The Attack on Pearl Harbor Essay

To better understand the attack on Pearl Harbor we must first go to the origin of the problem. Japan had little resources and they depended on trade, trade was the only thing keeping them going as a nation. According to Conroy, author of Pearl Harbor reexamined: Prologue to the Pacific War, “The fundamental causes of the pacific war go back to the turn of the century. International relations were then characterized by politics, aggressive nationalism, and western colonialism. These forces worked to enlarge the empires, glory, and wealth of the individual nation-state. Japan wanted to expand into Indochina so that they could salvage the oil resources from Southeast Asia and make their nation more powerful. One very important trade resource that Japan relied on was oil. Without oil Japan’s army would be useless. Japan wanted to expand because they wanted a more powerful united Asia. When the U. S. found out Japans plans to expand they wanted to take action and put an end to it, but they didn’t want to start another war. So the U. S. peacefully asked Japan to stop trying to expand themselves into Indochina.

But, Japan didn’t want to because they were desperate and needed these resources to make their nation greater. The U. S. , Britain, and the Netherlands then took action and restricted Japan from being able to buy oil and other resources which would make Japans army and navy weak and meaningless. Japan was furious about this restriction and so they only saw two options one to try and get the oil restriction lifted and still allow them to take what territory they wanted or two they were going to go to war. Japan knew that if they were to go to war with the United States that they would lose so they made one last attempt with the U.

S. Japans Prime Minister, General Tojo Hideki made one last attempt to negotiate a settlement without resorting to war on November 29, 1941, but the U. S. felt that Japans attempt to dominate other territories to make their nation stronger and more resourceful was cruel, so they kept the embargo on Japans oil and other resources. Now Japan started making preparations for war. Hideki knew the attack on Pearl Harbor would cripple the U. S. Pacific fleet and make it possible for Japanese to carry on with their plans of creating a stronger empire and expanding into China and other nations.

Hideki and other leaders of Japan sought out the perfect plan to attack Pearl Harbor. Their Plan was to sneak attack Pearl Harbor on a beautiful morning with clear weather. Zuber expresses Japans urge to move in on Pearl Harbor he says,” Yamamoto’s Pearl Harbor attack was at cross-purposes with years of Japanese strategic planning and preparation, and was so illogical that if it succeeded in delaying the US counter-attack by six months, it would force the US to adopt the long-war strategy that spelled certain Japanese defeat.

Readers will be astounded to learn that Yamamoto was so intent on sinking obsolete American battleships, estimating that this would fatally demoralize (! ) the United States, that he was willing to sacrifice a large part of his carrier force and strike aircraft to achieve that objective, indeed was willing to conduct the attack even if the Japanese were detected 24 hours out. ” Canfield states” By 6 December 1941, warnings of war in the Pacific had been, percolating, and Japanese Ambassadors Kichisaburo Nomura and Saburo Kurusu were still negotiating in Washington ,”so if they were to attack now the U.

S. wouldn’t detect them. On November 26, 1941 Japanese set sail for Hawaii with a fleet of 33 warships, an auxiliary craft, and 6 aircraft carriers. They took a northern route and cut off their radio so that they wouldn’t be detected by the U. S. Hanyok says, “Japanese radio intelligence discovered that the British monitoring site in Hong Kong had identified and tracked the large ships. (It is not known if the Japanese realized that American naval radio intelligence had done so as well. Alerted to the vulnerability of its communications to foreign RI, the Japanese naval command was compelled to devise a counter plan. ” On December 7, 1941, The Japanese fleet had reached their destination. The first wave of fighters, bombers, and torpedo planes had departed at 6 a. m. to the entrance of Pearl Harbor. They even made preparations for five mini submarines to abide submerged below Pearl Harbor until the attack took place. Burlingame states, “At first, Yamamoto banned their use, because he feared that they would be spotted by American patrols prior to the attack.

The designers and crews of the midget submarines, however, devised an underwater method of launching the midget submarines from the backs of “mother” submarines, and Yamamoto reluctantly approved their use. ” Then they were instructed to do as much damage as possible from below with their torpedoes. A little before 7 a. m. Opana point detected a signal of massive air flight heading their way from the north. But they were assumed to be aircraft flights from the carrierEnterprise or a scheduled flight of the B-17s from mainland, so no actions were taken.

Vice Admiral Nagumo was given orders to attack Pearl Harbor by Yamamoto at 7:55 a. m. It is said that the attack lasted for almost three hours but it is hard to define the actual length of the attack because Japanese attacked many different airfields of the base. The locations included Hickam, Wheeler, and Bellows airfields, Ewa Marine Corps Air Station and many more. The ending results of the attack on Pearl Harbor included four U. S. Navy battleships sunk, caused another to capsize and severe damage to four more.

Japan also sank and damaged three cruisers and destroyers, one minelayer, and 188 aircrafts. The attack injured 1,282 and killed 2,402 U. S. servicemen. America tried to fight back but only little damage was done to the Japanese. The Japanese only loss four midget subs and 29 aircrafts, with about 65 Japanese men killed or severely injured. In the end Japan came out of the attack on Pearl Harbor victorious. They crippled the U. S. Pacific fleet like they planned and crushed America’s pride.

Although Japan came out victorious things only got worse for them, little did they know that the attack on Pearl Harbor was only opening the door to their own self-destruction. ——————————————– [ 1 ]. Conroy, Hilary. 1990. Pearl Harbor Reexamined : Prologue to the Pacific War. n. p. : University of Hawaii Press, 1990. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost), EBSCOhost (accessed September 30 , 2012). [ 2 ]. Zuber, Terence. 2012. “Book Review: Attack on Pearl Harbor: Strategy, Combat, Myths, Deceptions By Alan D. ” War In History 19, no. : 257-258. History Reference Center, EBSCOhost (accessed September 29, 2012). [ 3 ]. Canfield, Eugene B. 2004. “ALL SIGNS POINTED TO PEARL HARBOR. ” Naval History 18, no. 6: 42-46. History Reference Center, EBSCOhost (accessed September 30, 2012). [ 4 ]. Hanyok, Robert J. 2009. “How the Japanese Did It. ” Naval History 23, no. 6: 44-50. History Reference Center, EBSCOhost (accessed September 26, 2012). [ 5 ]. Burlingame, Burl. 2011. “Setting a Trap. ” Cobblestone 32, no. 9: 20-22. History Reference Center, EBSCOhost (accessed September 26, 2012).