Pearl Harbor Attack - Research Paper Example

The Pearl Harbor Attack December 7th, 1941 was the when a Japanese force of carrier aircraft, comprising of fighters, high-degree bombers, dive bombers and torpedo bombers, initiated an attack on the American naval center at Pearl Harbor, while, at the same time, other US military installations within Hawaii. However, they obtained complete surprise with five American battleships, three cruisers, as well as three destroyers sunk while 188 US aircraft got destroyed with the majority of them being on the ground. Although Japanese losses summed up to 29 aircraft, as well as the five inadequate midget submarines intended for participating in the assault, this was a brilliant premeditated victory for Japan. There were two in-flight attack waves, toting up 353 aircraft, instigated from six carriers of Japanese aircraft under the leadership of Commander Mitsuo Fuchida. The objective of the strike was protecting Imperial Japan advance to the Dutch East Indies, as well as and Malaya, due to their natural resources like rubber and oil, through the neutralization of the U.S. Pacific Fleet. Although the Japanese succeeded in fulfilling the attack, thereby potentially crippling the control of America over the Pacific, this success was only short lived. The following day, America pronounced war on Japan thus leading to the official American entry into World War II (Shelley & David 10). Under the leadership of US, the Western Countries had imposed derisory sanctions on Japan due to its invasion of China thereby impeding the Japanese military operations. As a result, Japan got into diplomatic negotiations along with US in order to break the impasse while using this time in launching an attack on Pearl Harbor. Most of the Japanese fleet needed to sail not less than 4000 miles so as to get from its center to where the aircraft carriers intended to set off their planes for Hawaii. These planes got there just ahead of 8AM on 7 December. Before long, five of eight battleships at Pearl Harbor either got sunk or sinking while the rest got damaged. Although the most noteworthy casualty turned out to be USS Arizona, there were a number of other ships, as well as most Hawaii-based war planes also got knocked out with 2388 Americans ending up dead (Sakata 23). There are various reasons as to why Japanese attacked the Pearl Harbor including (Lord): I.) The banning of all exports of scrap iron, steel, as well as oil to Japan by President Roosevelt, which was due to the given Japanese invasion of China. This led to Japan losing not less than 90% of its oil supply. This economic seclusion crippled their economy, together with their military; II.) America had participated in the Second World War yet since they were still stumbling from depression caused by the First World War. However, America still possessed the strongest nautical fleets. Based on this viewpoint, the Japanese were nearly as strong as the American navy. With the passage of time, America favored more and more in line of joining the war. The Japanese had the anticipation of a full-blown naval war together with America thereby deciding to act first by means of bombing Pearl Harbor; III.) Assumptions also involved the fact that the Japanese had the intention of becoming a naval superpower, while, at the same time, wanting to destruct any competition, comprising of American, along with British naval convoy; IV.) The United States intended Japan to abandon northern Indo-China; V.) Opposition from the US about Japanese expansion, together with Japan demands considering that they were not got by diplomacy; VI.) The Japanese were eager on expanding their empire thereby making a decision between giving in or going to war along with the United States; VII.) The Japanese wanted the US to consent to their spreading out into Asia; VIII.) Pearl Harbor happened to be the residence of the U.S. Pacific Fleet; therefore Japan did not intend the U.S. within the war since at that time; the greatest Naval force belonged to the United States of America. They made a given conclusion that with the destruction of the Pacific Fleet; Americans would be demoralized thereby lacking the morale to fight; IX.) The Japanese had a perception that they were capable of defeating the United States; therefore, they convinced themselves that a wrecking attack was capable of disheartening the Americans, while, at the same time, leading to cracks within the fabric of the American society thereby threatening its stability; Although the spotting of the primary wave of Japanese bombers was on the radar, it got confused for a fleet of U.S. B-17s, thereby leading to the first confusion, as well as a relatively slow response. This led to the damaging of all the eight American battleships found at Pearl Harbor, while four of them sunk. However, six of them got repaired and then used for the impending battle. Japanese losses did not succeed in causing a dent within their numbers since 64 got killed, with only one getting captured (Lassieur 33). Results of the Pearl Harbor Attack The Pearl Harbor attack had a number of consequences; the American attitudes were a substantial contribution to the victory of the Japanese. US military authorities assumed that the looming threats concerning an attack on Pearl Harbor were not serious by perceiving the harbor as being immune to air instigated torpedo strikes owing to its shallow waters. None of the American torpedo at that time was capable of accomplishing a feat comparable to that of the Japanese. In fact, there was the establishment of latest torpedoes by Japan for utilization in precisely these situations yet Americans disregarded what information they had concerned this in spite of the British having illustrated that air attacks beside such a harbor was plausible, in their attack on the Italian convoy at Taranto on November 11, 1940. The repercussions of Taranto underwent intense study in Japan compared to the United States. Considering prevailing American view, there was relatively little concentration given to the likelihood of such an attack within the Pearl Harbor (Hill 31). On the other hand, American intelligence concerning Japanese intentions clearly revealed that Japan was progressing towards war through the United States through the issuing of a warning to America forces surrounding the Pacific. However, there was a failure in ranking Pearl Harbor amongst the most feasible targets. The long Japanese note communicated to their embassy in Washington on the exact day of the attack, officially breaking diplomatic contacts with the US, was, in fact, interpreted by American cryptographers, not less than four hours prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor started; however, bureaucratic inertia deferred transmission of a caution to Hawaii till after the attack had already taken place (Smith 44). The local army, along with navy commanders refused to take extreme precautions against an attack taking place on their facilities due to the prevailing attitudes, as well as the lack of intelligence pointing purposely to Pearl Harbor as a goal of the attack. There was greater concern given to the possibility of sabotage, rather than to the risk of an air attack, as a result, aircraft got parked closely along the runways. Therefore, there was a failure in deploying torpedo nets around the capital ships while only skeleton crews were readily accessible for manning the ships, as well as antiaircraft defenses since it was a Sunday and the majority of the officers, along with sailors were onshore. This led to the dismissal of both commanders following the attack, due to the negative results their decisions had on the performance of American military throughout the attack. In the ultimate hours leading up to the attack, there were additional warning signs noted by local units while disregarding command authorities (Hoyt 47). Around 0630, a US demolisher sighted what was perceived as being a submarine periscope thereby attacking what was one of the midget submarines going to Pearl Harbor. Nonetheless, there was ignoring of the report of this occurrence considering that such actions happened to be fairly common, while in most cases, turned to be erroneous. Although half an hour later, one of radar stations’ operators on the island of Oahu stated detecting various unidentified aircraft coming near, the junior officer responsible took no action since he presumed that the aircraft belonged to America. To their surprise, this was the first wave of the Japanese striking force headed for Pearl Harbor. Whereas the litany of American mistakes appeared to be extensive, the consequences of the surprise attack seemed far worse at the time compared to the description given later. All three aircraft carriers serving up together with the Pacific Fleet happened to be away from Pearl Harbor during the attack thereby surviving unscratched. Japanese hopes of immobilizing the whole US Pacific Fleet ended up getting dashed. Apart from that, fueling, as well as repairing facilities at Pearl Harbor remained undamaged (Horn 52). Admiral Nagumo, who happened to be the commander of the Japanese task force, made a decision against instigating a third strike, aimed at the center infrastructure since he dreaded that American submarines, along with aircraft were capable of discovering his fleet thereby counterattacking. Nagumo reputedly asserted that this would be a long war with ships needed later; this according to him, the attack had attained its aim of crippling the American convoy (Davenport 66). Admiral Yamamoto, who was the Japanese Navy’s Commander-in-Chief, did not anticipate the attack as providing Japan with more than a transitory advantage. According to his estimate, the best Japan was hoping for through attacking first would be nearly six months, at the time which it would have military superiority within the Pacific theater. He believed that by then, the United States was capable of recovering and claiming the initiative. On the other hand, the Japanese political-military leadership had the perception that, that would be enough time for gaining control over the natural resources they sought and created a firm defensive edge for their Pacific empire. They were hoping that the prospect of a prolonged and costly war within the Pacific, particularly at a time when the larger part of Europe was already entangled in war, would persuade Americans to accepting Japanese dominion in Asia. A day into the attack, Britain, Netherlands, Canada, New Zealand and Australia, together with London put Free French, along with Yugoslavian governments into exile while a number of South American countries, as well as the United States declaring war on Japan (Arnold & Robert 79). Work Cited: Arnold S. Lott, Robert F. Sumrall. Pearl Harbor Attack: An Abbreviated History. New York: Leeward Publications, 1977. Davenport, John. The Attack on Pearl Harbor: The United States Enters World War II. Illinois: Chelsea House, 2009. Hill, Richard, K. Hitler Attacks Pearl Harbor. New York: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2003. Horn, Steve, J. The Second Attack on the Pearl Harbor. Bosnia: Naval Institute Press, 2005. Hoyt, Edwin Palmer. Pearl Harbor Attack. Chicago: Baker & Taylor, CATS, 2009. Lassieur, Allison. The Attack on Pearl Harbor: An Interactive History Adventure. Arizona : Capstone Press, 2008. Lord, Walter. Day of Infamy. New York: H. Holt, 2001. Sakata, Miyoko. Pearl Harbor Attack: Pre-attack History and the Controversy Surrounding President Roosevelt's Foreknowledge. Georgetown : Georgetown University, 2004. Smith, Stanley J. Investigations of Attack on Pearl Harbor. Greenwood Publishing Group, 1990. Shelley Tanaka, David Craig. Attack on Pearl Harbor: the true story of the day America entered World War II. Oklahoma: Scholastic, 2002. Read More