The US Pacific Fleet was moored at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on December 7, 1941, when two waves of hundreds of Japanese aircraft commenced their lethal attack.
Even though the raid only lasted for around two hours, it had terrible consequences. Under 100 Japanese were killed, there were over 2,400 Americans dead, 1,178 injured, 5 battleships sunk, 16 more damaged, and 188 planes lost.
The following day, President Roosevelt officially declared war on Japan after this Japanese attack signaled the commencement of the Pacific War. Congress responded to the US’s declaration of war on Germany and Italy on December 11th, thereby bringing America into World War II and ultimately drastically altering its direction.
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Back Ground Of Pearl Harbor Attack
The origins of the Pearl Harbor attack go back many years. The emperor retook control in 1867, marking the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate’s rule and the start of the Meiji Period. called the Meiji Restoration Following this, Japan conquered China in the Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895) and the Russo-Japanese War (1904–1955), and then moved on to the Chinese continent.
Before the Meiji Restoration, Japan didn’t even have a military. The Meiji government believed that a strong military was essential for Japan to develop and become a nation like the US or Europe when it established diplomatic relations with Western nations after abandoning its policy of seclusion. Following that, they tried to dominate nearby nations by copying Western nations.
In 1931, the Japanese Army deliberately destroyed the South Manchuria Railway and then blamed China for it. The Japanese used this as justification to initiate a war, sending military forces into numerous areas of China, where they used force to take over several cities. A “puppet state” of the Japanese Army, Manchuria was created as a state by Japan the next year.
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Why Did Japan Attacked Pearl Harbor?
China-Japan relations deteriorated between 1937 and 1941, driving the US toward war with Japan and Germany. Beginning with ambivalence, U.S. officials watched China. Because of their longstanding alliance with China, they opposed Japanese invasions into northeast China and the growth of Japanese militarism there.
However, most U.S. officials considered they had no important interests in China worth fighting Japan over. U.S. policymakers were also concerned about helping a divided nation. Before 1937, few U.S. authorities favoured a forceful posture, hence the US did little to help China for fear of offending Japan.
After the July 7, 1937 Marco Polo Bridge battle in Beijing, the U.S. was more likely to aid China. The US public sided with the Chinese as Japanese forces swept along the coast and into Nanjing. Japan bombed the U.S.S. Panay, killing three. The U.S. accepted the Japanese apologies and indemnification and avoided conflict.
The nations maintained a shaky ceasefire until 1940. Roosevelt established U.S. aid to China in 1940 and 1941. As it tightened limitations on Japan, the U.S. gave China war supply credits. In January 1940, Japan dissolved its commerce contract with the US, cutting off its principal source of oil, steel, iron, and other commodities as it struggled against Chinese opposition.
Although this did not immediately lead to an embargo, the Roosevelt Administration could now restrict military supplies into Japan and use this as pressure to convince Japan to stop its hostilities in China.
After January 1940, the US increased help to China through Lend-Lease and greater credits and gradually moved toward an embargo on any militarily valuable trade with Japan. These two years saw various Japanese government decisions that worsened the situation.
Japan’s political authorities created the “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere” in August 1940 to secure their military. They declared Japan’s resolve to expel Western imperialists from Asia. This Japanese-led effort sought to increase Japan’s economic and material riches to reduce its dependence on Western imports, not to “liberate” Asia’s long-subjugated peoples.
Japan planned to conquer and control China militarily. Several pacts with Western nations made Japan appear more dangerous to the US. On September 27, 1940, Japan formed the Tripartite Pact with Germany and Italy, linking European and Asian hostilities. China might join the worldwide anti-fascist campaign.
In mid-1941, Japan signed a Neutrality Pact with the Soviet Union, signalling that its military would enter Southeast Asia, where the US had stronger interests. Japanese forces entered Indochina and began their Southern Advance after a third Vichy France agreement.
The US responded to this mounting threat by temporarily halting negotiations with Japanese officials, imposing a full export embargo on Japan, freezing Japanese assets in U.S. banks, and shipping supplies into China via the Burma Road. After the US embargo against Japan increased, negotiations resumed but failed.
Washington diplomats came close to agreements on two occasions, but pro-Chinese sentiments in the US made it difficult to achieve a resolution that did not require Japan’s withdrawal from China, which was unacceptable to Japan’s military chiefs. Japan’s leaders decided to act quickly because of the embargo’s severe shortages, inability to retreat, and belief that U.S. officials opposed dialogue.
U.S. authorities still wanted a diplomatic settlement and doubted Japan’s military might to strike the U.S. Thus, they were shocked when Japanese planes destroyed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Next day, the US declared war on Japan and allied with China. The Roosevelt Administration faced war in Europe and Asia as Germany supported its ally and declared war on the US.
Three Main Reasons Behind The Attack
Although the incident has a number of possible causes and theories. To see why Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, consider the following three examples. Nature’s riches are one of them. Under Imperial control, they required various resources such as oil, steel, minerals, and others in order to expand in Asia.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt oversaw the US government at the time, which was monitoring their aggressiveness. The United States’ reaction to Japan’s actions is the second factor. Doing business with Japan is subject to a number of limitations, and Japanese assets located in the US have also been frozen by the US Congress.
The third reason is related to the then-Japanese authorities’ expansionist mentality. The US relocated its Pacific Fleet in 1939, from California to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Japanese expansionists in the Pacific were irritated by this.
The US maintained its neutral position despite then-current forecasts of war between the US and Japan. Japan launched the initial attack as reaction to the other side. The strike has been referred to be a war crime because it was carried out without any prior notification.
Japan’s Grievances
At the Paris Peace Conference in January 1919, which marked the end of the First World War, Japan sat at the head table with the United States, Britain, France, and Italy. The Asian nation still continued to seem alien.
Japan has two main objectives going into the negotiations. First, it pushed for the inclusion of a racial equality language in the Treaty of Versailles. This demand was a result of a number of anti-Japanese laws that were passed in the US, the most notable of which being the California Alien Land Law of 1913, which forbade immigrant farmers from holding land.
In Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and other western imperial outposts, racism toward Japanese businesspeople was also perceived to be pervasive.
Duke Aritomo Yamagata, a statesman who had modernised the Japanese army after the shogunate was overthrown in 1868, warned that it was “very necessary… to take actions to avoid the creation of a white alliance against the yellow people” because of the strong sense of racial conspiracy.
The western nations rejected the call for a racial clause in the Versailles treaty, a move that would later feed into Japan’s ultra-nationalist narrative. Only somewhat more effectively was Japan’s second demand, which called for the permanent surrender of German imperial holdings in Asia.
Japan was compelled to return Germany’s Kiautschou Bay concession to China after seizing the lucrative 213-square-mile area on China’s eastern coast. Japan was coerced into splitting the spoils with Britain and Australia as part of Germany’s southern Pacific empire.
At the Washington Naval Conference, which began in November 1921, other affronts to the dignity of Japan’s country were likely to follow. By prohibiting the construction of battleships, which were the equivalent of today’s nuclear weapons at the time, the goal was to establish a multilateral arms control convention.
Japanese ultranationalists were not persuaded that the Anglo-Saxon nations were playing fairly by the decision, which limited the US and Britain to 525,000 tons each and Japan to 315,000 tons (a ratio of 5:5:3). The Washington Naval Treaty prompted famous nationalist scientist Kametaro Mitsukawa to assert that western countries were “plotting to dominate Asia totally by the end of the 20th century.”
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