Pearl Harbor Essay, Research Paper

Pearl Harbor – Brief Look

On December 7, 1941 the U.S. troops stationed on the island of

Pearl Harbor were not waken up by the familiar sound of a bugle but

instead by gunfire and explosions. This is what it might have been

like if you were one of the troops at Pearl Harbor. This attack was

important because it led to other events in World War II. Some of

these events were America’s involvement in the war and the dropping of

the Atom Bomb at Hiroshima.

Between the years of 1920 and 1940 dictators came to power in

Germany, Italy, and Japan. The first country to have a dictatorship

was Italy. Thier dictator was Benito Mussolini. He became dictator

in 1922. Mussolini organized and founded the Fascist party before he

became dictator.

After thier loss in World War I Germany had severe problems

with thier economy. Adolf Hitler and his political party the Nazis

promised they would end Germanies problems if Hitler became dictator.

The Germans made Hitler thier dictator in 1933.

Italy and Germany decided to become allies in 1939. They

called themselves the Axis Powers. Japan joined the Axis Powers in

1940.

The emperor of Japan at the present time was Emperor Hirohito.

After he joined with the Axis Powers he started taking over

countries, cities, and island in and around Japan that belonged to

countries who opposed the Axis Powers.

Joseph Stalin, the ruler of Russia at the present time, sided

with Hitler until Hitler double crossed him and tried to take over

Russia. After the double cross Stalin decided to side with the

Allies.

The Allies were the countries that were opposed to the Axis

Powers. These countries were Britain, France, the U.S.A., and Russia.

The three leaders of the Allied Powers were Franklin D. Roosevelt,

the president of the U.S.A., Winston Churchill, the prime minister of

Britain, and Joseph Stalin.

After World War II started Japan grew angry with the U.S.A.

because they were helping China by sending them war supplies. Japan

didn’t like this because China was the main target of Japanese

attacks. As a result of this Japan decided to take a “peace” trip to

the U.S.A. . They made the trip in November of 1941. During this

“peace” trip Japan made three proposals to the government. These

proposals were, to stop aiding China, to stay out of Asian affairs,

and to begin shipping oil to Japan right away or Japan would attack

the U.S.A. . President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the government of

the United States didn’t carry out these proposals.

As a result of this Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on the

morning of December 7, 1941 at 7:55 AM. The reason they attacked that

early was because Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, the person in control of

the Japanese warships in that area, knew most of the troops at Pearl

Harbor would be asleep.

The main planes Japan used for the attack were bombers. The

number of bombers used was 350. Six aircraft carriers are what these

planes were carried on. They chose to use bombers because thier

primary objective was to destroy as many ships as possible. They did

have one squadron of fighter planes in each wave, however. The reason

they did this was because Yamamoto predicted that the troops at Pearl

Harbor would be able to a launch a few planes. There were two waves

of planes. The first wave of planes were to destroy as many capital

ships as possible. Capital ships are ships that are powerful. The

planes that were still up and running after the first wave were to

join in the second wave. The second wave of planes were to destroy

whatever was left after the first wave of planes finished thier

mission. These were mostly carrier ships and submarines that were

surfaced.

During this attack exactly ten major command ships were

destroyed. Some of the ships that were destroyed were the U.S.S.

Arizona, the Pennsylvania, the Maryland, and the West Virginia.

The major results off the bombing of Pearl Harbor were

the involvement of the United States in World War II. The second

major result was the dropping of the Atom Bomb at Hiroshima in Japan.

Harry S. Truman was the president who dropped the bomb on Japan

because F. D. Roosevelt died shortly before that happened. Before he

died he gave a speech about what happened at Pearl Harbor. In this

speech he said, “Yesterday December 7,1941-a date witch we live in

infamy [total disgrace]-the United States of America was deliberately

attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan…” That was

only part of the speech ,however. The U.S.S.. Arizona which was one

of the most badly damaged ships because of the attack had a memorial

made for it. After the bombing American soldiers use the phrase

“Remember Pearl Harbor” to raise thier spirits during the remainder of

the war.

This concludes my term paper on the “Bombing of Pearl

Harbor”. This paper covered a brief description of World War II and

the dictators during it, a summary of what happened before, during,

and after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.