On the morning of December 7th, 1941, at 7.48 AM, the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service
shocked the United States and the world by attacking the US naval base at Pearl Harbor
in Hawaii.
The next day, the US entered into the Second World War, declaring war with Japan, and on
December 11th, Franklin D. Roosevelt declared war with Germany and Italy.
Was this attack by the Japanese one of the worst military decisions in history?
Or was it a strategic mission to gain critical advantage?
Today, we take a look at the events leading up to and surrounding this tragic event, in
this episode of The Infographics Show, The Attack on Pearl Harbor – Surprise Military
Strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Service.
Diplomatic tensions between Japan and United States had been escalating since Japan’s
invasion of Manchuria in 1931.
Japan expanded their operations into China, leading to the second Sino-Japanese war in
1937.
The Japanese attack on the USS Panay, the Allison Incident, and the Rape of Nanking
all swung Western public opinion against the Japanese.
Come 1940, Japan moved into French Indochina, attempting to cut supply lines assisting the
Chinese.
The US, along with France and the UK, were supporting the Chinese against the Japanese
invaders.
The USA stopped shipments of airplanes, machine tools, and aviation fuel to Japan, and ordered
for more military presence in the Philippines in the hopes of discouraging the Japanese
from continuing their activities in the Far East.
Japanese high command was convinced that their attack on UK territories in South East Asia
such as Singapore would lead to the US’s involvement in the war, and they felt a preventive
strike against the Americans would be the best military strategy.
In 1941, the US and Japan entered negotiations in an attempt to improve diplomatic relations.
On November 20th, Japan proposed to withdraw from Indochina and China, provided the US
ceased their aid to China and lifted all economic sanctions against Japan.
Six days later, the US counter-offered with the Hull Note that required Japan evacuate
China without any conditions.
Before Japan had received the Hull Note, their task force had already left Japanese seas
heading for Pearl Harbor.
The Japanese attack is thought to have been a preventive action to stop the US Pacific
Fleet from interfering with their planned military operations in Southeast Asia.
Japanese attacks were also focused on the US-held Philippines, Guam, and Wake Islands,
and the British territories of Malaya, Singapore, and Hong Kong.
Pearl Harbor was attacked by somewhere between 350 to 450 Japanese aircraft in two waves
from six aircraft carriers.
All of the American battleships were damaged, along with 3 cruisers, 3 destroyers, and an
anti-aircraft training ship.
188 aircraft were destroyed, 2,403 Americans were killed in the attack, and 1,178 were
injured.
The Japanese lost 29 aircraft, 5 midget submarines, and 64 servicemen.
A third wave was planned but not executed.
The Japanese objectives were four-fold.
Firstly, they intended to destroy the American fleet units, thus preventing the Pacific Fleet
from interfering with their activities in South East Asia.
Secondly, they hoped to buy time to increase their naval strength and strengthen their
military position.
Thirdly, they hoped to deliver a blow to the US’s capability to mobilize in the Pacific.
Finally, the Japanese believed the attack would weaken morale in America to an extent
the government would drop its demands and seek a peaceful compromise with Japan.
Shortly after the attack (and probably before it), Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto regretted
the offensive strike.
The 1970 Hollywood film, Tora!
Tora!
Tora!, has Yamamoto saying “I fear all we have done is awoken a sleeping giant and filled
it with terrible resolve.”
Although Yamamoto never uttered these words, his diary is littered with pages of pre and
post–op anxiety.
Yamamoto went to Harvard University from 1919-1921 and knew quite well the threat the US posed.
Pearl Harbor led to US involvement in the Second World War and ultimately to the first
and only use of atomic weapons in current history.
On August 6th 1945, the US dropped Little Boy on Hiroshima and 3 days later dropped
Fat Boy on Nagasaki.
So why did Japan pick a fight with an enemy boasting greater economic, industrial, and
potentially military power?
The plan, had they had pulled it off, would only have bought time.
The US’s budget for the year 1940 alone was greater than Japan’s ten-year military
shipbuilding plans.
The repercussions of the attack on Pearl Harbor could not have been totally unexpected.
Admiral Yamamoto compared fighting the United States to “fighting the whole world.”
He told his political principles, “If you insist that we really do it, you may trust
us for the perfect execution of a breath-taking show of naval victories for the first half-year
or full-year.
But if the war should be prolonged into a second or third year, I am not confident at
all.”
Yamamoto was right.
Japan had to win quickly or not win at all.
By 1943, the US had a bright new shiny high-tech fleet authorized by the Two-Ocean Navy Act
of 1940.
This fleet was steaming into the combat zone with a thirst for revenge and a reason to
do so.
Zenji Abe, 89, was a former dive-bomber pilot in the attack on Pearl Harbor.
“During the war, we Japanese did not know much about Americans, and they also did not
know about us.
We conducted our mission as soldiers and there was no hatred there, though the government
tried to teach us to have such feelings.
It’s just that our paths happened to cross in Pearl Harbor on that day,” Abe said in
a 2006 interview with the Japan Times.
Suggesting that the attack was a futile diplomatic failure, Abe calls into account the responsibility
of wartime Prime Minister General Hideki Tojo.
“The wartime leaders at that time told people to commit suicide if we were captured.
They should have committed seppuku when the war ended, as they had responsibility for
causing the suffering of so many people.
Their attitudes were immoral.”
He concluded, “I believe Japan and the world would have changed for the better if the Pearl
Harbor attack did not happen, and the relationship between Japan and its neighboring countries
would have been different if the wartime leaders had acted morally.”
Events of the magnitude of Pearl Harbor often come with conspiracy theories attached.
The Pearl Harbor advance-knowledge conspiracy theory is the argument that the US Government
knew that Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor was imminent, but promptly did nothing about
it.
The debate questions how and why the US was caught off guard and to what extent they knew
about Japan’s military ambitions.
In September 1945, John T. Flynn published a 46 paged document entitled The Truth about
Pearl Harbor.
A number of writers, including journalist Robert Stinnett, argued several parties in
the US and British governments had advance knowledge of the attack, and either let it
happen or even encouraged the event.
The rationale behind this theory is that the attack would result in America entering the
European theatre of World War Two via a Japanese back door.
This theory is, however, considered a fringe theory, and is rejected by the majority of
historians specializing
in the period.
So, what do you think about the Pearl Harbor attack?
Was it military suicide, an ill-thought-out strategic plan, a brilliant tactical move,
or part of a larger plan that became derailed?
Let us know in the comments!
Also, be sure to watch our other video – Weakest Armies in Asia.
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See you next time!