World War Two came to America on December 7th, 1941. The focus on America's involvement in the war generally focuses on the European front. What must be remembered is the time and sacrifices made in the Pacific theatre. America's entry into the war on the Pacific was not an immediate success. It took American forces until the summer of 1942 at the Battle of Midway to become properly prepared for the war. The American military learned much from their losses – both through the strengths of the Japanese forces and America's own faults. After these losses were realized, changes were made within the military. These improvements allowed the American forces to turn the war back and begin to have successes in the Pacific. Pearl Harbour was, of course, a devastating opening blow to America when they entered the war. Significant losses continued for a number of months before the American forces were able to turn the tide. From these losses, the American military was able to learn two forms of helpful information: the Japanese strengths and the American weaknesses. Within this, the strengths and weaknesses took three forms: strategic, tactical and technological. Japan was clearly prepared to enter the war with America from well before the incident of Pearl Harbour. Strategically, Japan was well prepared. As the aggressor in the war between the two countries, Japan was able to plan assaults on numerous islands in the Pacific to coincide with the attack on Pearl Harbour. These attacks were unexpected and very successful; they were most often air assaults early in the morning1. Due to the unpreparedness of the Americans, it was noted that “opposition was feeble and damage extensive,”2. These preemptive strikes show the Japan... ... middle of paper ... ...gn in World War II: from Pearl Harbor to Guadalcanal. London: Routledge, 2006. Lundstrom, John B. The First Team: Pacific Naval Air Combat from Pearl Harbor to Midway. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute, 1984. Morton, Louis. The Fall of the Philippines. Washington, D.C.: Office of the Chief of Military History, Dept. of the Army, 1953. Simmonds, Ed. Echoes over the Pacific: an Overview of Allied Air Warning Radar in the Pacific, from Pearl Harbor to the Philippines Campaign. Banora Point, NSW: E.W. & E. Simmonds, 1995 United States Dept. of the Army, Office of Military History. The United States Army in World War II. ser2. v13. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1947. White, William Lindsay. They Were Expendable. New York: Harcourt, Brace and, 1942. Wohlstetter, Roberta. Pearl Harbor; Warning and Decision. Stanford, CA: Stanford UP, 1962.
In May of 1942, Japanese Admiral Isorosku Yamamoto devised a plan to draw the US Pacific fleet into battle where he could completely destroy it. To accomplish this master plan of his, he sought out the invasion of Midway Island which would provide a base for the Japan troops to attack Hawaii. Unfortunately for Yamamoto, America decrypted Japanese radio transmissions and Admiral Chester Nimitz was able to establish a counter attack against this offensive. Nimitz sent three aircraft carriers, The USS Enterprise, The USS Hornet and The USS Yorktown to destroy the Japanese. This is just a short overview of The Battle of Midway, or as commonly referred to as, the battle that changed the war. People argue that it had no affect on the war, but those critics couldn’t be farther from the truth. The Battle of Midway was the turning point of the war because it fully enters America into the war, it kicked off the Pacific Campaign, and it had Japan on the defensive, thus preventing them from helping The Axis Forces.
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 ...
Poirier, Michel Thomas. “Results of the American Pacific Submarine Campaign.” Accessed November 25, 2013. http://www.navy.mil/navydata/cno/n87/history/pac-campaign.html.
Lyons, Michael J. World War II - A Short History. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education,
World War II, along with its numerous battles, brought great tension between two of the strongest countries during the 1940s: the United States and Japan. Conflict between these two countries started with Japan’s push past Chinese borders into Manchuria in search of the natural resources Japan lacks. At first, the United States avoided military action with Japan by waging economic warfare on them. This economic pressure included the passing of the Neutrality Act, which prohibited the sale of weapons to nations at war (Nash 513). Additionally, the United States placed oil embargoes on Japan hoping it would force Japan to shut down military operations in China. Japan, at a critical decision point, decided to bomb the American naval base at Pearl Harbor. On December 7th, 1941 at 6 a.m., Japan pilots bombed the naval base at Pearl Harbor, taking out the United States’ strongest battleships, killing thousands of people, and destroying hundreds of planes (Sherman). The day after Pearl Harbor, the United States declared war on Japan. Over the next few years, the United States and Japan fought fierce battles for dominance in the Pacific Ocean. One of the most important battles during the United States and Japanese war was the Battle of Midway. Japan was destroying the United States at sea, until the Battle of Midway gave the United States Pacific Fleet an edge on Japanese forces. The Battle of Midway was the most important naval engagement of World War II: it was a decisive battle that allowed the United States to be the dominant naval power in the Pacific and it marked a turning point in World War II for the United States.
The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was one of the most atrocious attacks to have ever happened on American soil, starting with disagreement on the Potsdam declaration. Japan’s greed for more land and industrial materials led the Japanese to make a plan to keep the United States out of the war, which consisted the use of kamikaze pilots and bombs to destroy our aircraft carriers and boats in an attempt to control the Pacific. While leaving the drowning, and dead bodies of thousands of American seamen and battleships at the bottom of the sea, seemed to be a good idea to the Japanese; America joined World War II and introduced the first nuclear weapons as reprisal for the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. Had the Japanese agreed to an unconditional surrender and end to militarism during the agreement on the Potsdam declaration, the introduction to nuclear weapons and the death count wouldn’t have been so high and devastating on both the American and Japanese sides.
Morison, Samuel, E. (1960). Victory in the pacific, 1945 – history of the united states naval operations in world war ii. (Vol. 14, p. 389). Boston: Little Brown.
World War II was a horrific time in not only in the United States, but throughout the entire world. There were horrendous things going on in Europe at this time. World War II began in 1939. The Battle of Midway had a great impact on World War II. The Battle of Midway was a battle between America and Japan; Germany was not involved in this. By examining why Japan attempted to take control over Midway, Japan’s plan, and the battle itself, a connection can be made to The Battle of Midway and its effects on World War II. The Battle of Midway was a huge part in World War II.
On June 4th, a legendary battle took pace over the pacific sea. The battle of midway was the turning for America in World War 2. The air attacks of Japan and America would continue for many days. America won the battle and took out half of Japans carriers. It battle was a great victory for America, considering the fact that japan had much greater forces. This battle was the start of America taking control of the war over the pacific. This battle took place six months after japans first strike a Pearl Harbor. Many histories say this was the greatest air battle of all time. America not only proved that numbers didn’t matter, but showed that only leaders with clear eyes and soldiers with heart can win a battle of any size.
"World War II (1939-45)." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Ed. John G. Royde-Smith and Thomas A. Hughes. Encyclopedia Britannica, 5 Dec. 2012. Web. 29 Jan. 2014.
On December 7th 1941, Japanese Planes and submarines attacked the United States Naval base at Pearl Harbor. This event singlehandedly brought the U.S from its then neutral stance in World War Two to a fighting member of the “Allied Powers.” Pearl Harbor was the first of a long series of confrontations between the U.S and the Japanese in an effort to gain control of the Pacific. Unlike the “War in Europe” the Pacific strategy was dominated by naval and aerial battles, with the occasional land-based “Island Hopping” Campaign. As such, one of the most important factors in the war in the pacific was Fleet Size, the more ships a country could send to war, the better. Pearl Harbor was the Japanese’s way of trying to deal with the massive U.S Pacific fleet. However, Pearl Harbor was not the turning point of the war. After December 7th the United States began work on numerous technological developments which would ultimately help them in one of the most important battles of WWII, the largest naval confrontation of the war, The Battle of Midway. The battle, which took place from June 4th to June 7th , 1942 is widely considered the turning point of the Pacific Theater (James & Wells). Through the Post-Pearl Harbor desire for “Revenge” and various technological advantages including code breaking and radar, the U.S were able to outsmart the Japanese at Midway and ultimately win the battle, eventually leading to a victory in the Pacific.
Lawson, Robert L., and Barrett Tillman. U.S. Navy Air Combat: 1939-1946. Osceola, WI: MBI Pub., 2000. Print.
War Department Office of the Chief of the Army Air Forces, “AWPD-1”, (Washington: War Department, 1941), 17.
Planners of the first strike at Pearl Harbor, including Admiral Fukodome, argue that the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor was as successful as it could have been, stating that the United States needed two full years to begin any significant offensive in the Pacific. 1 pg 83 If their assessment was correct, and many will argue that it was, the question arises of whether any Japanese war strategy could have led to a successful war termination for Japan.
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.