The Attack on Pearl Harbor
ck on Pearl Harbor
“I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.” This is a famous quote that Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto uttered just after the attack on Pearl Harbor. He was nervous that one of the most important surprise attacks in recent history would turn out to be a complete failure. Over the course of history there have been numerous decisions to attack other nations with some of them being successful and others not so much. However, few have been as difficult as the decision to attack Pearl Harbor. Most of the high ranking officers in the Japanese military were split on the decision to attack. Even Admiral Yamamoto was against the decision to attack. Eventually it was decided that attacking Pearl Harbor was a necessary step in order to take over southeast Asia and its oil rich land. That is so because Japan believed that the United States would attack them if they tried to take over southeast Asia. Thus Pearl Harbor was attacked in order to disable the United States Pacific fleet. In hindsight, many have argued that Japan made the wrong decision and should not have attacked Pearl Harbor due to the fact that it dragged the resource rich United States into war with Japan. Although Japan ended up losing the war, based on their options at the time, Japan made the correct decision of attacking Pearl Harbor. At the time it was inevitable that the US would get into war with Japan, it significantly weakened the US Pacific Fleet, and it gave Japan time to start their conquest of Southern Asia before the US could respond.
War between Japan and the United States was almost inevitable. Japan was fighting as an axis power and the United States was a member of the allies. War between the allies and axis powers had been going on for a couple years in Europe and there was no end in sight. On top of that a series of events between the Japanese and the United States significantly weakened their relationship. The
“I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.” This is a famous quote that Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto uttered just after the attack on Pearl Harbor. He was nervous that one of the most important surprise attacks in recent history would turn out to be a complete failure. Over the course of history there have been numerous decisions to attack other nations with some of them being successful and others not so much. However, few have been as difficult as the decision to attack Pearl Harbor. Most of the high ranking officers in the Japanese military were split on the decision to attack. Even Admiral Yamamoto was against the decision to attack. Eventually it was decided that attacking Pearl Harbor was a necessary step in order to take over southeast Asia and its oil rich land. That is so because Japan believed that the United States would attack them if they tried to take over southeast Asia. Thus Pearl Harbor was attacked in order to disable the United States Pacific fleet. In hindsight, many have argued that Japan made the wrong decision and should not have attacked Pearl Harbor due to the fact that it dragged the resource rich United States into war with Japan. Although Japan ended up losing the war, based on their options at the time, Japan made the correct decision of attacking Pearl Harbor. At the time it was inevitable that the US would get into war with Japan, it significantly weakened the US Pacific Fleet, and it gave Japan time to start their conquest of Southern Asia before the US could respond.
War between Japan and the United States was almost inevitable. Japan was fighting as an axis power and the United States was a member of the allies. War between the allies and axis powers had been going on for a couple years in Europe and there was no end in sight. On top of that a series of events between the Japanese and the United States significantly weakened their relationship. The