Cause And Effect Of The Attack On Pearl Harbor

Sunday, December 7, 1941 is a devastating date in American history. With no warning, Japanese aircraft attacked and destroyed, the U.S. Pacific Fleet in its port at Pearl Harbor, which is located in Hawaii. This was the day that 2,335 military personnel were killed, including 2,008 navy personnel, 109 marines, and 218 army soldiers. Added to this were 68 civilians, making it a total of 2,403 losing their lives on that faithful day. Some 1,200 were injured in the attack. "The Japanese had rehearsed the attack for a year practicing on a model mock up until they achieved an 80% hit rate." -"Pearl harbor" WebMD, 6 Oct. 2016, www.history.co.uk/study-topics/history-of-ww2/pearl-harbor. It remained the greatest loss of American lives in a surprise
attack until the devastation of 9-11 that resulted in over 3,000 deaths. The raid destroyed four battleships and damaged four more in just two hours. It also destroyed 188 U.S. aircraft. This attack resulted in the United States entry into World War II. Why did the Japanese carry out this surprise attack? One of the major causes of the attack was the increasing Japanese-American rivalry in the Pacific.
The Japanese wanted more and more of the land and natural resources in the area. In 1931, they invaded Manchuria and used all the resources in that area to supply their war machine. Japan was aggressive and wanted to create an empire. They became a threat to the economic interests and influence of the U.S. and Europe in Asia. By 1937, Japan was in an all-out war with China and relations between the two counties were at an all time low. President Franklin Roosevelt put economic sanctions on Japan. That meant companies, American and Japanese, could not trade with one another. That made the Japanese angry at the United States and they turned to the Axis powers, signing a pact with Germany and Italy in September 1940. It was called "The Tripartite Pact" and it meant that they would all fight together if
attacked. In July 1941, Japan occupied French Indochina making them more and more of a threat to the Philippines.
The United States controlled the island and had economic interests throughout the region. America imposed an oil embargo on Japan, which threatened the Japanese economy. Therefore, Japan's response was to risk everything on a huge strike that would knock the United State out of the Pacific. This would clear the way for a Japanese conquest of resource rich Southeast Asia. The Japanese did achieve complete surprise at Pearl Harbor due in part to the failures in US intelligence. While it appeared, the attack was a huge success for Japan in the short term. In the long term, it was catastrophic. The "sleeping giant" had been awoken, and in America, a sense of fury helped cause the mobilization of the economy for the war effort. The losses at Pearl Harbor were made good and the Japanese were defeated in 1945. "There is a conspiracy theory that FDR provoked the Japanese attack in order to sway American opinion and make it possible for the U.S. to enter the war." -"Interesting facts about Pearl Harbor" WebMD, 6 Oct. 2016, my.ilstu.edu/~jabraun/students/prattwp/facts.htm. However, there has never been any conclusive evidence to prove this
claim. After the attack at Pearl Harbor, the Japanese thought that they did enough damage. They called off the second wave because of this. What they did not know was that the first wave was not enough. The entire fleet was not totally destroyed nor was the base. Therefore, additional planes and ships, from the main land, were able to reinforce the American presence in Pearl Harbor. After the attack President Franklin Roosevelt, in an address to the nation, said, "Yesterday, Dec. 7, 1941 - a date which will live in infamy - the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan." The Americans came back and attacked the Japanese in retaliation.