Pearl Harbor Attack | History, Motive, Cause & Impact

Pearl Harbor: On the morning of 7 December 1941, Japan bombed the US Pearl Harbor in Hawaii naval base. The attack however was a big surprise and after launching a strategic attack by some 350 Japanese aircraft, the surprise attack sunk or badly damaged eighteen US naval vessels which included eight battleships, destroyed or damaged 300 us aircraft, and killed 2,403 men. America was surprised, shocked and vexed from one end to the other. The Second World War – turning US public opinion towards warfare. Japan before December 8, 1941, was not at war. Two of Japan’s allies, Germany and Italy, started a war with the US on December 11. The U. S. reacted likewise and consequently went to World War II.

Pearl Harbor Attack

Japanese forces struck on 7 December 1941 at 0755hrs – local time – but it was nearly the Sunday 8 th hour. A little over an hour, in two waves, nearly 350 Japanese planes, launched from six aircraft carriers, 230 miles north of Oahu, attacked the naval base. Respectively, Japanese forces carried out to the chaos in US naval vessels and in US aircraft on the island’s airfield.

• There was a total deaths of 2,403 Americans with sixty eight of them being civilians in a surprise attack.
• Along these lines, Japan had as it were moderately superficial zones of slaughters as opposed to others—it lost only 29 planes and just few small submarines.
• It made the people of America upset, startled, confused, angry.
• President Roosevelt addressed a joint session of Congress in the Capitol on 8th Dec.
• He appealed to the Congress to declare war against Japan and that day the parliament declared war against Japan.
• Four days after the attack, Germany and Italy, as allies of Japan, declared war on the United States, which the Congress matched that day.
• Domestic opponents of the US entry the war were thereby silenced. America was in fact involved in a war of a kind which it would fight in both continents of Europe and the Pacific.

Motive for the Pearl Harbor Attack

Finally the Japanese government concluded to procure action on Pearl Harbor due to the September summer 1941 initiative when the United States decided to cease US oil exporting to Japan.

• There was no oil from Japanese fields and the country relied on America for about 80 percent of its oil needs: without the supplies of US oil its navy would not exist so to speak.
• The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in the hope that the United States Pacific fleet would be demolished or critically damaged and that the Japanese navy would be able to freely roam across the Pacific.
• Japan was also pushed strategically by the arguments to form an Asian co-prosperity sphere—‘Asia for Asians’ —whereby Japan would replace the Asian colonial holdings of European and the United States.
• With the British, French, and Dutch now tied up in the war in Europe, the Japanese felt that the European powers would be unable to defend their Asian colonies.
• Yet in the next 8 hours following the Pearl Harbor attack, Japan also attacked Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaya which were held by the British as well as the Philippines, Guam, and Wake Island as the US territorial possessions.

Forewarnings about the Pearl Harbor Attack

It was the lack of being prepared to the attack on Pearl Harbor that made the United States become a victim, but with a bit of bad luck things could have turned out differently.

• Since the US had cracked the US diplomatic cipher in project Magic, General George Marshall, receiving word of peaceful surrender in a decoded Japanese message on the very day of assault, had ordered the US base at Pearl Harbor to be on the alert prior to the bombing; an atmospheric condition caused transmission of Marshall’s message to run late and the signal arrived after the attack.
• In addition, the fact of the Japanese attack was known by the US; the US was aware of an attack somewhere in the Philippines, but the US military and governmental personnel thought that the Philippines or some other Southern Pacific region closer to Japan were likely targets.
• A defended harbor some 3,500 miles distant from its country of origin, Pearl harbour had seemed unlikely to the US government and military as a target.
• With Pearl Harbor, the US quickly became a war machine and mobilized for World War II.

Japan and the Path to War

The attack on Pearl Harbor came as a surprise, however tensions had been building between Japan and the United States for nearly a century.

• The United States was especially annoyed with the more hostile behavior Japan expressed towards China.
• Mostly, the Japanese government could only solve its economic and demographic disorder through expansion into their neighbor’s territory and acquisition of the neighbor’s import market.
• This move was made by Japan in response and as such, it attacked China and a series of attacks that included Nanking Massacre were unleashed on China.
• Threatened by this belligerence, American officials used a series of economic embargoes and trade sanctions to counterattack.
• Japan had no oil and no money and no goods, even if there were provisions of essential supply like oil that the empire had to limit the expansionism.
• However, the sanctions stiffened their resolve to fight. Long months of negotiation between Tokyo and Washington, D.C. achieved nothing. Neither party would concede. He appeared to have been destined for war.

Pearl Harbor: Location

On the far side of the Pacific, about two thousand miles from the U.S. mainland and four thousand miles from Japan, Hawaii.

• However, no one considered the Japanese to begin wartime action from any future assault on the Hawaii Islands far away.
• It was something of a surprise to the American military authorities, as they did not expect the attack so near to them and thus the naval bases at Pearl Harbor were poorly defended.
• But almost the whole of the Pacific Fleet lay at anchor round Ford Island in the harbor, and hundreds of aeroplanes were crammed onto adjacent airfields.
• The target of Pearl Harbor barracks for the Japanese; it was incredibly easy.

Impact of the Pearl Harbor Attack

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor essentially left almost 20 American ships either damaged or completely sunk and more than 300 airplanes destroyed.

• Dry docks and airfields were also destroyed. First of all 2000 or more died.
• However, the Japanese had not crippled the Pacific Fleet. By the 1940s, battleships were no longer the most important naval vessel: Since carriers, and in actual fact all the carriers of the Pacific Fleet were away from the base on December 7.
• Some had come back to the continent and others were ferrying planes to the inbound troops on Midway and Wake Islands.
• However, the oil storage depots, repair shops, shipyards and submarine docks, the base’s most vital shorelines were still standing after the Pearl Harbor attack.
• The result was that the U.S. Navy was able to recuperate rather well from the strike.

Read More: Facts on Pearl Harbor Attack

Conclusion

The Pearl Harbour attack however was a big surprise and after launching a strategic attack by some 350 Japanese aircraft, the surprised attack sunk or badly damaged eighteen US naval vessels which included eight battleships, destroyed or damaged 300 us aircraft, and killed 2,403 men. After crushing the Pearl Harbor Attack, President Franklin D. Roosevelt addressed a joint session of the U.S. Congress on December 8. Today we have learned about the history and related facts of Pearl Harbour attack in detail.

FAQs on Pearl Harbor

Why did Japan attack Pearl Harbor?

Japan believed that by attacking the Pearl Harbor it could severely cripple the U.S fleet and buy them time in the Pacific and Southeast Asia.

What is the Pearl Harbor famous for?

A surprise attack on the United States Naval Base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii by the Japanese military.

Is Pearl Harbor movie a true story?

The Washington Post, Desson Howe wrote, “although this Walt Disney movie is based, inspired and even partially informed by a real event referred to as Pearl Harbor, the movie is actually based on the movies Top Gun, Titanic and Saving Private Ryan.

When did World War 2 end?

September 2, 1945

How many died at Pearl Harbor?

2403 people killed during the Pearl Harbor attack