A day in history.

Seventy years ago on a Sunday morning on an island in the Pacific Ocean the peace was shattered by the sounds of aircraft engines and gunfire in an action we now refer to as "Pearl Harbour".

I`m aware that there are representatives from both nations in that action on this site and I`m not dwelling on the whys or wherefores but it is a fact that on the fateful day in history the world order was changed forever and even though there`s no cause for celebration there is need for remembrance.

It was a day when a mainly European war became a global conflict with all the ramifications that entailed and was to become the most costly war in our history.

If the US hadn't entered the war in Europe then history could have been very different and the US may not have been the most powerful post-war economy and country.

jimisim

To set the record straight the USA didn't enter the war in Europe. It was drawn into that war by Adolf Hitler who declared war on the USA in the vain hope that in return Japan woud declare war on the Soviet Union. But Japan, being, for all its faults, an honourable nation, refused to do that, which would have meant reneging on a solemn treaty of peace between the two nations.

It is debatable whether the USA would have entered the European war voluntarily. In 1945 perhaps, with Germany defeated and nothing to prevent the Soviet Union expanding its frontiers to the North Sea and the English Channel. But not in in 1941. After Pearl Harbor, liberating Europe would have been the last thing on the minds of most Americans.

Targetarear

I am well aware that Hitler declared war on the US.
The point I was making was that as long as Britain remained within its own shores and tried to defend the Empire, then Germany may well have defeated the Russians.
Britain would have never been able to invade Europe on its own and if Germany had occupied from The Pacific in the East and the Atlantic in the west and Japan had occupied most of Asia, then Britain would have had to sue for the best terms possible, and the US could have stood alone against two massively powerful allies controlling the world except the American continent.
War would have been inevitable and the result of being attacked on all fronts may have led to a US defeat.

Of course all this is pointless supposition.
We know what happened in reality, but the point could be made that although Pearl Harbour was a terrible personal tragedy (but not anywhere near as bad as the Blitz in terms of casualties), it was probably in the path of history a very good thing except for the deceased and their relatives.

If the Japanese Empire was so honorable, what was it doing launching a sneak attack against Pearl Harbor while simultaneously negotiating with the U.S.A., supposedly in an attempt to resolve the two nations' differences peacefully?

Japan had determined that its interests lay with expanding southward and eastward, which was the reason for the nonaggression agreement with the Soviet Union in the spring of 1941. The Soviet Union broke the treaty itself by attacking Japanese forces in August of 1945, at the urging of the British and especially American governments--so the Allies had no respect for that agreement, and I doubt that the Japanese government would have either if it had served its perceived interest to break it.

If Adolf Hitler hadn't stupidly declared war on the U.S.A. on December 10, 1941, Franklin D. Roosevelt was planning on asking the U.S. Congress to declare war on Germany anyway--he had always considered the Germans to be a greater long-term threat to the U.S.A. than the Japanese. Whether Congress would've supported Roosevelt on that isn't totally certain, but Americans going to war in Europe was clearly on Roosevelt's agenda, even if he didn't admit so publicly. (He may have left the Pearl Harbor defenses in a low state of altertness in order to entice a Japanese attack, hoping that it would also draw the U.S.A. into the European war, which it did--given the anti-American frenzy that the Japanese people were being whipped into by their government's propaganda, such an attack should've been expected and prepared for.)

The U.S. Navy had been carrying on an undeclared war against the Kreigsmarine in the Atlantic Ocean for 5-6 months before Pearl Harbor was attacked, a blatant violation of international law by a then-neutral nation which Roosevelt cheerfully lied about in public. IMHO he was determined to draw the U.S.A. into the European war and would've almost certainly somehow done so (even without the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor) by the end of '42 at the latest... --C.K.

CK I have no doubt that was the purpose of Roosevelt and like minded Americans; but it must be remembered that many were against any involvement, one of the most influential and infamous being Joseph Kennedy Snr.
But as I said we all know what happened so its all just supposition, and thank God it is.

What about the idea that Roosevelt already knew of the Japanese intentions on Pearl Harbor. The story goes that there were newspaper or journalists in Japan who saw troop and naval movements, prior to Pearl Harbor.This was reported back to Washington.

There was a lot of guessing going on at the time, and some military types were pressing for more action in case of the suspected attack However it is the old game of one cannot do anything until the actual occurrence happens and then it is too late to stop it.

Roosevelt clearly wanted to go to war, he knew if he did not get the USA involved that in years to come the situation might be a lot more dangerous to the country. Hilter had too much of an ego in thinking that Germany could manufacture more then any country in the world at the time. This was not supported by anything but his own ego and a few "yes men" but something that did benefit the world.

There have been countless "they might have known" stories - and they did know something. That's why Hong Kong - but all the American planners thought the attack would come at the Philippines, not Hawaii. Looking at the map you can see why they felt that way - how could you attack Hawaii before you hit the Philippines?

As for the surprise attack, it wasn't intended that way. The Japanese Ambassador was supposed to present the US Government with an ultimatum, one that the Japanese knew that the Americans would never agree to, and that was supposed to the pretext for the war. Ultimatum given, rejected, then war starting less than an hour later.

The problem was, the embassy had sent home all non-essential staff and the sole remaining clerk with the security access to decode the transmission was a two fingered typist. The Americans, who were illegally intercepting the transmission, had it decoded long before he did.

There's a very, very historically accurate movie about what happened that day (and the event that led up to it) called "Tora! Tora! Tora!". If you're at all curious about those events I'd urge you to take a couple of hours out of your life and learn a bit of history.

Goodgulf

Well, based on my readings, the first thirteen parts of the message to be delivered had been decrypted, by both the Japanese embassy personnel and the American interceptors--they were a long summarization of the then-current Japanese-American relationship, but the tone of them made the Americans realize that the Japanese government felt that war was inevitable.

The last (fourteenth) part, sent the following morning (Washington D.C. time), was a formal declaration of war, meant to be delivered to the U.S. government (specifically Secretary of State Cordell Hull) just before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor occurred, thereby allowing the Japanese government to claim that it wasn't a sneak attack during peacetime. The decryption delay, however, left the Japanese emissaries delivering their country's formal declaration of war after the Pearl Harbor bombing had already occurred.

From the Japanese perspective, their failure to formally declare war before the attack on Pearl Harbor was a critical mistake, based on a belief that the U.S.A. wouldn't have reacted so strongly against Japan if the American people hadn't felt that their country had been attacked during peacetime. (Personally, I doubt that it would've made much significant difference in American attitudes, even if the Japanese emissaries had gotten their country's declaration of war on Hull's desk slightly before the bombing of Pearl Harbor occurred.)

As for the Philippines, the American colonial occupiers there were attacked the following day and, even having been informed that the war was underway, somehow managed to be caught unprepared, with their combat aircraft destroyed on the ground at Clark Field by a Japanese air raid.

I've always found the 'conspiracy' argument RE the U.S. defenses at Pearl Harbor being in a low state of alertness, while the American aircraft carriers were away at sea (and hence undamaged by the bombing), to be rather compelling. Franklin Roosevelt was desperate to get the U.S.A. into the war in Europe, one way or another... --C.K.