Bombing Of Pearl Harbor example essay topic

Knowledge of the Bombing of Pearl the Secret Harbor Report by: Ethan TemiankaPeriod 0 6 / 12 /2000 Professor Han gartner Titans clashed in Europe... a struggle for power between the Axis (Germany, Italy, and Japan), and the Allies (France, England, and Russia), waged on. Many people died. There were famines, diseases, split up families, hardships unimaginable to people in our time. Yet one country prospered. Isolated in its own wealth and prosperity, The United States of America had no interest in the war. At least until one infamous day, December 7, 19411, the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

On this day, Germany's ally, Japan, led a surprise attack on the US Naval station in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Or was it a surprise? Did Franklin Delano Roosevelt, then president of the United States of America, know about the attack? Was he secretly hiding the information in order to enter World War II? The answer is yes. And not only did he know about the attack, he encouraged it.

He used precise tactics in doing so, all the while abusing his presidential power and not helping save innocent American lives. Yet this tragedy has been overlooked for many years, and will go unnoticed for many more. It was a "Day of Infamy"2, indeed. It was December 7, 1941, the soldiers on naval base Pearl Harbor in Oahu were just waking up.

Suddenly bombs began to drop, 7 ships were sunk, 2897 people were killed almost instantly, 879 were wounded 3, millions of lives changed. Franklin Delano Roosevelt had wanted to enter the war for a long time. However, the United States' public opinion was against going to war due to the stable and booming economy. The only problem was that he had to make Japan make the first move.

He had to make them do this because the American people did not want to enter the war. He had to find a way. He found it in Lieutenant Commander Arthur H. McCollum. McCollum provided Roosevelt with a detailed, 8-step procedure for making Japan make the first overt move into war: A. Make an arrangement with Britain for the use of British bases in the Pacific, particularly Singapore. B. Make an arrangement with Holland for the use of base facilities and acquisition of supplies in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). C. Give all possible aid to the Chinese government of Chiang Kai-she. D. Send a division of long-range heavy cruisers to the Orient, Philippines, or Singapore. E. Send two divisions of submarines to the Orient. F. Keep the main strength of the US Fleet, now in the Pacific, in the vicinity of the Hawaiian Islands. G. Insist that the Dutch refuse to grant Japanese demands for undue economic concessions, particularly oil. H. Completely embargo all trade with Japan, in collaboration with a similar embargo imposed by the British Empire. This was dated October 7, 1940, fourteen months before the bombing of Pearl Harbor. 4 Beginning the very next day, with Roosevelt's involvement, McCollum's proposals were systematically put into effect.

This showed that Roosevelt not only accepted war, but he warranted and encouraged it previous to the attack on Pearl Harbor. Roosevelt also failed to save many American lives. Not only in Pearl Harbor, but also in the provoking of war with Japan. He purposefully sent so-called "pop-up"4 ships in Japanese waters to aggravate the Japanese.

Even though these ships were sometimes shot down and sunk Roosevelt continues to send them into danger. He even went so far as to say, "I don't mind losing one or two cruisers, but do not take a chance on losing five or six". 6 It is horrendous that he would actually risk American lives in order to start a war in which more lives would be lost. Not only that, but those men and women were not recognized as dying for their country in battle, for the war had not yet begun. The sinkings were merely called Japanese "mistakes"7. This was an awful abuse of power and was unjust to the American people.

Roosevelt continued to abuse his power in other ways. When Admiral James O. Richardson blatantly disagreed with Roosevelt when he (FDR) said, "Sooner or later the Japanese would commit an overt act against the United States and the nation would be willing to enter the war". 8 Richardson strongly disagreed with Roosevelt's willingness to sacrifice a ship of the Navy. FDR soon abused his power and fired Richardson. He then replaced him with Rear Admiral Husband Kimmel; skipping over more senior officers to promote his own cause. Roosevelt had carefully selected and placed naval officers in key fleet-command positions who would not obstruct his provocation policies.

9 That is a total affront to presidential policy, and is ground enough for impeachment. However, this information was not found until recent years, far too late to be useful other than to acknowledge people today. Overall, Roosevelt did many things considered wrong and abusive to his right of presidency. However, had he not, the United States may never have entered the war. And certainly we would not have been as united in our stand against evil, for the surprise attack (on Pearl Harbor) made Americans sympathetic for our striped men and women, causing more help from the mass majority of Americans, eventually leading to victory in World War II. Had Nazi Germany won, no one knows the extent of evil that would have been caused.

So even though Franklin Delano Roosevelt did many wrong things, his reasoning was good, and we were victorious. 1 web FDR's famous speech after the bombing 3 ftp: //ftp. purdue. edu / pub /Liberal-Arts / History / pha / pearl. harbor / misc /army 1. txt 4 Stinnet, Robert; Day of Deceit, page 85 Stinnet, Robert; Day of Deceit, page 96 Stinnet, Robert; Day of Deceit, page 97 Stinnet, Robert; Day of Deceit, page 118 Stinnet, Robert; Day of Deceit, page 119 Stinnet, Robert; Day of Deceit, page 11

Bibliography

Websites: 1. ftp: //ftp. purdue. edu / pub /Liberal-Arts / History / pha / pearl. harbor / misc /army 1. txt 2. web Day of Deceit, Stinnet, Robert, The Free Press, New York, New York Encyclopedia: 3. World Book, 1989 edition, World Book Inc.
Newspaper: 4. New York Times, Dec 8, 1941 edition.