"We must be the great arsenal of democracy. For us this is an emergency as serious as war itself. We must apply ourselves to our task with the same resolution, the same sense of urgency, the same spirit of patriotism and sacrifice as we would show were we at war" (Roosevelt).
On the morning of December 7, 1941 at 7:55 a.m. Japanese planes bombed Pearl Harbor. This had a great impact on not only the United States and Japan, but also on the outcome of World War II. The attack on Pearl Harbor was important because it brought the United States into the war, changed the tide of the war, and brought about the creation and use of an atomic bomb. First the United States were not planning on entering World War II, but the attack on Pearl Harbor completely
First, let us discuss what happened to provoke it. The United States realized that by providing Japan with the resource they were fueling the war. Also, they were further supplying the enemy of their allies. On July 26th, President Roosevelt ordered the freezing of all Japanese assets in the United States and the placing of all petroleum exports to Japan under embargo subject to licence (http://web.b.ebscohost.com/). By the end of 1940, the United States had ended the shipment of scrap metal, oil, steel, and iron ore to Japan (ushistory.org). Limiting japan’s resources became known as the plan’s Achilles’ heel. Japan needed to find a new source of resources for the war and decided to advance into Malaya and the Dutch East Indies. However, the Japanese had a second reason to attack. Previously, the United States Naval Base was located in the Atlantic and the move to Hawaii posed a threat to Japan. In order to control the Pacific, Japan first had to destroy the United States Naval Base. They thought that this would help them gain more land and also keep the United States out of World War
The main goal of the attack was to weaken the United States Navy so that Japan could further expand and gain more providers of resources. In order to do this they needed to almost completely take out the Pacific fleet. Japan’s main target was the aircraft carriers. If they destroyed them, they would not have to worry about the United States retaliating for at least a few months. Many of the Japanese military officers thought that this was going to be an easy task. It was thought that after Pearl Harbor was bombed the United States would either be too broken to retaliate or just not be willing to join the war. The United States had sat back and watched Britain get beaten for the first few months of the war so it was not expected for them to want to join the fight. In Japan’s view, if the American Pacific carriers at Pearl Harbor were destroyed, America would not be able to stop their advance into the Pacific. The Japanese hoped that the defeat at Pearl Harbor would be so devastating, that Americans would lose their will to fight and immediately give up (pearlharboroahu.com). They believed that they were going to almost completely destroy the Pacific fleet, and even if America was planning to stop them they thought it could not be in the immediate
To begin, the attack on Pearl Harbour was devastating to U.S. naval capabilities in the Pacific at the onset of their entry into the war. Japanese officials had grown tired of the U.S. oil embargo, which was meant to limit their territorial expansion and aggression in South-East Asia as well as China, and as negotiations weren’t reaching any conclusions they decided that the only course of action was a first strike on the aircraft carriers at Pearl Harbour to cripple U.S. naval capability in the Pacific (Rosenberg 1). The attack, which lasted about two hours, had resulted in the sinking of four battleships, among ...
There were many events that led up to Japan making the decision to bomb Pearl Harbor. It all started with Japan wanting to expand their power. Japan was an island nation, it was isolated from many other nations, and Japan chose to be that way. But by the beginning of the 1900’s Japan was starting to fall apart as it was starting to become short of raw materials. Japan figured if it wanted to survive it would have to expand to get more materials. (O'NEAL 410-413). Japan started trying to take over Asia; they landed in the east coast of China in Manchuria and stationed troops there in order to try to take over northeastern China. ("Japan Launches A Surprise Attack on Pearl Harbor: December 7, 1941"). In reaction to Japan’s landing and hostility towards China the United States, who wanted to keep the open-door policy with China, placed economic sanctions of Japan to slow down Japan’s advances in China. (Higgs). President Roosevelt hoped that these sanctions that the United States put on Japan would lead them to making the mistake of declaring war on the United States (which would also bring Italy and Germany into the attack too since they were all allied) the reason why Rooseve...
In conclusion, the attack of Japan on the United States, Pearl Harbor, led to great property destruction and even loss of lives. Japan had earlier on deceived the United States of the peace negations. Japanese Ambassadors later termed the negotiation as useless, making them attack the United States. The unexpected attack led President Franklin D. Roosevelt to ask the Congress to declare war on Japan.
First, Pearl Harbor is a day to remember for us as Americans today; but in the past, Americans used the remembrance of Pearl Harbor to pump them up and want to defeat the Japanese. The Americans wanted to defeat Japan, so badly since their attacks on Pearl Harbor occurred even before war was declared. “Pearl Harbor was a huge success for the Japanese, but the ‘sneak’ attack made Americans determined for revenge”(Granton). It is still a mystery what would happen if we didn’t drop the bombs, either way a war was going to be fought. These bombs may have killed thousands, but World War II and the Japanese took the lives of millions.
The Battle of Pearl Harbor was one of the most atrocious events that happened in U.S. history. On December 7, 1941, Japan made a surprise aerial attack on the United States naval base and airfields at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. More than two thousand Americans died and a thousand two hundred were wounded. Eighteen ships were badly damaged, including five battleships. The next day, President Franklin Roosevelt with the support of the Congress, declared war on Japan. It led United States’ official involvement in World War II. Japan attacked Pearl Harbor because of a deteriorating relationship with the U. S. The “New World Order”, expansion and resources, and economic sanctions were factors that conducted to another disaster on the Second World War.
While Japan was greedy for more land and industrial materials, no one believed that the Japanese would start war with America by planning an attack on American soil. Another reason that the United States thought that the attack wouldn’t happen so close was because they were confident that Japan would try and take over the the Dutch East Indies, or French
“Yesterday, December 7, 1941 - a date which will live in infamy . . .” These famous lines were spoken the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor. President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave this speech to the U.S. Congress on December 8, 1941. Many criticized the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, but the decision to attack America was wisely made. The Americans were going to enter the war sooner or later, and on the allies’ side. The attack on Pearl Harbor would hurt the United States’ strongest defense and kill many Americans. This was the first terrorist attack on the United States, by another country, which came as a total shock to many people.
The attack on pearl harbor . It was the most dramatic effect of the World War II for the UNITED STATES . The pearl harbor attack gave the Japanese the advantage of the war . They attacked out American fleet at Pearl Harbor . This made UNITED STATES very angry at Japan . Here are some facts about the Pearl Harbor attack . 18 ships were destroyed at Pearl Harbor . Around 2,400 Americans were killed . The Japanese forces were 6 carriers with 400 aircraft .
Pearl Harbor is easily one of the most disastrous events that occurred on American soil. It was a deliberate attack against the United States from Japan. Before December 7, 1941 when Pearl Harbor was attacked, America had decided not to get involved in European affairs, which included the beginning of World War II. However, once the United States saw how much Britain and the Soviet Union were suffering from fighting with the Axis Powers (Germany, Italy, and Japan), America felt obligated to help in some way to help without actually entering the war. Weapons, money, and food were sent over seas to help aid them in any way it could. It was very obvious that if America had entered the war, we would join the side of the Allies (Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union). The day after Pearl Harbor, Franklin D. Roosevelt approached congress and asked for a declaration of war against Japan. Pearl Harbor affected many events that occurred in World War II. Not only the United States, but the world was affected that day.
Now anger was steaming in Japan and they were devising a plan that would cripple America forcing them to get involved in foreign affairs. Yomamoto the military leader for Japan, devised a plan in 1940 to devastate America by taking out Pearl Harbor. The last straw for Japan was when FDR cut off all supplies to Japan this is when Japan devised their plans to take out the U.S. Navy. In 1939 Roosevelt ended the 1911 commercial treaty. In 1940 he signed the export control act that stopped all goods from going to Japan. In July of 1941 Roosevelt froze all of the assets of Japan in the United States. All of these crucial moves made by the United States should have prepared them to expect an attack by the Japanese.
As the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 the United States officially entered World War Two. The Japanese government later learned later that this single event sets off an explosion that subsequently caused the United States to attack the Midway Islands in the Pacific Ocean. Pearl Harbor was one of the United States largest naval bases and the largest in the Pacific Ocean. This attack ceased all trade with Japan and officially added Japan as one of the US enemies. With a new world war started it created new concerns for the army. “World War II introduced a whole new set of problems in naval tactics” (Smith, 1). The main change driving these changes was the fact that aircraft carriers became more prevalent and common in every major countries naval force. Japan was able to pull off the Pearl Harbor attack as a result of aircraft carriers to launch their airplanes. As a result of the battles leading up to the Battle of Midway and conflicts with Japan this created a lot larger of an impact on WWII as a whole and to boost unity in America leading to a more prosperous period of history following the war.
On December 7, 1941 twenty American naval vessels were destroyed, 2,000 American soldiers and sailors died, and about 1,000 were injured. This event would forever be known as Pearl Harbor. Pearl Harbor was an incident in American history where the Japanese bombed a naval base in Oahu, Hawaii. Japan attacked Pearl Harbor because they feared the United States would plan a naval attack on them due to their new acquired territories such as: Philippines, Guam, America Samoa and other small islands. The Japanese thought they could do a swift first strike against the united pacific fleet and cripple America’s ability to respond. By delaying America’s ability to respond they were hoping to gain the territories and control most of the Pacific Rim.
Pearl Harbor was one of the most motivational events in American history. From the very beginning Japan and America had their own social views and stereotypes about each other that a feud was bound to occur. On December 7, 1941 the nation of Japan sent out a fleet of their Imperial navy to attack the American held base on the island of Oahu. Leading this attack was Japanese admiral Isoroku Yamamoto who was a militarily strategic genius.” Yamamoto was planning on sinking the entire American Pacific fleet so the U.S navy could be put out of the war for the time being and the Japanese navy could continue their expansion in the Southwest Pacific.”(book)(Gordon Prange 136-138)
However, they didn’t know where or how the attack would occur. The surprise attack turned out to be a launch on the US naval base at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. This angered Americans to the extent that the US declared war on Japan the next day. Even though the US favored neutrality, the United States was forced to enter war. The progressive violent actions of the Japanese government against the US economic interests are what ultimately triggered the United States’s declaration to enter the war.
Pearl Harbor was attacked on December 7th, 1941 at approximately 7:55 am by the Japanese. The day after Pearl Harbor was bombed President Roosevelt spoke the words, “ a date which will live in infamy” he was discussing the day that Pearl Harbor was bombed. Around the world during this time, people were taking in the impacts of WWll. Japan also allied with Italy and Germany, all three countries were greedy for expansion, but Japan wanted oil as well, and the American Naval fleet was in the way. Japan attacked Pearl harbor because they felt that the Americans were standing in the way of their treasures and world expansion.