Pearl Harbor: Movie vs Reality

The attack on Pearl Harbor was the product of Japanese anger at the United States and President Roosevelt should have taken immediate action to prevent it.

On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. It was indeed a great shock to the United States, many documents show that the bombing on Pearl Harbor was an attempt to stop the United States from entering into World War II. This attack was the turning in point World War II, and United States making the decision to help the Allies. Japan attacked Pearl Harbor because of its narcissistic political mentality and angered by United States placing the embargo act on oil.

Many can argue whether the bombing of Pearl Harbor was avoidable or not. There was different importance for the U.S. and Japan when it came to foreign and domestic policies. They both assumed so much negative assets about each other, they made themselves believe their intentions were no good and therefore it was not possible to avoid the attack made upon the United States.

Before any of this occurred, in 1930 the United States should have taken action against Japan, but never did. They didn’t like Japan’s attitude towards China and other countries. Again, in 1940, the United States should have done something, but this time not military action. The United States tried to negotiate peace, with Japan, but nothing ever got going (Danforth, 1). Neither side could agree on one thing because they thought of them as “still a country with similar goals” and it ended in a stalemate, causing tensions to run high. This was a dangerous end to talks because Japan was already in the second World War. The United States should have and many people were expecting something to happen, but were completely oblivious to the attack on the morning of December 7, 1941. Several people were convinced that President Roosevelt had been putting pressure on Japan to make an attack on the United States, but evidence suggests otherwise (Vidyalankar, 847-856). When George Washington was president, he declared that the United States would stay out of foreign conflicts, but this was broken before World War II so that had no effect on the president’s decision making. President Roosevelt

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

At 7:02 a.m december 7th, 1941 Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. Japan declared war and had two different ways to attack Pearl Harbor. Japan, mostly attacks battleships, carriers, cruisers, and airfields. (Pearl Harbor The Bombs of the Second Wave WWII Hawaii.”)(“Pearl Harbor bombed”) They also invaded airfield throughout

The event of Pearl Harbor resulted in a surprised attack which took place on 7th December 1941 and raised a lot of questions in those days. Some of those questions still remain unanswered. To analysts, this seemed strange how the Japanese did get to America at this point. The rumors of the conspiracy theories started rushing all around the globe after this deadly happening. The analysis came with the conclusion that the reason for which the Japanese got hundreds of American ships ready for battle was that President Franklin Roosevelt knew the Pearl Harbor attack was coming and he let it happen in order to get America involved in the war. The major news under this title broke when many authors started writing on it being a conspiracy theory. This tragic event resulted in a lot of casualties. It is best described as “At 7:49 a.m. on Sunday, December 7, 1941, 183 Japanese dive- and torpedo-bombers, accompanied by Zero escorts, launched the first of two attacks against the American base at Pearl Harbor. A second wave of 168 Japanese aircraft arrived at 9 a.m. where eighteen operational warships, including four battleships, were sunk or heavily damaged; 188 aircraft were destroyed. 2,403 Americans were killed, among them 68 civilians, and 1178 were wounded” (Lutton Winter 1991-1992)

The attack on Pearl Harbor has been known to be a complete surprise. Whenever one thinks about it, they consider that it was. They may think that it was a total surprise except

Japan's Attack on Pearl Harbour In December 1941, Pearl Harbour was attacked by the Japanese. It was the consequence of a series of events which brought tension between Japan and America to boiling point. Japan was a country growing in power and stature and America soon came to realise that this growth could prove a threat to them. America aimed to stop Japan's growth in its tracks as they realised that if the situation was left to evolve much longer then the situation may be out of their control.

In July 1940, the U.S. placed an embargo on Japan, hoping they would restrain Japan 's military aggression in China. Japan, a proud nation, would not hear of being dictated to by the United States and began to prepare for the attack on Pearl Harbor in early 1941. Meanwhile, there was some warning of the attack on America, but it went without being duly acknowledged. The day before the attack occurred, a code-breaker intercepted a message from the Japanese concerning the movement of ships at Pearl Harbor. The operator relayed the message to the superior officers who said they would get back to the radioman on Monday, December 8, 1941 (Socolow 43). Also, on the morning of the attack, a radar operator saw a large group of airplanes on the radar screen, and when he reported this, the senior officer said it was probably just some US Bombers and not to worry about them (HistoryNet.Com). The Japanese planes flew under the radar by flying through a pass in the mountains called Kolekole Pass. This maneuver added to the surprise of the attack. The frantic attack began on Sunday at 7:55 in the morning. A little before ten the entire attack was over (Pearl Harbor, Attack On). The men of Pearl Harbor fought with valor.

On December 7, 1941 the Japanese launched a surprise attack on the US Naval Base Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, using bombers, torpedo bombers and midget submarines. On the southern end of Oahu, Pearl

In the first presentation in commented that “an outspoken visionary predicts a new war against America, waged with a dominant new weapon - Airpower”. On October 1924, the American Brigadier General “Billy” Mitchell reports that war between Japan and America is inevitable. He predicts a possible Japanese aerial attack against U.S. Forces stationed at Pearl Harbor’s ford island, commencing at 7:30 on a Sunday morning. This was actual prediction that he gave many years before Pearl Harbor was attack. This is so incredible that what he actually predicted many years ago actually happen. On the Sunday of December 7, 1941 six aircraft carriers of the imperial Japanese Navy task launch 347 aircraft in two waves to attack Pearl Harbor and Oahu airfields. The first bomb lands on Ford Islands at 7:58 a.m. with her fragile isolationism finally shattered, America finally joined the world at war. One of the biggest mistakes is that the new technology radars detected the Japanese aerial attack force were approaching Pearl Harbor, but human error spoils the warning. The statement that supports this is that in 7:20 am on that Sunday they were two soldiers who were

The event that brought forth the Idea to attack japan and destroy the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was Pearl Harbor. Japan had a history of executing surprise attacks before declaring war; one main example is when japan invaded Port Arthur in the Russo- Japanese war which would prove to be very successful . Many books were written prior to 1941 predicting an invasion of the Hawaiian Islands to gain access to the United States mainland including ‘The conflict of nations’, and ‘The valor of ignorance’ . The United States saw the military base on Hawaii as a point of power in the pacific and a last defense of their home land. Japan saw Hawaii as at point of expansion and an easy way for the United States to launch an attack on them. Attacking Pearl Harbor was not the original plan for japan. Japan wanted to bring the United States to them, but Japanese commander- in –Chief Isoroku Yamomoto pushed for an attack on the United States .pearl harbor was the home to the United States naval fleet and many fuel reserves. One of the main objects of japan was to destroy aircraft carriers and sink battle ships to put the United States fleet out of action and to discourage the people of the United States to not join the World War. The Japanese army spent over a year planning the attack and training pilots. The Japanese even created special torpedoes to operate in pear harbors shallow waters .

Also, he believed that the US knew all about this attack happening and decided not to do anything about it. Basil Rauch, disagrees with Beard 's argument saying that “ America did not know of any attack in advance. It, however, knew that there would be an attack somewhere. America had made some efforts to challenge Japan to take the first shot, (Casanova313).” He 's saying that this had nothing to do with the raw material and that American knew that there would be a possibility of something happening, but not this. Another historian, Roberta Wohlster looked at this attack in a different way, not paying a lot of attention to if the government needed an attack on Japan, but the knowledge about the attack before it happened. Wohlster concluded, “America, in fact, had received enough warning and it almost obvious that Japan was to attack. They, however, chose to ignore the evidence, (Casanova313).” She believes they knew about and didn’t want to do anything. Her point of view is similar to Beard, who also thought the US knew that the attack from Japan would occur. These viewpoints change as years go by due to new information coming in, which causes that change in perspective. An example of this is from John Toland, an American writer, and historians, stating, “...that the navy knows of the attack days before the attack, which meant that the president had some knowledge of it, (Casanova313).” Toland came to this

Shortly before 8am on Sunday 7 December 1941 , the first of two waves of Japanese aircraft launched a devastating attack on the U.S. Pacific Fleet, moored in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The raid, which came with no warning and no declaration of war, destroyed four battleships, leaving an additional 4 damaged in merely two hours. The attack destroyed 188 US aircraft, killed more than 2,400 Americans, and injured another 1,200 . Although remembered as “the day that will live in infamy”, the exact reason behind the attack on Pearl Harbor still remains unknown. Some believe that the Japanese were galvanized by Germany to attack the United States because of the assumption that the United States would be unable to concentrate all of its resources toward the fight with Japan. Germany desired assistance in the fight during World War II and, because of that, nearly guaranteed the United States’ defeat if Japan attacked. On the other side, it is believed that the Japanese prompted the Pacific war with the attack on Pearl Harbor in order to eliminate their primary competitor for resources in the Pacific and fulfill its destiny of creating a “greater East Asian co-prosperity sphere” .