What was the impact of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor - Coursework Example

?Topic: What was the impact of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor? The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on December 7th, 1941 marked a turning point in American history, changing the political consensus on foreign policy in the nation and leading directly to the country’s entry into the largest and most destructive war in history. The first and most lasting consequence of the Pearl Harbor attack was the ending of the isolationist view of American foreign policy that had grown domestically in the electorate following WWI and the Great Depression. As Krzys Wasilewski writes in "American First in WWII," “On September 4, 1940, a law undergraduate, R. Douglas Stuart, Jr., founded the America First Committee (AFC), an organization that was to promote isolationism and warn the public against the horrors of Europe`s war. Soon he was joined by Lindbergh, Wood, Nye, and other experienced individuals who turned an obscure committee into a nationally recognized institution whose voice was heard all over the country. America was not the policeman of the world, stated the AFC. Lindbergh, who became the organization`s most recognized member, said that the United States should invest its resources in defending itself, not other countries. ‘Shall we now give up the independence we have won, and crusade abroad in a utopian attempt to force our ideas on the rest of the world?’ asked Lindbergh, ‘or shall we use air power, and the other advances of modern warfare, to guard and strengthen the independence of our nation?’” (Wasilewski, 2008) It is important to note that despite the German aggression in Europe, which included the annexation of Austria, the invasion of Czechoslovakia and Poland, and air raids against the civilian population of England, the United States domestically remained wary and unconvinced of the need to enter into the foreign conflict. Charles Lutton writes that “on the eve of Pearl Harbor, polls indicated that 80 per cent of the people did not want the United States to enter the war as an active participant.” (Lutton, 2002) Revisionist historians have contended that Roosevelt and members of his cabinet sought to provoke a first attack by Japan in order to overcome this public sentiment and enter the war on the side of the Allies. (Lutton, 2002) Whether or not the war could have been avoided is a matter of historical debate, but what cannot be argued with are the direct consequences of the American entry into WWII following the Pearl Harbor attack, which unquestionably turned the tide of the conflict and led to the defeat of the fascist military regimes of Hitler, Mussolini, and the Emperor of Japan. I. The Loss of Human Life from Pearl Harbor and WWII: Modern history books paint an evil picture of the Nazi regime of Germany led by Adolph Hitler and the SS, portraying it as one of the most violent and hateful political regimes of all time. Knowing retrospectively the atrocities and genocide of the “Final Solution” or Holocaust that led to the deaths of over six million Jews in Europe in concentration camps, the public today believe overwhelmingly that World War II was a just war that stopped the threat of fascism globally and allowed the free, democratic societies led by America and Britain to triumph ideologically, economically, and politically in the aftermath. Yet, the loss of life during WWII in both civilian and military populations makes it the most destructive and deadly conflict ever engaged in by humanity. The following chart lists the total number of casualties on both sides of the war: These statistics, gathered from a multiplicity of governmental and historical sources, suggest that the Axis powers lost approximately 6.5 million military deaths in WWII combined, in addition to nearly two million civilians. (WarChronicle, 2011) The Allied powers are estimated to have lost over 25 million civilians and 14 million soldiers collectively during WWII. (WarChronicle, 2011) While there is no way of knowing how the war could have been avoided or resolved peacefully, the vast majority of these deaths occurred after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the escalation of the war internationally. According to the U.S. Army Center for Military History’s account of the Pearl Harbor bombing: "All together the Japanese sank or severely damaged 18 ships, including the 8 battleships, three light cruisers, and three destroyers. On the airfields the Japanese destroyed 161 American planes (Army 74, Navy 87) and seriously damaged 102 (Army 71, Navy 31). The Navy and Marine Corps suffered a total of 2,896 casualties of which 2,117 were deaths (Navy 2,008, Marines 109) and 779 wounded (Navy 710, Marines 69). The Army (as of midnight, 10 December) lost 228 killed or died of wounds, 113 seriously wounded and 346 slightly wounded. In addition, at least 57 civilians were killed and nearly as many seriously injured." (WWII History, 2011) America lost nearly 2500 soldiers in the attack on Pearl Harbor, and went on to lose over 400,000 soldiers in the battlefields of WWII. (WarChronicle, 2011) Though it is not possible to isolate the Pearl Harbor attack as the cause of all subsequent war deaths and conflict, due to the ideological standing of the Axis powers in particular who were determined to escalate militarily until they were totally defeated, the fact remains that in leading directly to the declaration of war against Japan, the Pearl Harbor attack was the crucial moment that the War escalated into the most destructive conflict ever known to civilization. II. The Economic Costs of the War Another effect of the attack at Pearl Harbor was to begin the American economic conversion to war, the result of which was to lead to the construction of the largest and most powerful army the world has ever known. Historians note that at the time of the Pearl Harbor attacks, the United States had the 17th largest army in the world. (WWII Database, 2011) “When Marshall took office, the United States had 174,000 regular officers and men and 200,000 in the National Guard; by the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor, 1,686,000 men in thirty-six active divisions were available. Most lacked both training and equipment. But that was not enough. The two-front war would require 200, perhaps as many as 330 divisions... By 1945, the US Army had 8,300,000 men and women out of 12,350,000 Americans in uniform.” (WWII Database, 2011) Military spending at the federal level increased rapidly in order to mobilize the industrial development that was needed to build a global war machine. The draft was instituted bringing young men from all over the country together for military training and travel to foreign lands for battle. The country was also forced into a state of rationing important supplies of steel, rubber, and food, as well as selling war bonds publicly to finance the operations. The chart below shows the level of increase in the federal military budget over the war years: (Source: Tassava, 2005) According to Tassava, the United States never fully recovered from the Great Depression despite all of the federal programs instituted through the New Deal. Indeed, America has never suffered high unemployment to the degree that it was experienced in the pre-war period in the country after WWII, and popular wisdom suggests that the war itself provided the economic recovery for the country that the New Deal itself could not provide. “'Conversion' was the key issue in American economic life in 1940-1942... In 1940, Walter Reuther, a high-ranking officer in the United Auto Workers labor union, provided impetus for conversion by advocating that the major automakers convert to aircraft production. Though initially rejected by car-company executives and many federal officials, the Reuther Plan effectively called the public's attention to America's lagging preparedness for war... Many of the ships built in Maritime Commission shipyards carried American goods to the European allies as part of the 'Lend-Lease' program, which was instituted in 1941 and provided another early indication that the United States could and would shoulder a heavy economic burden. By all accounts, Lend-Lease was crucial to enabling Great Britain and the Soviet Union to fight the Axis, not least before the United States formally entered the war in December 1941. Between 1941 and 1945, the U.S. exported about $32.5 billion worth of goods through Lend-Lease, of which $13.8 billion went to Great Britain and $9.5 billion went to the Soviet Union (Milward, 71). The war dictated that aircraft, ships (and ship-repair services), military vehicles, and munitions would always rank among the quantitatively most important Lend-Lease goods, but food was also a major export to Britain (Milward, 72).” (Tassava, 2005) III. Social & Political Change after Pearl Harbor As the Pearl Harbor attacks led to the institution of the draft, millions of young Americans were soon called up for military training to ship abroad to the battlefields of Europe and the Pacific theatre to fight the war. Whereas this resulted in the largest mobilization of human beings ever called into any military conflict, the social and political effects in America were transformational. The first aspect of this involves the creation of a shared civil awareness and patriotic spirit in the population as required by the war. Young men from all over the country were forced together in military training and shipped together to the battlefield where they would rely on each other for saving not only their own lives, but also for saving the very political and cultural system of freedom that America stood for popularly. Women were encouraged to work in heavy industry and factories to support the war effort, leading to a progressive recognition of women’s rights in the country. The segregation of African Americans into special “colored” units has been considered a stage of development in the civil rights movement by historians who saw it as a step towards the racial integration of society. (Holt, 2006) These “melting-pot” effects of national mobilization on a global scale had the combined effect of strengthening American patriotism and sense of identity as a nation across the wide mix of ethnic and cultural groups that made up the citizenry. The political ideas, patriotism, and view of American power that emerged from the millions of soldiers who trained and fought in WWII for America would irrevocably alter the basic sense of identity felt by an entire generation in a manner that would continue in American foreign policy after the war. The technological advances that developed from the war effort in aviation, mass production of commodities, communications, medicine, and other fields of knowledge were undoubtedly accelerated by the collective effort of so many people mobilized simultaneously for the war cause following Pearl Harbor. These technological developments later were introduced into the domestic economy and used to build the post-war prosperity that defined America. Indeed, one of the many spoils of America’s victory in World War II was its emergence as one of the unparalleled super-powers of the new era, with an arsenal of nuclear weapons and one of the largest air, land, and sea military forces that had ever been assembled in history. The combination of this military might with the economic recovery of a nation fully mobilized and now removed from the economic effects of the Great Depression meant that America ended WWII as one of the largest and wealthiest nations in the world and undisputed leader of the international order. Conclusion: Whether or not Roosevelt provoked a Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor or maintained a ruse of not knowing about the Japanese plans while allowing the attack to occur in order to build a public reaction that would reverberate in support of a Second World War has been a matter of intense debate among historians since 1944-45. (Lutton, 2002) What is certain is that the Pearl Harbor attack led to a declaration of war by Congress against Japan within days, and the Axis response was that Germany and Italy declared war against America. Thus, WWII escalated to cost nearly 50 million people their lives, along with billions of dollars in property destruction that resulted in entire cities being bombed and destroyed. The total mobilization of American society for the war led to the establishment of the Manhattan Project and the first production of nuclear weapons. America finally used two atomic bombs in 1945 to avoid a land invasion of Japan and force the country into surrender, ultimately avenging the Pearl Harbor attacks and opening the door to an entire new era of history that would lead to the Cold War, Mutual Assured Destruction, and the production of enough nuclear weapons to destroy the world multiple times. America never stood down after the Second World War, continuing to expand its military, economic, and foreign policy presence until it became the pre-eminent superpower with the fall of the Iron Curtain and Soviet Empire, making Pearl Harbor a social and cultural turning point for the 20th century. Sources Cited: Holt, Pat M.. Pearl Harbor, 65 Years Later. Christian Science Monitor, 7 Dec. 2006. Web. 4 April. 2011. ‹http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1207/p09s01-coop.html›. Lutton, Charles. Pearl Harbor: Fifty Years of Controversy. The Journal of Historical Review, vol. 11, no. 4, pp. 431-46, 2002. Web. 4 April. 2011. ‹http://www.vho.org/GB/Journals/JHR/11/4/Lutton431-467.html›. Martin, James J.. Pearl Harbor's Place in History: Reflections on the Origins and Consequences of the Pacific War. The Institute for Historical Review, from "Beyond Pearl Harbor," Little Current, Ont., Canada: Plowshare Press, 1981. Web. 4 April. 2011. ‹http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v16/v16n6p-2_Martin.html›. Martin, James J.. Pearl Harbor: Antecedents, Background and Consequences. From “The Saga of Hog Island: And Other Essays in Inconvenient History,” published by Ralph Myles, The Memory Hole, 2011. Web. 4 April. 2011. ‹http://tmh.floonet.net/articles/pearl.html›. WWII Database. The United States Army in World War II. The World War II Multimedia Database, 2011. Web. 4 April. 2011. ‹http://worldwar2database.com/html/army.htm›. Tassava, Christopher J.. The American Economy during World War II. EH.Net Encyclopedia, edited by Robert Whaples. February 10, 2008. Web. 4 April. 2011. ‹http://eh.net/encyclopedia/article/tassava.WWII›. U.S. Army Center for Military History. Introduction to the Attack on Pearl Harbor. World War II History Info, 2011. Web. 4 April. 2011. ‹http://worldwar2history.info/Pearl-Harbor/›. WarChronicle. Estimated War Dead – World War II. WarChronicle, 2011. Web. 4 April. 2011. ‹ http://warchronicle.com/numbers/WWII/deaths.htm›. Wasilewski, Krzys. History Cafe - Episode 6: American First in WWII. The Student Operated Press, August 24th, 2008. Web. 4 April. 2011. ‹http://thesop.org/story/history/2008/08/24/history-cafe-episode-6-american-first-in-wwii.php›. Read More