The Impact Of Roosevelt's Attack On Pearl Harbor

Tifa Hodzic American Studies A
Mr.Wheeler

On December 7, 1941, more than 350 Japanese airplanes attacked about 33 ships and killed 2403 Americans at a naval base known as Pearl Harbor. The very next day, President Franklin D. Roosevelt requested and declared war on Japan, which led America to enter World War II. FDR called it “A date which will live in infamy” and made sure that Americans fought for justice, even if they were going to lose and that it was worth fighting for. During the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japan only suffered 50 casualties while the U.S had 3,700 casualties including 68 civilians. In addition, 170 American aircraft and 3 ships were completely destroyed and 160 aircraft and 16 ships were damaged that morning.
This quickly turned into one of the deadliest attacks in American history. Even though it only lasted for about two hours The United States had 3,700 casualties, while Japan only suffered 50 casualties. America sustained a loss of 170 aircrafts destroyed and 16 damaged. The Japanese loss was 29 aircrafts, five midget submarines, and 130 service personnel. The United States then joined World War II as an attempt to get revenge from Japan, and then there were approximately 106,000 killed in about about 248,000 wounded Americans in the Pacific Theatre. The U.S wanted to do something that would get back at Japan for the bombing so the United States Air Force dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. When the bomber Enola Gay dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, they’re plan at getting revenge from Japan became a success, but more innocent lives were taken and ruined. This time Japan suffered the greater loss with approximately 80,000 people were killed at the scene, and another 35,000 were harmed. By the end of that year 60,000 more lives were taken due to the fallout (Wallechinsky). Not only were Japanese lives taken but Americans died too, 12 airmen died at the scene and they're names have never been
On December 11,1941, Germany and Italy declared war on the United States. The United States responded by formally entering the war in Europe. During that time the relations between European Powers and America had been going downhill since 1937. The fact that America declared war on Japan proved to be the turning point for some of the European power countries. They felt it was necessary to break away from American relations and try to align with other countries. If the United States did not declare war on japan then America would have had time to improve their international relations with the European countries instead of ruining them. Also, in the late 19th century Japan’s economy was growing at a very fast rate, but Japan only had a few natural resources. Therefore, they needed more resources from the other countries like the United States to help supply them materials such as iron, coal, and steel. The japanese and the United States were (at the time) involved in trading and improving both economies. When Franklin Roosevelt froze the Assets between Japan and the Unites States the Japanese first response was to control southeast asia then they would control rubber and tin production, they turned to other countries to give them the resources they needed. Leaving the United States to trade with only their aligned