Essay on The Complicated Investigation of the Attacks on Pearl Harbor

When Pearl Harbor was attacked on December 7, 1941, it set into motion a chain of events that would radically transform the lives of hundreds of thousands of people that, in one way or another, had ties to Axis countries, though they were not necessarily loyal to them (Harmening). This transformation started with government-sponsored arrests and kidnapping of Japanese, Germans, and Italians living in America and Latin America (Russell 39).

his way or no way! Everything had to be to his advantage and he didn't

Next, Toland proves that not only were vital messages not passed on to the people who could have lessened or halted the attack on Pearl Harbor completely, these messages were kept from the investigators. Charles Rugg, Kimmel’s chief counsel,

In January 1941, reports were received that Japan might attack Pearl Harbor but military officials ignored these reports. They considered attacks on the Philippines and other European countries to be more likely, underestimating Japan’s ability to conceal preparations for such an operation. Due to the success of the cryptanalysis machine called, Magic, American leaders started breaking Japanese military operational codes. The codes that were deciphered showed Japan was likely to take some type of military action (Irive). At that time, Japan had only a 12-month supply of petroleum to fuel its economy and war operations left. So the U.S. anticipated Japan would act quickly! The only questions that could not be answered were when and where (Woods). Pearl Harbor had been a major naval base since before 1898. In early

“Our military thought that they couldn't get to Pearl Harbor, that it was too long a journey from Japan to get there, and they proved us wrong”- Jerry Bruckheimer.(Jerry Bruckheimer Quotes) This quote helps explain that the United States thought that Japan could not get to the United States. The cause of Pearl Harbor is why the attack was so shocking the United States lost and damage many ships.

These messages, intercepted on December 3rd and 4th weren't translated until December 10th. The messages showed Tokyo asking for information concerning Pearl Harbor. Japan had no reason to ask for this information, unless it planned to use it to attack ships in the harbor. If translated sooner, these messages would have warned the US of the imminent attack. Many indicators for Pearl Harbor could have repeated before the attack on the calm morning on 9-1-1.

On December 7, 1941 Pearl Harbor Naval Base, Hawaii, was attacked by Japanese torpedo and bomber planes. This attack took the lives of 2,402 Americans and left around 1,282 people injured. The surprise attack caused outrage in the American people, news media, government and the world. The following day President Franklin D. Roosevelt addressed the nation and United States Congress, in response to the attack. In that address, the president asked Congress to declare war on Japan. Congress voted and passed the U.S. Declaration of War on Japan, that very same day. That was America`s entry into World War II. Previous to this attack Americans were reluctant to get involved in another world war, the President on the other hand been trying to convince congress to declare war. So as it turned out a “surprise attack” was exactly what was needed to get the American people to unite in supporting joining the war. This idea has led to the Pearl Harbor Advance-Knowledge conspiracy theory. The general idea of this conspiracy theory is that President Franklin D. Roosevelt and other government officials had knowledge that Japan was planning an attack before the attack happened. It even goes as far to claim that the government did somethings to encourage the attack. The reason the president did not take steps to prevent it was that he was enthusiastic in joining the war. Like with any “conspiracy theory” there is

On December 7 1941 American sea base pearl harbor was bombed. John T. Flynn started a conspiracy that said that Churchill and Roosevelt knew about the attack on pearl harbor and let it happen. This conspiracy states that they had a message from the Japanese that said about interest the pearl

The notice for an attack would come via an intercepted transmission on December 6 to the Japanese Ambassador detailing a secretive 14 part message due to be transmitted and when advised, given to the American authorities. 13 parts were received and deciphered before midnight on December 6. Those 13 parts contained a history from Japan's perspective on what had happened in the war thus far and how they felt about it. Part 14, the most important part, was received by the decoders at 4am on December 7. By 10am they had deciphered and sent it to President Roosevelt. At 10.30am an addition to the message was received. It detailed that the message was to be handed over by the Ambassador at 1pm that afternoon. This also happened to be the time for the first attack however no location was given. Henry L Stimson the Former Secretary of War as recorded in What Happened at Pearl Harbour states the following regarding the MAGIC code:

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.

Pearl was a surprise attack by the Japanese in America and it was by airplanes. The surprise attack was on the morning of December, 7, 2941 at 7:55 A.M. The commander who wanted it to make it a surprise attack, was named Yamato Isorteyky. When he heard America was not trading he became angry and attacked right away. He sent all the planes and submarines out to attack.

A sentence or two is dedicated to this subject, but doesn't really even cover the basics. An interesting fact, that could be really helpful, is that a foreign submarine was found at the entrance of Pearl Harbor earlier that day. This was part of the masterminded plan because they were able to monitor Pearl Harbor and get in once the bombs were dropped. When Japan attacked, they had fighter planes fly through the sky dropping bombs on US ships. The fighter planes were so important because it helped take the attention to the sky so the submarines and boats could attempt to get in.

The attack on the Japanese at Pearl Harbor took more than 3,000 US soldiers lives and left over 1000 wounded on December 7th 1941. This led to the United States entering WW2 that same day. Prior the the attack, on January 27th 1941, a coded message was received by Josef Seibel stating that the Japanese had planned a massive surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. However, this was dismissed by the government as a wild rumor and not treated serious. Also the day of the attack, the radio communications of the Japanese had gotten silent, hinting red flags towards the United States government because they had always been noisy. The attack on Pearl Harbor could have been prevented if we had taken heed to warnings. Consequently in the novel “1984” by George

The writers and director of Pearl Harbor did, however, have some parts of history correct in their film. Steve Biodrowski states “that U.S. military intelligence should perhaps have done a better job of predicting the attack.” Which is very true and realistic because according to the book; Reflections of Pearl Harbor: An Oral History of December 7, 1941: “The Japanese government began transmitting a fourteen-part encoded message that reached those in charge in Washington, DC, just prior to the scheduled

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was the single-most important event of the century and there are many lessons learned from this event that can be applied to modern day military principles. Complacency on the part of the United States Government and senior military officials played a key role in this attack being successful. No one ever thought the Japanese, or any other nation for that matter, would directly attack the United States. Had the intelligence officials at the time utilized the high impact, low probability critical thinking model to identify those high payoff targets, then maybe the attack could have been prevented. In terms of technology, the United States had a distinct advantage at the time, especially since the Japanese communications code was not only broken, but remained unchanged for a significant amount of time. There were plenty of indicators that were collected by United States intelligence activities and by Washington; however, most of the critical information collected was never appropriately passed to the people that needed it most, the commanders in the field. And finally, when the commanders in the field were weary of an impending attack, their request for additional men, weapons, and equipment went unanswered despite Washington having enough information to substantiate the concern.