They launched their aircraft from a point only 200 miles North of Oahu (2). After worrying that the American carriers weren't there and the potential of American submarines, the Japanese carriers went bake to Japan (3).
Posted on 12/07/2019 12:18:50 PM PST by SeekAndFind
When Japanese bombers appeared in the skies over Pearl Harbor on the morning of December 7, 1941, the U.S. military was completely unprepared for the devastating surprise attack, which dramatically altered the course of World War II, especially in the Pacific theater. But there were several key reasons for the bombing that, in hindsight, make it seem almost inevitable.
Tensions Began During the Great Depression
Before the Pearl Harbor attack, tensions between Japan and the United States had been mounting for the better part of a decade.
The island nation of Japan, isolated from the rest of the world for much of its history, embarked on a period of aggressive expansion near the turn of the 20th century. Two successful wars, against China in 1894-95 and the Russo-Japanese War in 1904-05, fueled these ambitions, as did Japan’s successful participation in World War I (1914-18) alongside the Allies.
During the Great Depression of the 1930s, Japan sought to solve its economic and demographic woes by forcing its way into China, starting in 1931 with an invasion of Manchuria. When a commission appointed by the League of Nations condemned the invasion, Japan withdrew from the international organization; it would occupy Manchuria until 1945.
In July 1937, a clash at Beijing’s Marco Polo Bridge began another Sino-Japanese war. That December, after Japanese forces captured Nanjing (Nanking), the capital of the Chinese Nationalist Party, or Guomindang (Kuomintang), they proceeded to carry out six weeks of mass killings and rapes now infamous as the Nanjing Massacre.
The U.S. Was Trying to Stop Japan’s Global Expansion
In light of such atrocities, the United States began passing economic sanctions against Japan, including trade embargoes on aircraft exports, oil and scrap metal, among other key goods, and gave economic support to Guomindang forces. In September 1940, Japan signed the Tripartite Pact with Germany and Italy, the two fascist regimes then at war with the Allies.
Tokyo and Washington negotiated for months leading up to the Pearl Harbor attack, without success. While the United States hoped embargoes on oil and other key goods would lead Japan would halt its expansionism, the sanctions and other penalties actually convinced Japan to stand its ground, and stirred up the anger of its people against continued Western interference in Asian affairs.
To Japan, war with the United States had become to seem inevitable, in order to defend its status as a major world power. Because the odds were stacked against them, their only chance was the element of surprise.
Destroying the Base at Pearl Harbor Would Mean Japan Controlled the Pacific
In May 1940, the United States had made Pearl Harbor the main base for its Pacific Fleet. As Americans didn’t expect the Japanese to attack first in Hawaii, some 4,000 miles away from the Japanese mainland, the base at Pearl Harbor was left relatively undefended, making it an easy target.
Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku spent months planning an attack that aimed to destroy the Pacific Fleet and destroy morale in the U.S. Navy, so that it would not be able to fight back as Japanese forces began to advance on targets across the South Pacific.
Japan’s surprise attack on Pearl Harbor would drive the United States out of isolation and into World War II, a conflict that would end with Japan’s surrender after the devastating nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945.
At first, however, the Pearl Harbor attack looked like a success for Japan. Its bombers hit all eight U.S. battleships, sinking four and damaging four others, destroyed or damaged more than 300 aircraft and killed some 2,400 Americans at Pearl Harbor.
Japanese forces went on to capture a string of current and former Western colonial possessions by early 1942—including Burma (now Myanmar), British Malaya (Malaysia and Singapore), the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) and the Philippines—giving them access to these islands’ plentiful natural resources, including oil and rubber.
But the Pearl Harbor attack had failed in its objective to completely destroy the Pacific Fleet. The Japanese bombers missed oil tanks, ammunition sites and repair facilities, and not a single U.S. aircraft carrier was present during the attack. In June 1942, this failure came to haunt the Japanese, as U.S. forces scored a major victory in the Battle of Midway, decisively turning the tide of war in the Pacific.
To broker a peace agreement with the US.
Rots of Ruck with that one.
New movie “Midway” is in theaters now. Starts with Pearl Harbor and ends after the victory at Midway. No “name” actors except the relatively small role of Woody Harrelson as Chester Nimitz. The film is visually stunning with no romantic backstories taking attention from the decision-making on both sides. Divine intervention imo caused Japanese intel to miss that the 6 U.S. aircraft carriers weren’t in port that day.
We already had forces in China by December 7.
A few flyers...and a little plant to assemble planes at an airfield near Rangoon...
“Divine intervention imo caused Japanese intel to miss that the 6 U.S. aircraft carriers weren’t in port that day.”
Not Divine intervention. PacFlt only had three carriers. Saratoga was in San Diego on loading it’s aircraft, after leaving the shipyards.
Enterprise and Lexington were out delivering aircraft to Midway and Wake Island.
The other U.S. carriers were in the Atlantic Fleet.
Thanks for the correction. Still hard for me to believe the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor knowing the carriers weren’t there. The movie portrays Yamamoto as very upset at this after-action news.
The US was so surprised that all the aircraft carriers were east of the island, the obsolite battleships were parked all very close together to allow for easy targets......
FDR knew
On December 8th, 1941 there was more oil in Hawaii than in Japan.
The Japanese knew that they could not win a protracted war with the United States, they were hoping to deal the U.S. a string of defeats and come to a negotiated settlement. Admiral Yamamoto, who had attended Harvard and served as Naval attache in Washington, knew the American temperament and told the Japanese leaders that if they started a war with America, they should be prepared to march into the White House to dictate the surrender terms.
Surely they didn’t start all the way from Japan? I’m pretty sure it wasn’t. Maybe it was west of the International Date Line, or was it?
Would the Japanese telegraph back “December 8” regardless of their starting position (whether East or West of the International Date Line)?
The AVG was not part of the U.S. Military, they were mercenaries. After the war began they were inducted into the Army Air Force, at much lower pay. Claire Chennault warned them that if they went home, their draft board would be waiting for them at the bottom gangplank when they left the ship to draft them into the infantry. Most stayed.
They had been working on this goal since the 1880's.
The US stood in their way because we owned so much territory that Japan coveted including Hawaii, the Philippines, Alaska, California plus a whole bunch of little islands.
They also wanted Peru, Chile, Columbia in fact anything that touched the Pacific they wanted.
They had been sending their people out to start colonies in these area to make their take over easier.
Imperial Japan’s attack was a response to Western imperialism and industrial hegemony.
And Red Communist Pete Seeger sang protest songs against going to war against NAZI Germany saying it would just benefit the wealthy American industrialists.
It did.
The Germans, especially in the Philippines, were horrified at what the Japanese did and they were no shrinking violets.
They launched their aircraft from a point only 200 miles North of Oahu (2). After worrying that the American carriers weren't there and the potential of American submarines, the Japanese carriers went bake to Japan (3).
They were mercenaries on paper, thats why they were paid more than the military. But most of them were military pilots eleased from the American service to go do the job even as the military was building up for our inevitable entry into the war.
They were intended to help blunt the Chinese advances towards British holdings and help preserve British bases for allied forces while Americans built up and were not officially part of the war.
After they were disolved they went back to being military pilots and mechanics, with the medical personnel returning to the medical field stateside.
Greg Boyington broke his contract with the Tigers and went back to the Marine Corps early.
Now write that again and include patriarchy and misogyny.
They should have called it off after their scouts reported no carriers at Pearl, or waited until they were in port. Imagine if the Yorktown classes ships were destroyed in the same attack.
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