The United States has been involved in many wars since its inception. WWII in particular had a significant impact on the world and the United States. Through the years 1939 to 1945 the majority of the world suffered many tragedies and hardships. In total, 50 million people died including women, children, civilians, and innocent bystanders. Adolf Hitler, the leader of Nazi Germany, was responsible for a significant amount of these deaths. Hitler, aligned with Japan, wanted to seize all of Europe and Japan wanted to conquer Asia. A major cause of WWII was that Germany strongly disapproved of the Treaty of Versailles. Germany especially didn’t like that they had to accept all the blame for WWI, paying $ 6,600 million for the damage they caused in WWI, and they were only allowed to have a small army and six naval ships, no tanks, no air force and no submarines were allowed. Also, the Rhineland area was to be de-militarized and taken out of Germany’s possession. All of these conditions were written in the Treaty of Versailles. During the war the world formed two sides, the Allies and the Axis Powers. The Allies included Britain, the Soviet Union, and the United States, known as “the Big 3”. The Axis Powers included Germany, Italy, and Japan. At the end of the war the Allies were triumphant and the world gained its peace.
At almost eight o’clock in the morning in the island of Oahu, Hawaii the day of Infamy began. December 7th, 1941 was one of the most devastating attacks on American soil. The day of Infamy, or more commonly known as Pearl Harbor, was an attack on American soil from the Imperial Army. This attack was the final burst of the tension that had been built up between the United States and Japan. To understand the tragic attack it is important to understand the events leading up to it. The United States unrest with Japan started in 1937 through the invasion of Manchuria which began the Second Sino-Japanese War. Japan launched a full scale invasion of the Republic of China. The tension between Franklin D Roosevelt and Japan was initiated with
The Attack on Pearl Harbor was a shocking blow to the United States that forced the U.S. into World War II. The United States goal was to stay isolated from foreign affairs, but Pearl Harbor changed all that, forcing them to get involved in foreign affairs. A young, power hungry United States wanted to control Southeast Asia, angering Japan along the way. The reason the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor was the results of decades of tension starting back in 1899 with arguments over the United States Open Door Policy; both countries desired control over the Pacific and East Asia, which made war unavoidable.
After the attack on Pearl Harbor, America was left drastically defeated and wounded, entering the U.S. into full time war mode. To support the war efforts, the American economy shifted into a war economy, taxes were being raised, and industries began to produce for their military forces. Pearl Harbor was a very important stepping stone to the U.S. victory at the battle of Midway, sending a wake-up call the Americans
It had been decided that after World War I, that the United States did not want to get involved in any more foreign affairs. America had become an isolationist country which was unusual for us. Even as the first few invasions of World War II took place, the United States still did not jump in on the action mainly for the reason on how devastating the results were from the First World War.
It is very tempting as human beings to put blame on someone else. Especially during a time of tragedy. Besides the attack of 9/11, Pearl Harbor is one of the most surprising attacks the United States of America has ever faced. The attack on December seventh, 1941 is what brought America into World War Two. The nation proceeded to declare war on Japan. Then, because of the alliance between Germany and Japan, Germany declared war on the U.S. At the time, Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) was president. From the beginning of his presidency and the start of the war, he had wanted to get involved with the war. Historians have debated for many years who is at fault for the attack on Pearl Harbor and causing the deaths of two thousand Americans. He believed that without the United States aid, Russia and England would collapse, and the United States government had broken a diplomatic code and intercepted a message from Japan threatening war. Roosevelt missed many opportunities to prevent the bombing. This bomb attack brought our nation into war and caused the deaths of over a thousand American citizens.
Pearl Harbor is an American naval base located on Oahu, Hawaii. It was at this location that the Japanese Empire bombed the base and provoked the United States into joining World War II.1 America cut off Japan’s resources to limit their conquering of Asia, Japan was furious at the United States and attacked their main naval base, Pearl Harbor, on December 7, 1941 hoping the U.S. would no longer be able to continue the embargo of their resources, America acted in the opposite way expected and declared war on Japan.
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)
Japan had a very clear reason why they wanted to attack the United States. “It was dangerously dependent on America for scrap iron, steel, and above all oil: 80 percent of its petroleum came from the United States. President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration had been attempting for years to use economic sanctions as leverage to force Japan to abandon its invasion of China.”4 By Imposing ban on the oil and steel, the economy of Japan was affected severely. The japanese felt that America was standing in their way concurring the Asia, which really affected them to place a attack on the Pearl Harbor. Although, the attack on Pearl Harbor by Japan was successful by destroying the ships, but they failed to destroy the pacific fleet. This day would be remembered as one of the darkest day in the history of United States. Provoking attack on the United States, Japan’s situation regarding the world war II made it scary, they had to face the consequences later on. The attack on Pearl Harbor had major impact on the outcome of World War II, if Japan had never carried out their plans of Bombing Pearl Harbor, the Axis Power would have a better chance on winning Worlds War II, and innocent lives could have been
As Americans, we all have civil rights. After the attack on Pearl Harbor during World War II, these rights were taken away from the Japanese Americans. They were forced to leave their daily lives (job, house, and friends). These Japanese Americans on the mainland were put into concentration camps and left there for 4 years. During World War II, The Japanese-Americans were withheld from their rights and were forced to leave their homes and relocate to internment camps. During this time, America did not uphold their responsibilities, as the Japanese-Americans were not treated equally.
Although the raid did very little physical damage to Japan it still had several major impacts on the war. First, Japanese military leadership had assured the population that an attack on their mainland was nearly impossible. The raid immediately made citizens question military and political leadership’s decision to attack the United States and bring them into the war. Second, the American people finally had their first piece of good news since the attack on Pearl Harbor. Third, the attack forced the Japanese to keep more of its forces closer to home in order to defend their mainland. This kept Japan for fully utilizing all available forces in the Pacific allowing the US and allies to slowly gain the upper hand.
The attacks on Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941 were the first attacks ever to take place on American soil, the repercussions were devastating for the Japanese Empire; sadly, Pearl Harbor would not be the last threat America faced on her own land. On September 9th, 2011 (9/11) a radical Islāmic terrorist group known as Al-Qaeda attacked America. While America dealt with both of these attacks with unyielding resolve, executing that resolve was what is starkly different between the two tragedies. Pearl Harbor did have some quintessential similarities to 9/11; both attacks unprovoked by America, both provoked public support against aggressors by way of presidential speeches, both lacked prior intelligence on the attacks themselves, both sparked
320 airplanes storm over like a bundle of bees bombing pearl harbor with no warning. Nearly 2,500 deaths with many injuries and a giant step back in our naval forces. The U.S. wanted revenge according to Kennedy Hickman the President at the time Franklin D. Roosevelt issued a directive to attack Japan as quick as possible (Hickman 1). The attack ended up being a success but with some obstacles in the way.
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.
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.