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Pearl Harbor

Although the entry of the United States into World War II was probably inevitable, the way that it happened is one of the great tragedies of American history. Was it a surprise attack? Most definitely. Was it a sneak attack? Probably. No matter how you look at it, the events in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in early December of 1941 began the American involvement in the most destructive war in the history of humanity.

“December the seventh…1941… a date which will live in infamy…”

- President Franklin D. Roosevelt

In order to understand what happened at Pearl Harbor, you must know that the United States had, to that point, done everything it could to stay out of what was basically a conflict on the other side of the world. They had adopted isolationism as their foreign policy, and had maintained basic neutrality in the beginning of the conflict. Relations between the United States and The Empire of Japan were pretty tense, but, while each country was prepared for a war with the other, no war was imminent.

In 1940, The United States stopped selling jet fuel to Japan in protest of Japan’s conquering and plundering of French Indochina (see map 1). The Japanese were in need of many resources that could be found there. While the Japanese were pretty upset about the cutoff of fuel, it was not exactly worth going to war over. However, when the Americans stopped all oil shipments to Japan in 1941, this was considered an aggressive act. The Japanese were very dependent on American shipments of oil.

The loss of American oil only made Japan need French Indochina even more. The main problem was that the Japanese military was concerned that the United States might attempt to stop Japan from trying to conquer the region. They were probably right. In any event, the only possible solution was to find a way to keep the Americans out of the way while they did their conquering. This is where Pearl Harbor comes in to play.

The American Pacific Naval Fleet had recently been moved from its normal base in San Diego, California, to Hawaii so that it would be ready should it be needed to protect Indochina. After the move, the Japanese had concerns about how close…and how formidable… the American fleet was (see Map 2).[pic] It was decided that the Japanese Military, under the command of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, would attack the American fleet before they could get completely situated. The attack had three objectives:

1. To disable the American Pacific Fleet and make them unable to fight

2. To allow the Japanese time to build up their own naval fleet

3. To destroy the morale of Americans at home so they would not support a war against Japan.

The attack on Pearl Harbor came from airplanes whose job it was to sink as many parked battleships as possible. This could be accomplished by bombing an area called “Battleship Row”

“Battleship Row” was located in a portion of Pearl Harbor that was difficult to get into and out of. It was very shallow and had a narrow entrance, like a bottleneck. This made an attack relatively simple. You see, there was no way for the ships to escape in time because they could only get through one at a time. They were like sand in an hourglass (see image3).

The American Fleet at Pearl Harbor was caught in a surprise attack by the Japanese on December 7, 1941. As far as the Americans knew, there had been no declaration of war by either side, so the Americans were really unprepared and completely blindsided by the attack. What they didn’t know was that the declaration of war by the Japanese was supposed to have been delivered thirty minutes before the attack began, but the Japanese embassy was a little slow in delivering it to the American government. The Japanese planes had also been detected on American radar before the attack, but the commanding officer thought they were more American planes, so no one was alerted…

In all the damage was astounding:

• 4 United States Battleships destroyed (including the U.S.S. Arizona)

• 14 ships of various types sunk or damaged

• 188 planes completely destroyed

• 2402 soldiers killed, 1282 wounded

This was indeed a crippling blow for the American fleet, just as the Japanese had intended. However, it wasn’t enough. The fleet was back online in about six months, and by that time Congress had agreed to a declaration of war with the Empire of Japan. Pearl Harbor, then, represents the reason that The United States become involved in World War II. A declaration of war against Germany, Japan’s ally, would soon follow.

On a note closer to home, one of the battleships destroyed was The U.S.S Arizona. The Arizona was the most heavily damaged ship at Pearl Harbor. She went down with over 1000 men on board. The Arizona was too badly damaged to be brought to the surface and repaired, so it lies today under the waters of Pearl Harbor as a grave for those who went down with her, and as a memorial for the rest of us (see image 4).

Needed links:

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Assignment

Directions: Copy and paste this page of this assignment onto your Microsoft Word document. Answer each question using the information contained in the text of this presentation, as well as any links that you may be asked to go to. E-mail this assignment to me as an attachment at my school e-mail address: jkervin@aaechighschools. Please be sure to include your name in the subject line.

1. Why were the Japanese interested in conquering French Indochina, and what was the American response? Was the response appropriate? Why or why not?

2. Why was the American Pacific Naval Fleet moved to Pearl Harbor in the first place? Would the Japanese have been right to view this as an aggressive act?

3. What were the three main objectives for the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor? Was the attack successful?

4. Click on link #1 on the previous page (you might need Ctrl+Click). This will take you to a very good biography on Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, who masterminded the Pearl Harbor attack. After reading this biography, why did Yamamoto have an advantage over the other Japanese leaders when planning an attack on the Americans? How did the American leaders view Yamamoto? What happened to him?

5. Click on link #2 on the previous page(you might need Ctrl+Click). You will be taken to YouTube to see and hear and excerpt of President Roosevelt’s address to Congress regarding Pearl Harbor. What different ways does he describe the attack throughout the excerpt? What do you think Mr. Roosevelt’s purpose for the speech was?

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Map 1 – French Indochina includes the countries of southeast Asia, and several islands in the South China Sea

French Indochina

Japan

Hawaii

Map 2 - This map shows the proximity of the Hawaiian Islands to French Indochina and Japan.

Image 3 - This is a satellite image of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Notice the narrow inlet is the only way into the Harbor. The U.S.S. Arizona was moored at the center island at the time of the attack.

Bottleneck

Battleship Row

Image 4 – An overhead view of the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor. You can see the memorial building on top of the sunken Arizona, as well as the oil slick that still leaks from her hull.

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