Day Of Infamy: The Attack Of Pearl Harbor

Quan Nguyen
English II – Shaheen
MW 2:30-4

"Day of Infamy"

On December 7 of 1941, Japanese airplanes attacked the naval base of Pearl Harbor with a horrendous attack. With this, the 32nd president of the United States, president Franklin Delano Roosevelt, gave his famous speech. Shortly after this, the British and United States declared war on Japan. Not so long after, Germany declares war on the United States. The attack of Pearl Harbor is to be said as the starting mark of America into the war of World War II. Now technically, the war started earlier in about 1921-1922, when Adolf Hitler assumed control of the National Socialist German Workers, otherwise known as the Nazis. But the US was not involved until the Japanese suddenly
attacked Pearl Harbor. The US did have an idea of the Japanese attacking America, but that is another debate. Now, if the Americans of Pearl Harbor for sure known that Japanese planes were to attack, would there be another outcome to this assault? I believe that there would. If I could go back into time and prevent something, I think I would go to Pearl Harbor and confirm and warn that the Japanese are going to attack Pearl Harbor and with that in mind the US Navy fleet would have been well prepared for such an attack seeing as though an attack from Japan was imminent. As a result of my precautions, the out come of the attack would be entirely different and the US economy today could have been different. Regardless of the warning, the naval base of Pearl Harbor would still be attacked. The casualties would be entirely different though. During the two hour attack on Pearl Harbor, 18 warships, 188 aircraft
, and 2,403 servicemen were killed in the attack. One main reason of this was because they were all unprepared. The Japanese attacked during the waking hours of normal people. Many of the servicemen were still in the state of sleep or just starting out their day, thinking it would be an ordinary day. If they were well warned or prepared, the US would have had their aircraft ready for war or attack. With this in mind, they would have had a better chance at retaliating against the Japanese. Their would have been more aircraft in the air, more heavy armory engaged, better positioned, and most likely another fleet of aircraft coming in from nearby bases ready with another wave of defense. Most likely, all of the Japanese attack aircraft would have been destroyed and more Americans would have survived; which would lead me to another argument. The US lost a great amount of people during the attack, either way president Roosevelt would have declared war on Japan and we would have had more soldiers to do so with.
After destroying most of Pearl Harbor, the Japanese fighter pilots had barely enough fuel to fly back over the pacific and engage in another attack.
Shortly after the attack on American soil, they decided to land in and attack Clark Air Base that was in the Philippines which at the time was under control of the British, an ally of the Americans. The force at Clark Air Base was well aware of the Japanese's coming, but none of the aircraft of the air base were in the air; the Japanese were rubbing their eyes in disbelief. After this attack, the Japanese was the unchallenged master of the Pacific and Indian oceans. If Pearl Harbor was informed, they would have been able to take down all of the Japanese aircraft that were involved with the attacks; then would the entire history books be different. The Americans would have had substantial amount of troops for war and positioning of the air bases would increase the efforts in winning the war. Now with Germany in the picture, the US would have a greater force entering the European wars. Not saying the amount we sent wasn't adequate, but still a greater army in size would probably decrease casualty amounts for our army and decreased the amount of time spent into the war. A less devastating attack on Pearl Harbor would have made a great
difference.
Back home, in the Americas', away from the war, the US citizens had a different view about certain minorities living in the states.
Mainly, the Japanese-Americans and anyone that resembled Japanese culture were affected by the reactions of other American citizens. First, the American Japanese's privacy and rights were basically taken away from them. They were constantly watched by investigators, phone wires were tapped, and even mail and interactions amongst one another were being watched upon. Suspicion led one accusation to another. The Japanese immigrants or citizens were all taken from their homes and they were told "they were being moved into a safer environment." That was a great misleading deception. These "safer environments" were nothing more than Japanese American Relocation Camps. Amongst these people were wealthy Japanese that were stripped of their high professions, land, homes, and possessions. They were forced to move to camps in the Southwestern United States. About 120,000 innocent people were sent to these horrible camps just because they were Japanese or had any traceable amount of Japanese in them. After 9/11 we didn't send Middle Eastern people or anyone with Middle Eastern decent into relocation camps. Was this a right act? Most Japanese before relocation were small landowners in California and alone produced 35% of California's crop production. They had a great population in the western coast. Their land then was seized and sold to white
Americans. With that happening, the production of crops lowered. The Japanese were taken away just because the US believed that anyone of them could be a spy. If Pearl Harbor was less devastating, who knows, maybe the US would have thought otherwise about the Japanese Americans living in the states. There would be a difference in the Japanese population of right now and back then. The state of California, which had the greatest population of Japanese at the time, could now have a lot more successful Japanese Americans. We see how our Japanese associates, in Japan, views on education a lot more challenging than the US. The Japanese have great educational systems by which they produce a lot more "professionals". The US could probably learn a few things about their "competitive" education. Maybe, if the Japanese Americans would have been treated less cruelly,the US would have had a better economy if the Japanese farmers still owned their land. After released from the camps, the Japanese had nothing. Everything of theirs was destroyed or sold. Historians, of the YSA, state that the U.S. capitalists' class became involved in WWII for purely economic reasons. I believed that if the Japanese still had their land today, the US would be entirely different, seeing as though most of this land was in California, which is a state with a lot of involvement in today's economic system. "Yesterday, December 7, 1941 – a date which will live in infamy – the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by the naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan," stated Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Would this speech have kept it words if they were informed? This was how FDR opened his speech to the congress and the United States. At this point, the United States was hurt by the Japanese attack. Pre-warning of the US could have led to a better defense and a more confident army, which would lead to other better things. It was unavoidable that the US was going to enter World War II. It was accepted that the Axis of Power would put up a tough fight. But the attack on Pearl Harbor was the start of it for the United States. An informed army would have changed many things, especially the fact that the Empire of Japan would have been greatly weakened and morale for them would be destroyed, showing that it is not easy to make the US fall. In conclusion, with precaution of attack on Pearl Harbor, the beginning of the US' involvement with World War II would be an entirely different story. I guess Secretary of Interior Harold Ickes was right, "For a long time I have believed that our best entrance into the war would be by way of Japan."