The Importance of Pearl Harbor - Essay Example

The Importance of Pearl Harbor Cannot be Over d America remained mired in the Great Depression through 1941. The economy had yet to improve more than marginally during the 1930’s in spite of President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal programs. While the U.S. suffered in economic despair, much of the rest of the world was fighting wars. Germany was conquering and occupying the countries of Western Europe and Northern Africa, had engaged Russia and Britain in battle and allied with Italy and Japan in a quest to rule the world. Japan was busy brutalizing parts of China and taking possession of the Pacific Rim nations. The surprise attack by the Japanese on the naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on December 7, 1941 moved the U.S. from its isolationist stance to fighting the axis powers on a global scale. The attack on Pearl Harbor was not simply a significant historic event brought America into the war. This horrific, cowardly action ultimately may have saved the U.S. and its allies from German domination. Had America delayed just one year and if Germany was more patient, not stretched itself thin by trying to take everything all at once and had fully developed its jet war planes, the world as we know it likely would not exists. Pearl Harbor woke up the sleeping giant just in time to rescue the world from Nazi rule. Without American military involvement at that particular time, it’s anybody’s guess as to the result but all can agree the outcome would not have been favorable. The attack also did something the President and Congress could not do in a decade, pull the nation out of its economic slump. Following World War It’s end in 1945, America emerged as the world’s most powerful economic and military nation, a position that would have thought impossible five years earlier. Ironically, Pearl Harbor lifted the U.S. from economic despair to great prosperity and more importantly saved the populations of the world from oppression and tyrannical rule. It was a day that indeed has lived in infamy, a day that changed the world, for the better. Those thousands of lives that were lost at Pearl Harbor were not in vain. Their sacrifice saved democracy. While German forces were marching across Europe, Japan continued its expansion across Asia igniting the East Asian War. Japanese intentions were to establish an empire that subjugated the countries of East Asia and would control the sea lanes in that area of the world. These moves by the Japanese were disconcerting to the United States because it had important economic and political connections in the region. To counteract this, the U.S. ended the shipment of raw materials and oil to Japan. The U.S. also increased armaments and monetary support to China and began escalation of its military presence in the Pacific. The Japanese government viewed these actions, especially the oil embargo, as a threat to the nation’s very survival and responded by capturing the resource-rich regions of Southeast Asia which they knew would undoubtedly start a war with the United States. “What became the countries of the Western alliance stopped trade with the Japanese in July 1941which made the Japanese situation more desperate. War was the inevitable outcome of these actions” (“Pearl Harbor Raid”, 2000). 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 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 Stinson 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 Japes wouldn’t dare attack Hawaii, particularly such a long distance from home” (Conn et al, 2006). In hindsight, these claims were quite flawed. Japanese Admiral Istook Yamamoto is credited for planning the attack on Pearl Harbor. Yamamoto was inspired by two things, the fictional book written by British Navy official Hector Bowater, The Great Pacific War (1925), and an actual event involving the British Air Force. The book describes a conflict between Japan and the U.S. that starts with the Japanese military destroying the U.S. fleet then taking over the Philippines and Guam. “Yamamoto was convinced that Bowater’s fiction could become reality” (“Pearl Harbor” 2007) In late 1940, Britain effectively attacked the Italian Naval fleet anchored at the coastal city of Tarrant, Italy. It has a shallow port much the same as Pearl Harbor and previous to the Taranto attack it was widely believed that torpedo planes could not be used effectively in shallow water, a necessity if the Pearl Harbor mission was to be successful. After Taranto, the Japanese began practicing in a shallow port with modified torpedoes knowing that it could be done. Yamamoto sent a massive armada. Four aircraft carriers launched 353 planes that included 103 level bombers, 131 dive-bombers, 79 fighters and 40 torpedo planes. In addition, the force included 35 submarines, 11 destroyers, nine boilers, two heavy and two light cruisers. (“Pearl Harbor” 2007) On the morning of December 7, 1941, Japanese planes attacked America’s Pacific Fleet based at 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. 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. “On December 7, a radar operator in Oahu saw a large group of airplanes on his screen heading toward the island. He called his superior who told him it was probably a group of U.S. B-17 bombers and not to worry about it” (“Pearl Harbor” 2007) The day before the infamous attack, U.S. intelligence intercepted a message from the Japanese inquiring about U.S. Naval movements and ship positions in the Harbor. The message was summarily ignored. “The cryptologist gave the message to her superior who said he would get back to her on Monday, December 8th” (“Pearl Harbor” 2007). 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). 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. The ‘Rainbow’ plans were put into effect on December 7, 1941. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor immediately altered the public’s desire for neutrality and thrust the United States into an all-out war against all the axis powers. Though the U.S. had prepared for this fight, it could not effectively fight in both the Pacific and in Europe at the same time. Most of the American soldiers were allocated to the European and African theaters. Meanwhile, in the Pacific, a defensive strategy was to be maintained until victory in Europe allowed for the transfer of those forces for what was anticipated would be a major offensive against mainland Japan. As a result of the defensive position in the Pacific, the Japanese won many of the initial battles (Pike, 2005). 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. U.S. and Australian military forces combined to isolate one of Japan’s most important bases, Rafael, 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 Elite Gulf and the Battle of the Philippine Sea. The allies were also victorious on several island campaigns including Iowa Jim 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 (Kelly, 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 Iowa Jim 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. In addition to whatever personal feelings Truman had regarding the Japanese, he also had political consequences to consider in his decision to utilize the atomic bomb. The American public, according to polls taken at that time, supported by an overwhelmingly margin that the U.S. should only agree to an ‘unconditional surrender’ by Japan. This and the predominant anti-Japanese sentiment among most Americans assured that there would be little political backlash by ordering the bomb to be dropped. Furthermore, Truman would have faced an uphill political battle attempting to explain to voters the reasoning for spending more than two billion dollars for creating a bomb that would not be used particularly if many more American lives were lost had the war continued which, at the time was considered a very real possibility (Loebs, 1995: 8-9). 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. A question remains regarding the reasoning behind the attack. Japan certainly could not have wanted a full-scale war with the U.S. It had much to lose yet little to gain by engaging the much larger country. A contemporary scenario might be the U.S. attacking China today. If the assault on Pearl Harbor was a first strike in a planned protracted war, it was very poorly planned and why no quick second and third strike? The U.S. was not prepared to engage a full attack by the Japanese. If Japan had wanted full-scale war, it would have continued its attacks. Possibly, Japan launched its assault on the American territory to shock the U.S. into negotiating a fast treaty so that it would end the oil embargo in exchange for peace. Japan realized the U.S. was close to going to war in Europe and likely thought the larger country would rather not or could not engage a war on two fronts. Hawaii was not officially a state until 1948. Pearl Harbor was a military outpost situated in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, halfway between the U.S. mainland and the Japanese Islands. Therefore the Japanese may have underestimated the value of this target, not suspecting that the Americans considered an attack on Hawaii an attack on the U.S., no different than if the Japanese had bombed California. The Japanese needed oil desperately, a fact that instigated both their conquests of Eastern Asia and the attack on Pearl Harbor. No Japanese military operation was planned without first analyzing its total oil consumption along with the nation’s current supply. Astonishingly, as important a consideration as oil was, the military planners did not take into account the supplies of oil at the Hawaiian base. At least 20 aboveground oil tanks located in two separate tank yards relatively close to the Harbor remained intact and were seemingly not targeted by the Japanese. A two-year oil reserve was literally in the gun-sights of Japanese war-planes yet sat untouched. Had Japanese airmen simply pulled the trigger, strafing the oil tank yards as they flew by, the base at Pearl Harbor would have been rendered useless to the U.S. Japan easily could have conquered Hawaii forcing the U.S. to abandon its military base and strategic territorial possession. At that time the voyage to Hawaii took nearly five days thus diminishing the likelihood the U.S. could take it back without a great loss of life on both sides. The Naval base itself, the submarine base and other important facilities were not attacked either. “The base was as pristine as the oil tanks after the attack. So were Pearl’s all-important repair facilities” (Mahar) The day following the attack, American submarines were patrolling the area surrounding Pearl Harbor and were soon sinking Japanese merchant ships throughout the Pacific. The intact repair facilities were able to quickly restore the damaged vessels. “The ships repaired at Pearl Harbor got back into action a minimum of nine days earlier than they would if they had to go to Bremerton, Hunter’s Point or Long Beach for repair. The carrier Yorktown was patched up from the May 1942 Coral Sea battle to play a crucial role in the June Battle of Midway” (Mahar). If the Japanese was intent on killing as many servicemen as possible, it would have attacked anytime other than on a Sunday morning as they did. The casualty numbers were enormous but were far smaller than they could have been had the attack occurred on another day of the week. One would think that the Japanese planned for the fewest amount of lives lost as possible. Another advantage for the Americans, one the Japanese could not have planned, was that the entire aircraft carrier fleet based at Pearl Harbor was on training maneuvers far away from port. The battleships in the harbor were sunk or heavily damaged but many argue that it was the carriers that were ultimately responsible for winning the war in the Pacific and the loss of battleships, though dramatic and resulted in a great loss of life was not crucial in the final outcome of the war. Many suggest that the slow, somewhat older battleships would have more hindrance than help in the war effort. “The intact carriers, sub base, oil tanks and repair shops enabled the U.S. to come back slugging on day two” (Mahar) The attack on Pearl Harbor was not strategically sound, whether by choice or chance and the reaction was enormous. American’s were shocked and angered to the point where they mobilized for war at a faster pace than any other country has at any other time in history. Japan stood no possibility of winning a protracted war with the U.S. It must have counted on the attack shocking the U.S. into negotiating a treaty. The attack on Pearl Harbor occurred well before most people can remember but the memories are still fresh in the minds of those who were there and survived that historic, infamous day. Edward Chun, now 84 years old stood just a few hundred yards from Battleship Row as the attacked unfolded. Though 65 years have passed, he, as do other survivors, still can smell flesh burning, hear and see the explosions and hear the screams of dying soldiers. According to Chun, “The younger ones were crying, ‘Mom! Mom! Mom!’” (“Survivors” 2006) Chun was a civilian construction worker at the base who had just begun his workday when the attack commenced. He immediately began helping where he could, aiding victims, spraying burning ships with water, etc. “From the time the first bomb dropped and for the next 15 minutes, it was complete chaos,” Chun recalled. “Nobody knew what was going on. Everybody was running around like a chicken with their head cut off” (“Survivors” 2006) Veterans and civilian witnesses of the attack were never able to forget that day and some never forgave the Japanese for their aggressive and deadly actions. However, others were able to reconcile their hatred of the Japanese and have forgiven their actions such as veteran Lee Saucy, an 87 year-old Plainview, Texas native. “There are some guys that are going to die with hate in their heart. I don’t have in me any hatred in my heart. They were doing their job just like we were” Everett Hyland, a radioman on the U.S.S. Pennsylvania who was transporting ammunition when a bomb exploded and badly burned and almost died during the attack met a Japanese woman at the 50th anniversary commemoration at Pearl Harbor. They married the next year. “I got over it a long time ago,” Hyland said (“Survivors” 2006). Pearl Harbor was an ill-conceived, horrific event that altered the mindset of Americans. It moved the U.S. from sitting the sidelines of the growing war to full-fledged involvement. A greatly improved economy followed which ushered in a long period of prosperity in the U.S. that lasted long after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Most importantly, Pearl Harbor woke the sleeping American giant. American involvement in the war secured democracy for the generations that has followed WWII. The day that will live in infamy is also a day that began the worldwide fight for freedom. December 7, 1941 may have been the most important date in history because it changed the world more profoundly than any other event in history. Works Cited “Atomic Bomb – Truman Press Release: August 6, 1945.” Truman Presidential Museum and Library February 7, 2008 Chen, Peter C. “7 December 1941.” World War II Database. (2007). February 7, 2008 Conn, Engelman and Fairchild. “Chapter VI: The Reinforcement of Oahu.” (2000). Guarding the United States and its Outposts. Washington D.C.: United States Army. February 7, 2008 “December 7, 1941.” (2005). Pearl Harbor Memorial Fund. February 7, 2008 “(The) Decision to Drop.” National Atomic Museum. (2003). February 7, 2008 Goldstein, Donald M. & Dillon, Katherine V. (1981). At Dawn We Slept: The Untold Story of Pearl Harbor. New York: McGraw-Hill. Holt, Pat M. “Pearl Harbor 65 years later.” GulfNews.com. (August 12, 2006). February 7, 2008 Kelly, Martin. “Overview of World War II.” About American History. (2007). February 7, 2008 Loebs, Bruce. “Hiroshima & Nagasaki: One Necessary Evil, One Tragic Mistake.” Commonweal Journal. (August 18, 1995). LookSmart Articles. February 7, 2008 Mahar, Ted. “The Battle That Ignited America” Pearl Harbor Survivors Association, Portland, Oregon Chapter February 7, 2008 “(The) Pacific War.” The War Times Journal. (2003). February 7, 2008 “Pearl Harbor” The National World War II Museum (2007). February 7, 2008 “Pearl Harbor Raid: 7 December 1941.” (2000). Naval Historical Center. Washington D.C.: Department of the Navy. Pike, John. “World War Two.” Military. Global Security.org. (April 27, 2005). February 7, 2008 “Survivors gather to honor Pearl Harbor victims” MSNBC.com (December 7, 2006) February 7, 2008 Read More