Bombing Of Pearl Harbor example essay topic

On December 7, 1941, one of the largest American military defeats in history occurred. Most of the United States Naval Pacific Fleet was destroyed and thousands of soldiers were killed or wounded, all before 9: 00 a.m. that Sunday morning. The forces stationed there did not have any knowledge of the coming attack, mostly because of their superiors' ignorance, but partially because of the military strategies of their Japanese opponents. Although a string of events earlier that morning all pointed to an attack, the United States forces were not ready because they did not believe the Japanese would ever directly attack American soil. Prior to 1941, World War II saw little American military intervention. After the fall of France to German invasion, President Franklin Roosevelt promised his country that no American troops would be sent to Europe to aid in the battle against Hitler and the Nazis.

This statement made Roosevelt the target of much criticism, even from his closest advisors. The President's response to these accusations was that he did not want to be looked down upon by the public. However, Roosevelt knew that Britain could not win the war without America. Two oceans to the east, Japan was deeply seeded in a war of its own.

Japanese forces were concentrated on the Chinese front in an attempt to expand their boundaries and gain access to new supplies of natural resources, something scarce in the Japanese homeland. As a result of Japan's unpopular declaration of war on China, the United States implemented an embargo on fuel supplies. Consequently, the Japanese turned to Indonesia to continue the supply of fuel for its war efforts. Fuel talks broke down, however, as the Dutch, who were in control of the Indonesian fuel supply and under heavy influence from the United States, would not supply Japan with fuel.

Desperately needing to fuel the continuing war, Japan first thought of attacking Indonesia, but feared strong American intervention. After some careful planning, Japanese leaders decided that a direct attack on the United States would be a more suitable approach in bringing them to the bargaining table. The United States, however, feared an attack on the Philippines, leaving them completely unprepared for what was to come. At Pearl Harbor, defenses were on limited alert. Aircraft and ships were aligned in rows and ammunition was locked away in storage. Aboard ships, only half of the anti-aircraft positions were manned.

The sheer lack of preparation for an attack portrayed the general attitude of ignorance in the American government and military. Many high-ranking officials believed that a country such as Japan, which did not even have the resources to survive a lengthy war, could not possibly deliver the large-scale attack required for a victory at Pearl Harbor. The ignorance was so great that, on the day of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, several major incidents were noted and ignored by officers on duty. Incidents that, if given the attention they deserved, could have prevented the attack from being a surprise. Early that morning, an unidentified periscope was seen and ignored at the entrance of the harbor. A few hours later, a destroyer on patrol sank an unidentified submarine.

One would think that these two events alone would be enough to put the entire facility on full alert, but there's more. Two radar sightings of a large mass of aircraft north of the island were dismissed by the commanding officer as a flight of B-17 bombers returning from a practice mission near the California coast. These occurrences, left utterly unacknowledged, led up to one of the worst and most costly military defeats in the history of the United States. Three-hundred and sixty Japanese planes broke through the clouds above Pearl Harbor at 7: 55 a.m. The first wave destroyed mostly hangers and parked aircraft, which were still lined up in rows. Other planes in the first wave targeted a few of the ships docked in the harbor.

When torpedoing planes left the vicinity, bombers were sent in to destroy any remaining ships and level any aircraft hangars left standing. By 9: 45 a. m., any ship of the United States Pacific Naval Fleet that was not on the ocean floor was drifting helplessly. Troops returning from church or brunch, most of them not even in uniform, attempted to defend the island as best they could. Sailors, pilots, and anti-aircraft gunners fought heroically to save their doomed naval base. In the end, the United States had eight battleships, three cruisers, and a large number of smaller vessels sunk or rendered out of use. The Japanese lost only thirty planes and five submarines.

American casualties numbered 2,500, with well over 1,000 wounded. The Japanese only lost about fifty-five men. The tragic event was described by President Roosevelt as "a day which will live in infamy". The bombing of Pearl Harbor can be seen as a turning point for the United States' involvement in the war. Until then, the conflict was primarily concentrated in the European Theater. However, the attack prompted a United States declaration of war on Japan the following day.

The Japanese, satisfied with their victory, could not have devised a better way to rally the American citizens to fully support Roosevelt and his administration's plan of involvement in the war. A previous promise between British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and President Roosevelt was fulfilled when Britain declared war upon Japan two hours after the American declaration. The events surrounding the bombing of Pearl Harbor prove that the United States handled the situation very poorly. Many opposing tactics were noted and ignored. Warnings were thought of as routine. The United States had made a fatal error in considering Pearl Harbor an unlikely target.

Although the Japanese military strategies were intelligent and well executed, the attack would not have been nearly as effective nor successful had it not been for the blatant ignorance of an arrogant nation.