could be tainted by hindsight bias. The memo FDR received days before the Pearl Harbor attack gave FDR the information of an attack that would cause war, but FDR wanted this to happen so America could get involved. So it is uncertain that FDR took no ordered no defensive actions to be taken because he did not know where or he wanted the attack to be as extreme as possible.

According to the book The Pearl Harbor Myth: Rethinking the Unthinkable, the author says the President Roosevelt surprised his advisers twelve days before the attack, by saying the war on Japan was about to begin. So, if Roosevelt knew, why didn’t keep the caution in military bases or the whole country. It was also said that Henry Stimson the secretary of war, noted on his diary that President Roosevelt asked what should they do. The question was should maneuver them into the position of firing the first shot without allowing too much danger for ourselves. Many generations of scholars always disregard Stimson diary and accuse him of writing too fast, or writing about what he believed. Stimson also wrote that by long traditions, our presidents are not seen