Pearl Harbor Bombing

Pearl Harbor Bombing

Introduction

The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise attack by the Japanese Naval Air on 7 December 1941 on the naval base of American Pearl Harbor on the island of Oahu, in the archipelago of the U.S. territory of Hawaii, in the heart of the Pacific Ocean. This attack was to destroy the fleet of the Navy that it sheltered and led entry into the Second World War the United States. The attack was ordered by General Hideki Tojo in response to the oil embargo imposed by the United States and launched a surprise the morning of Sunday, December 7 by the Air Service of the Imperial Japanese Navy fleet against the U.S. of Pacific in the port and other forces stationed nearby. This attack is part of the policy of imperial expansion. The annihilation of the main fleet of the Navy would allow the Empire of the Rising Sun to establish its, “Co-Prosperity Sphere of Greater East Asia". The Imperial Headquarters also wanted to respond to economic sanctions by Washington in July 1941 after the invasion of China and that of French Indochina by the Japanese Imperial Army.

After the attack, driving in two waves aerial parts of six Japanese aircraft carriers and involving over 400 aircraft, American losses were significant: 2,403 dead and 1,178 injured. Four battleships, three cruisers, three destroyers and 188 aircraft were destroyed. However, many ships could be repaired in the months that followed, and the three American aircraft carriers in the Pacific, while absent from Pearl Harbor, escaped the attack. The Japanese lost 64 men, 29 aircraft and five submarines pocket, a sailor was captured. In less than twenty-four hours, the Empire of Japan attacked the United States also in the Philippines and opened hostilities with the United Kingdom, in invading Hong Kong and landing in Malaysia. The attack on Pearl Harbor caused the United States' entry into the Second World War alongside the Allies. United States, this attack remains one of the most significant events in the history of the country - each year the flag is at half mast on the anniversary of the attack - and synonymous with national disaster. Historians have shown the audacity of the plan of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, the lack of preparation and the American negligence. The role of President Roosevelt remains a subject of controversy.

Discussion

Background

Japanese Expansionism

During the Meiji era (1868 - 1912), the Empire of Japan entered a period of economic growth, political and military to catch up with Western powers. This objective also relied on a strategy of territorial expansion in East Asia that Japan had to guarantee its supply of raw materials essential to its development. The Japanese expansionism manifested itself from the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century with the annexation of the island of Formosa (1895), the southern island of Sakhalin (1905) and Korea (in 1910). During the First World War, Japan seized the German possessions in the Far East and Pacific and gained market share at the expense ...