Perl Harbor Essay, Research Paper

In 1941, one of the largest American military

defeats occurred. An entire naval fleet was destroyed, hundreds were killed,

all before 09.00 on a Sunday. The US did not have any knowledge of this

attack, partially because of ignorance, partially because of the military

strategies of their Japanese opponents. The Japanese attack on the US naval

base of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, was a classic case of “It will

not happen to me!” Although the US suspected Japanese actions, they did

not take a defensive stance as they believed an attack would never touch

their soil. Through an examination of military history, tactics and eye

witness descriptions, it will be proven that the US had no knowledge of

the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. In the years before 1941, the war saw

little American military action. After the collapse of France, American

President Roosevelt promised his county that no American troops would be

sent to Europe to aid in the battle against Hitler and his powerful army.

These promises caused Roosevelt to be criticized by his closest advisors

for his indecisiveness about declaring war .

The President’s defense to these accusations

was he did not want to out step public opinion. As well, he believed American

intervention would cause a ‘mortal blow’ to the Allies cause. In reality,

the advisors, as well as Roosevelt, knew that Britain could not win the

war without American armed intervention. Two oceans to the East, Japan

was deep into a war or her own. Japanese forces were concentrated on the

Chinese front to conquer and obtain. As a result of her unpopular declaration

of war on China, Japan’s fuel supply from the US was eliminated. Consequently,

the Japanese turned to Indonesia to continue the supply of fuel for her

war efforts. Fuel talks broke down as the Dutch, who were in control of

the Indonesian fuel supply and, under heavy influence from the US, would

not supply Japan with fuel. Desperately needing fuel to continue the war,

Japan first thought of attacking Indonesia, but feared US intervention.

After some thought, Japanese leaders decided

that an attack directly on the US would be more appropriate to bring the

US to the fuel supplies negotiating table . The first acknowledgment that

Japan was a war threat came on November 27, 1941 when Washington ordered

a ‘War Warning’. The US feared a Japanese attack, not on America, but on

the Philippines. American military leaders took little or no precautions

upon the issue of warning. Admiral Husband E. Kimmel and Lt. General Walter

C. Short of Pearl Harbor had done nothing to make the fleet or its defenses

ready for Japanese attack . The commanding officers believed the warning

to be no more than a possible threat of sabotage from the Japanese living

on the island of Oahu. As a result, the officers ordered that all aircraft

in the base be lined up at wing tip to be easily guarded. Defenses were

on limited alert, with no long distance reconnaissance and no improvements

on the limited anti-aircraft defenses. On board ships, only half of the

anti-aircraft positions were stood at with the ammunition locked away .

“In every reference I’ve seen and every Pearl Harbor survivor I’ve ever

talked to, each referred to the attack as a surprise,” said PH1 Goodwin

of Pearl Harbor in an Electronic-mail letter dated December 15, 1997. Mr.

Goodwin’s comment is embarrassing at best, subsequently the American defense

stance has been referred to as a ’shameful blunder’ . The lack of preparation

for an attack demonstrated by the officers at Pearl Harbor portrayed the

general attitude of ignorance in the American government.

The United States of America is the strongest,

most powerful country in the world. A country such as Japan, which does

not even have the resources to survive a lengthy war, could not possibly

attack them . The result of the attack would have been much less serious

had the American officers exercised more vigilance. The ignorance was so

great that, on the day of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, several major and

peculiar instances were noted and ignored by officers on duty. At 03.50

an unidentified periscope was seen and ignored at the entrance of the harbor.

Also, the destroyer “Ward” depth-charged and sank an unidentified submarine

at 06.37. The contact report was taken up much later and with no degree

of urgency. Finally, two radar sightings of a large mass of aircraft 64

kilometers north of the island were dismissed by the commanding officer

at 07.02 as a ‘probable’ flight of B-17s from the US west coast . These

events, left utterly unacknowledged, led up to one of the great military

defeats in US history. At 06.00, the 2 500 foot anti-torpedo gate that

guarded the entrance to Pearl Harbor was opened in a customary morning

maneuver unknowingly welcoming the attack. Three-hundred and sixty Japanese

planes broke through the clouds above Pearl Harbor at 07.55. The planes

attacked in rows of two or three, dropping torpedoes at 100 knots from

70 feet.

The first wave of planes destroyed US

hangers and the planes in the neat, anti-sabotage rows. Other attacks in

the first wave were on ‘Battleship Row’, cruisers and other auxiliary ships.

Most ships had numerous torpedo hits. To complete the destruction of the

war ships, six submarines aided in the sinking and destroying of what was

not already certain. When torpedoing planes left the vicinity, bombers

carrying 1 600 pound bombs were sent to destroy any remaining ships. Overlapping

the first wave of attack at 08.40 was a second one. They concentrated on

the not yet fully destroyed airfields. By 09.45 any ship of the US Pacific!

Naval Fleet that was not on the Ocean floor was drifting helplessly. “It

[the Arizona] sank like an earthquake had struck it,” a survivor remarked,

1 200 of his crew mates died. US troops returned from church or brunch

to defend as best they could. Fighting until they drowned or were crushed

by exploding debris, sailors, fliers and anti-aircraft gunners fought heroically

to save their doomed naval base. By reason of the attack occurring in what

Americans thought was peace time, much of the ammunition was locked away,

leaving the defending US troops with little defense. In the end, the US

had eight battleships, three cruisers and a large number of smaller vessels

sink or rendered out of use. The Japanese lost 30 planes and five submarines.

Although the destruction was not total,

Japanese foremost naval strategist, Yamamoto, found the result better than

he had anticipated . Military records state that the attack sank or destroyed

6 ships, all of which were raised and rebuilt , except for the Arizona,

Oklahoma and Utah . US casualties included 2 500 as well as over 1 000

wounded. The Japanese lost less than 30 aircraft and about 55 men. Unharmed

or salvageable from the attack were land installation, power stations,

all submarines and stores of gasoline. The gasoline enabled shipyards to

repair all the salvageable ships. Primary targets for the Japanese were

the US carriers Saratoga, Lexington and Enterprise. They weighed 33 000,

33 000 and 19 000 tones respectively. The carriers were out of port at

the time of the bombing, performing deep sea maneuvers, thereby eluding

the attack. The USS Enterpise was later present at the battle of Midway

Island on June 4-6, 1942 The bombing of Pearl Harbor can be seen as a turning

point in the war. Essentially, the war had been of mainly European involvement,

now it took a global turn. The bombing prompted a US declaration of war

on the following day, as well as great American shock and outrage tempered

by anger. The attack was dubbed ‘a day of infamy’ by President Roosevelt,

as no American could forgive or forget the actions of the Japanese nation.

The Japanese could not have devised a better way to rally the American

citizens into full support for Roosevelt and his government’s plan of US

involvement in the war.

A previous promise between British Prime

Minister, Winstin Churchill and President Roosevelt was honored when Britain

declared war upon Japan two hours after the US declaration. The events

surrounding the bombing of Pearl Harbor prove the US handled the situation

very poorly. Many opposing tactics were noted and ignored. Warnings were

thought of as routine. Even survivors, who were fully aware of the Japanese

tendencies of war on China, the government war warnings and their country’s

unprepared state, still describe the attack as a surprise. The Japanese

military strategies were intelligent and well executed; although, the Japanese

attack would not have been nearly as effective had the Americans not have

been so blatantly ignorant. The US had no knowledge of the attack on Pearl

Harbor in 1941, and it was their fault.