History of Pearl Harbor - Essay Example

Pearl Harbor On the morning of December 7, 1941, Japanese planes attacked America’s Pacific Fleet basedat Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Hawaii. The two-wave assaults came at 7:53 and 8:55 AM. It ended by 10 AM and by 1 PM, the planes had rejoined the Japanese carriers and were headed on their way home to Japan. In the wake of the chaos that followed the attack, 2,403 American servicemen were dead, 188 planes were destroyed and eight battleships were either heavily damaged or completely destroyed (“Attack at Pearl Harbor”, 1997). This action led directly to U.S involvement in the Second World War. Prior to Pearl Harbor, Americans were sharply divided as to whether the U.S. should ally with Britain against Germany following the defeat of France. The U.S. immediately began fighting on both European and Pacific fronts fully supported by the American public. Though the Pacific Fleet was crippled by the Pearl Harbor attack, its submarines, aircraft carriers and, somewhat incredibly, the fuel storage tanks, were not damaged. America responded by winning the Battle of Midway then ‘island hopping’ toward Japan. The war in the Pacific theater culminated in the dropping of two atomic bombs in 1945 on cities in Japan affecting surrender (Goldstein & Dillon, 1981). In preparation for possible Japanese aggression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt had relocated much of the U.S. Fleet to Pearl Harbor in mid 1940. The Japanese had been fighting a war with China since 1937 to gain desperately needed oil and other materials. What became the countries of the Western alliance stopped trade with the Japanese in July 1941which made the Japanese situation more desperate. Japan felt it had little choice but to capture the mineral and oil-rich regions of the Pacific Rim, Southeast Asia and the East Indies so as to sustain itself. War was the inevitable outcome of these actions (“Pearl Harbor Raid”, 2000). Frank Beatty, at that time a U.S. Navy Secretary aid, wrote after the war, “I can say that prior to December 7, it was evident even to me that we were pushing Japan into a corner. The conditions we imposed upon Japan to get out of China, for example were so severe that we knew that nation could not accept. We did not want her to accept them.” According to a 1944 account of British Minister of Production Oliver Lyttelton, “Japan was provoked into attacking America at Pearl Harbor. It is a travesty of history to say that America was forced into war” (Perloff, 1986). The Japanese Navy announced internally its detailed orders for the attack on November 5, 1941. On November 17, the approved plans were delivered to the strike force.  The Japanese operation began its silent, undetected journey towards Hawaii on November 27 from the Kurils harbor but had been ordered to stifle the operation. Japan and the U.S. reached an agreement before December 7 (Hanson, 1976). The Army Chief of Staff had guaranteed President Roosevelt in April of 1941 that “The Island of Oahu, due to its fortification, its garrison, and its physical characteristics, is believed to be the strongest fortress in the world.” The highest ranking member of the U.S. military General George C. Marshall assured Secretary of War Stimson that he believed Oahu to be impregnable whether or not the Naval fleet was stationed there because “with our heavy bombers and our fine pursuit planes, the land force could put up such a defense that the Japs wouldn’t dare attack Hawaii, particularly such a long distance from home” (Conn et al, 2006). In hindsight, these claims were quite flawed. Pearl Harbor was attacked just prior to 8 AM on December 7, 1941. A Japanese submarine was spotted earlier that morning and subsequently destroyed near the base but this event, for whatever reason, did not raise any suspicions that an attack was forthcoming. Neither did a massive amount of dots on the radar screen which appeared that morning. Because of this, total surprise resulted which gave U.S. forces no reaction time. Japanese bombs and torpedoes attacked the 90 ships stationed at Pearl Harbor. The initial attacks hit ‘Battleship Row,’ a line of sizeable American battleships anchored at the base. Of those, the West Virginia sank rapidly followed by the Oklahoma which sank after turning over on its side (“December 7”, 2005). Just after 8 AM, an armor-piercing shell struck the Arizona. The impact ignited its ammunition magazine and the resulting explosion killed more than 1,000 members of its crew. The Nevada, California, Tennessee and Maryland sustained varied amounts of destruction during the attack (“The Pacific War”, 2003). By 10 AM, the attack ceased. Five of the eight battleships docked at Pearl Harbor were either sunk, sinking, immobilized or greatly damaged. In total, 21 ships were lost and 188 aircraft were destroyed. The majority of land-based aircraft were also destroyed. 2,400 American servicemen lost their lives in addition to 68 civilians that died as a result of friendly fire when anti-aircraft shells fired by the U.S. landed in Honolulu. The Japanese losses were minimal, six midget submarines and 29 planes (Chen, 2007). The day after the attack, President Roosevelt made his famous ‘a day that lives in infamy’ speech to Congress that requested this body declare war against Japan. Congress quickly agreed to that request then declared war on Germany and Italy on December 11 (Holt, 2006). The following summer, America took the offensive against Japan. The Japanese were defeated both at the Battle of Midway, a strategic island base and then again at the Battle of the Coral Sea. America invaded Guadalcanal in August, 1942 and had freed the Aleutian Islands in May of 1943 (Kelly, 2007). U.S. and Australian military forces combined to isolate one of Japan’s most important bases, Rabaul, then began ‘island hopping’ across the Pacific toward Japan. The allied forces achieved a series of victories at sea including prominent 1944 battles such as the Battle of Leyte Gulf and the Battle of the Philippine Sea. The allies were also victorious on several island campaigns including Iwo Jima the Philippines and Okinawa in 1945. During this time, submarines were progressively cutting off the oil and material supplies of the Japanese by sinking merchant vessels (“World War II”, 2007). While the battles for the Philippines and Okinawa were taking place, President Truman, who had become president following the death of Roosevelt, was considering an invasion of the Japanese mainland. By now, the U.S. Navy had ships stationed just off the Japanese coast while its submarines were deployed in the Sea of Japan. Because the battles at Iwo Jima and Okinawa were very fierce, it was estimated that half a million to a million soldiers would be killed if the scheduled November 1, 1945 invasion of Japan occurred (“Decision to Drop”, 2003). In addition, President Truman was contemplating that if the Japanese would quickly surrender prior to the Soviet Union becoming involved in the war, set for August 15, Russia could not demand a part in the post-war settlement. When America unleashed the atomic bombing on Japan, the act infuriated the Soviet Union because it wanted its say as just it had in the carving up of Eastern Europe. This was the beginning of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the U.S. (Lewis, 2002). “President Truman authorized use of the atomic bomb anytime after August 3, 1945. On the clear morning of August 6, the first atomic bomb, nicknamed Little Boy, was dropped on the city of Hiroshima” (“Atomic Bomb”, 2007). The blast leveled more than half of that city. 70,000 of its citizens were instantaneously killed. On August 9, another bomb destroyed Nagasaki. On August 14, the war formally ended with Japan signing the surrender papers onboard the battleship Missouri. Works Cited “Atomic Bomb – Truman Press Release: August 6, 1945.” Truman Presidential Museum and Library January 19, 2007 “Attack at Pearl Harbor, 1941.” EyeWitness to History. (1997). January 19, 2007 Chen, Peter C. “7 December 1941.” World War II Database. (2007). January 19, 2007 Conn, Engelman and Fairchild. “Chapter VI: The Reinforcement of Oahu.” Guarding the United States and its Outposts. Washington D.C.: United States Army, 2000. January 19, 2007 “December 7, 1941.” (2005). Pearl Harbor Memorial Fund. January 19, 2007 “(The) Decision to Drop.” National Atomic Museum. (2003). January 19, 2007. Goldstein, Donald M. & Dillon, Katherine V. At Dawn We Slept: The Untold Story of Pearl Harbor. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1981. Hanson, Michael. Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. Vol. 6, 1976, pp. 265-267. Holt, Pat M. “Pearl Harbor 65 years later.” GulfNews.com. (August 12, 2006). January 19, 2007 Kelly, Martin. “Overview of World War II.” About American History. (2007). January 19, 2007 Lewis, Chris H. “The Impact of the Atomic Bomb on Japan.” (August 2002). January 19, 2007 “(The) Pacific War.” The War Times Journal. (2003). January 19, 2007 “Pearl Harbor Raid: 7 December 1941.” Naval Historical Center. Washington D.C.: Department of the Navy, 2000. Perloff, James. “Hawaii was Surprised; Washington was not.” The New American. (December 8, 1986). January 19, 2007 “World War II.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. (2007). Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. January 19, 2007 Read More