Pearl Harbor

Essay by pantherskateHigh School, 10th gradeA+, February 2006

download word file, 1 pages 5.0

What motivated the savage surprise attack on navel forces in pearl harbor by the Japanese?

1941 Bombing of pearl harbor brought united states into world war 2 against Japan and alliance with china. In 1940 Japan advanced into French Indochina and Dutch East Indies. To stop Japanese aggression the United States banned the sale of war materials to Japan, such as iron, steel, and oil for airplanes. This move angered the Japanese.

General Tojo ordered a surprise attack on the American fleet at pearl harbor, Hawaii. Early on December 7, 1941 Japanese airplanes damaged or destroyed 19 ships, smashed American planes on the ground, and killed more than 2,400 people.

The next day, a grim faced president Roosevelt told the nation that December 7th was "a date, which will live in infamy". He asked congress to declare war on Japan. On December 11th, Germany and Italy, as japans allies, declared war on the United States.

In the long run, the Japanese attack on pearl harbor would be as serious a mistake as Hitler's invasion of Russia. But the months after pearl harbor gave no such hint. Instead, European and American possessions in the pacific fell one by one to the Japanese. They captured the Philippines and seized other American islands across the pacific. They overran the British colonies of Hong Kong, Burma, and Malaya, pushed deeper into the Dutch East Indies, and completed the take over of French Indochina.

By the begging of 1942, the Japanese Empire stretched from Southeast Asia to the western Pacific Ocean.

The aftermath of pearl harbor bombings was not what the Japanese wanted. In return of the attack on Oahu America made alliances against Japan, the result of japans foolish tantrum, from America halting goods being sold to Japan, was only making more...