@RJL518:
The attack on Pearl Harbor, also known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor, the Hawaii Operation or Operation AI by the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters, and Operation Z during planning, was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii Territory, on the morning of December 7, 1941. The attack led to the United States’ entry into World War II.
Japan intended the attack as a preventive action to keep the U.S. Pacific Fleet from interfering with military actions the Empire of Japan planned in Southeast Asia against overseas territories of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and the United States. Over the next seven hours there were coordinated Japanese attacks on the U.S.-held Philippines, Guam and Wake Island and on the British Empire in Malaya, Singapore, and Hong Kong.[13]
The attack commenced at 7:48 a.m. Hawaiian Time.The base was attacked by 353 Imperial Japanese fighter planes, bombers, and torpedo planes in two waves, launched from six aircraft carriers. All eight U.S. Navy battleships were damaged, with four sunk. All but the USS Arizona (BB-39) were later raised, and six were returned to service and went on to fight in the war. The Japanese also sank or damaged three cruisers, three destroyers, an anti-aircraft training ship,[nb 4] and one minelayer. 188 U.S. aircraft were destroyed; 2,403 Americans were killed and 1,178 others were wounded.Important base installations such as the power station, shipyard, maintenance, and fuel and torpedo storage facilities, as well as the submarine piers and headquarters building (also home of the intelligence section) were not attacked. Japanese losses were light: 29 aircraft and five midget submarines lost, and 64 servicemen killed. One Japanese sailor, Kazuo Sakamaki, was captured.
The attack came as a profound shock to the American people and led directly to the American entry into World War II in both the Pacific and European theaters. The following day, December 8, the United States declared war on Japan. Domestic support for non-interventionism, which had been fading since the Fall of France in 1940, disappeared. Clandestine support of the United Kingdom (e.g., the Neutrality Patrol) was replaced by active alliance. Subsequent operations by the U.S. prompted Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy to declare war on the U.S. on December 11, which was reciprocated by the U.S. the same day.
There were numerous historical precedents for unannounced military action by Japan. However, the lack of any formal warning, particularly while negotiations were still apparently ongoing, led President Franklin D. Roosevelt to proclaim December 7, 1941, “a date which will live in infamy”. Because the attack happened without a declaration of war and without explicit warning, the attack on Pearl Harbor was judged by the Tokyo Trials to be a war crime.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_on_Pearl_Harbor
TORA TORA TORA!!!
The 75th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor.� One of the most important days in all of American History not just WWII.� It ended American Isolationism and turned the USA into the massive military power it is now.
There are so many questions that i could ask.
Did Roosevelt really know about the attack?
Should VADM Chuichi Nagumo have launched a third wave?
Why didnt the Japanese target the fuel depots which historians say would have done more damage to the American war effort than sinking every ship in the harbor?
Was Admiral Husband Kimmel really to blame?
Why wasn’t the US better prepared for the attack?
Could Yamamoto have formed a better plan of attack?
Did Adolf Hitler, Mussolini, Germany and Italy really have to declare war on the USA with the news of the attack?
What do you guys think would have happened if they didnt?
There are so many theories about Pearl Harbor so feel free to answer or pose other questions that i haven’t thought of.
This was a “Day of Infamy” when it happened.
But it turned out to be a day of reckoning when the USA finally geared up and went to war.
The “Sleeping Giant” had awoken!!!
Did Roosevelt really know about the attack?
We had broken the Japanese diplomatic codes well before Pearl, so we knew an attack was coming somewhere, and more or less knew when Japan would go to war against us. Whether we knew that Pearl Harbor would be among the targets is more than I can say.
Should VADM Chuichi Nagumo have launched a third wave?
Yes, definitely. His rationale for not launching the third wave was that they had lost the advantage of surprise. He was correct to say that. However, the targets in question could still have been destroyed even without the advantage of surprise. Moreover, the benefit of surprise would prove rather fleeting for Japan for the entire rest of the war.
Was Admiral Husband Kimmel really to blame?
No. He made a convenient scapegoat.
Did Adolf Hitler, Mussolini, Germany and Italy really have to declare war on the USA with the news of the attack?
This is a tricky question. Hitler believed, probably correctly, that 1942 was a pivotal year for the Axis. And that Germany would need to achieve substantial victories in the Soviet Union during 1942 if the Axis was to win or tie the war. Germany’s summer offensive in 1942 did result in substantial territorial gains, and the capture of large numbers of Soviet soldiers. However, Germany failed to seize the critical Caucasus oilfields. (A goal which was overly ambitious, considering the sheer scale of Soviet military strength.)
In the weeks leading up to the Pearl Harbor attack, a U.S. government memo had been leaked. The leaked memo stated that the U.S. did not have the naval strength for a two ocean war, and would lead one to conclude that if Japan went to war against the U.S., the American navy would be too preoccupied dealing with that to provide much protection for the U.S. transports in the Atlantic. Those transports were flooding the Soviet Union with Lend-Lease aid. Tanks, artillery, military aircraft. All of which would prove very important to the Soviets as they worked to thwart the German summer offensive of 1942. Moreover, the U.S. government memo had implied that the United States would be at war against Germany in two years or less; and that when it did go to war its primary target would be Germany.
If war between the U.S. and Germany was inevitable (as the memo had implied, and as may have actually been the case), and if German sub warfare in 1942 could seriously impede the United States’ ability to send Lend Lease aid to the Soviet Union and Britain, then an argument could be made that Germany’s declaration of war against the U.S. was its best available option.
In hindsight, it’s easy to point out that Germany didn’t get the decisive breakthrough it needed against the Soviets even with that declaration of war. And that the American army began distracting Germany from its eastern front starting in late 1942, with Operation Torch. (The invasion of northwest Africa.) With the benefit of hindsight, it’s clear (maybe?) that Germany should not have declared war. The “maybe” is because, if FDR had managed to get the U.S. into the European war within six - nine months of Pearl Harbor anyway, even without a German DoW, then Hitler’s decision to not declare war would not have yielded much.
