The research of “Pearl Harbor”
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Yu Matsuura
Konan University / Economic
Global Topics report
“Remember Pearl Harbor”– It has a profound meaning ever since Japan had attacked USA. It affected not only the United States of America, but also people all over the world. Some critics said that if Japan did not attack Pearl Harbor, Japan would not have fought with the U.S.
The reason I choose this topic is that I have many friends from Hawaii, some who even came to Japan to learn Japanese. I was surprised to know that many people are still interested in Japan. Even though Japan invaded Hawaii on December 7th 1941,many Hawaiians, mostly Japanese American, welcomedthe Japanese tourist in Hawaii. There were many Japanese restaurants and shops written in Japanese. In this situation, as a Japanese citizen, I want to learn what happened and what we should not do in this world today.
- Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor
= It is the name of a harbor in Oahu, HI.
It has 8.5 square miles of water and there are about 12 miles of docking facilities.
There is the Ford Island in the center of the harbor. It had the site of the
NavalAir Station on December 7th 1941.
Even though the U.S had navy stations in the Mainland, the main operations were moved to Pearl Harbor, HI in 1904. Hawaii is the center of Pacific Ocean, therefore the U.S moved their navy base there. From Hawaii, the U.S could control and check the Pacific Ocean and Eastern countries.
According to the following map, there were some battleshipsin the harbor at that time.Many were damaged or destroyed and more than 2700 people diedon December 7th 1941.
Main battleships in Pearl Harbor
USS Nevada
USS CURTISS
USS MONAGAN
USS UTAH
(Picture:
The problem is that even though Japan asked the U.S to abolish the “No export oils” law, which cut off supplies of U.S. oil to Japan, The United States did not adhere to the agreement. As a result, it is said that Japan had no choice and invaded and attacked to Pearl Harbor.
Also even though General Yamamoto thought that by attacking the U.S. that US navy would become discouraged to fight with Japan, the fact is that the attack on Pearl Harbor had an absolutely opposite effect and made the U.S.decide unanimously to go to war with Japan.
- The Reasons why Japan had to attach “Pearl Harbor”
History is very important to know what facts hadoccurred at that time.
Background
Japan invaded many Asian countries since it had few natural resources and territories to use the Yen. After the Economic Depression in the world in 1929, each country had their own economy to protect themselves. Economically, Japan on the other hand, had few territories where people can use Yen, thus this weak economy environment made Japan invade other countries as well as open trades with other countries.
These wars along with: the Pearl Harbor attack, Battle of midway, and Atomic bomb on Japan are part of the“Asia Pacific War”.
Age / War1894 / First Sino-Japanese War
1904 / Russo-Japanese War
1910 / Japan Annexed Korea
1931 / Japanese Kwantung Army seized Manchuria
1932 / Japanese puppet state of Manchuria
1933 / Japan withdrawd from League of Nations
1937-45 / War with China
1938 / Nanking massacre
1940 / Tripartite Pact made with Germany & Italy
Whenthe U.S exported oils to Japan, which made up 80% of Japanese oils, Japan didn’t invaded Pacific. After the embargoing of oils by the U.S, Japan decided to invade the Southern area, andsome Pacific countries to acquire their oils and other natural resources.
This is how Japan invaded to South.
(Picture:
People from many countries were killed because of Japanese invasions. China and thePhilippineswere horribly invaded by Japanese soldiers at that time.
According to this material, in the Philippines, two million people were killed by the war, ands to our surprise, the number of people who were killed by Japanese war is 0.518 million, or 518,000 people! The proportion is huge.
In China, eleven million people were killed and in total, 0.9581million (958.1 thousand) people (mainland in China = 0.4657million, middle of Pacific Ocean = 0.247million, and Northeast China = 0.2454million) were involved by Japanese invasion.
During the expansion of acquiring territories, Japan had invaded many countries in the 20th Century. Through much research about Japan’s history and relations with other countries,there are basically three main reasons that can be summed up for Japan’s invasion and attack on Pearl Harbor on the sunny morning of December 7th, 1941.
I define that the causes of “Pearl Harbor”withthree main reasons.
1. U.S embargoed oils to Japan
2.General Yamamoto thoughts – U.S wouldn’t interfere to Japan
3. The importance of Asia Pacificregion for Japan’s expansionism(geography)
- No more oils – U.S embargoed oils to Japan
Much researchhas shown that this was the main reason why Japan invaded Hawaii. Japan imported80% of oils from U.S for wars. However, since Japan invaded China, even though the U.S warned against it, the U.S decided to embargo oils to Japan to prevent Japan gaining too much “power”.
This is the flowof how the relationship between Japan and U.S got worse.
Age / Contents / Japanese contents1939 July / A report of rejection of Commercial treaty between U.S and Japan / 日米通商条約廃棄通告
1940 July / Birth of 2nd 近衛cabinet / 第２次近衛内閣成立
Decision of South invading / 重要資源の確保と援蒋ルート遮断のために南進
Permission system of export oils and irons to Japan / 米，対日石油・屑鉄輸出許可制
September / Occupation for North French -India / 北部仏印進駐
Tripartie Pact made with Germany & Italy / 日独伊三国軍事同盟調印
December / Summary of system of new Economy / 「経済新体制確立要綱」
1941 April / Start of negotiation between U.S and Japan / 日米交渉開始
July / Occupation for South French -India / 南部仏印進駐
米，在米日本／資産凍結
August / U.S embargoed oils to Japan / 米，対日石油輸出禁止
September / Summary of performance of empire national policy / 「帝国国策遂行要綱」
October / Birth of 東条cabinet / 東条内閣成立
November / Hull Note / ハル・ノート
December / Japan invaded "Pearl Harbor" / 真珠湾攻撃
Because Japan invaded China horribly, the U.S decided to allow a system of export oils and other resources to Japan though. Even after that, Japan occupied North and South India where the French occupied. U.S could nottolerate what Japan had done then decided to embargo oils to Japan so that Japan would not fight for other countries’ resources.
Unfortunately, this fact led Japan’s decision to attack Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. That was the only way for Japan to survive.
In fact,Japan could not make oils by themselves. Japan imported 100% oils from abroad. In the early 1900, because Japan occupied Karafuto(北樺), which produced oils, Japan managed to bring about some wars into Asia. Eventually, the Soviet Union pressed Japanby making it hard to manage their oil supply. Under this condition, Japan could survive with their current supply of oils for only eight years. But Japan discovered that Indonesia made much oil that Japan needed.
So from these facts, Japan had no choice but to invade Asia and South Pacific in order to get resources which they did not naturally have. This graph shows that in 1940 Sumatra, Java, and Borneo were producing 65.1 million barrels of oilsannually. Japan needed a steady supply of oil, thus deciding that they would try to attack Indonesia, a British territory, despite knowing that U.S would interfere in response to invading Indonesia and other West AsianPacific areas. Therefore, along with the reason of the United States’ decision to embargo oil exporting against Japan, the Japanese governmentwanted to make sure that the U.S. would not be able to interfere Pacific naval defense position, Pearl Harbor.
This thought came from Isoroku Yamamoto, commander in Chief of the Japanese Combined Fleet.
2 Yamamoto Thoughts –
「…それは是非やれと言わるれば初め半歳や1年の間は随分暴れてご覧に入れる。然しながら、2年3年となれば全く確信は持てぬ。三国条約が出来たのは致方ないが、かくなりし上は日米戦争を回避する様極極力御努力願ひたい」（原文のまま）
= If you said to fight with U.S, for the first half or one year you could see how I fought with though, for 2 or 3 years I wouldn’t be sure. It can’t be helped that a tripartite agreement was made among us though, I swear we shouldn’t fight with U.S. Could you accept this wish, please?
It seemed that he would not fight with the U.S if it took longer thantwo or three years. At that time, his position in office wasas the Commander-in-Chief of the Combined Fleet. His time in office was coming to an end and some researchers say that Yamamoto wanted to fight with the U.S to show off his power for both Japan and the U.S., despite not wanting to fight a war.
Minister Tojo was confused and misunderstood that the Japanese navy could fight with the U.S for just one year. Based on this misunderstanding, he decided to carry out the invasion on Pearl Harbor.
Evaluation
Many Japanese naval personel opposed the thoughts of Yamamoto of not going to fight with the U.S. If he had held a top naval position, he would not have decided to fight with the U.S, according to some research. However, Japan unfortunately had already decided to fight and Yamamoto became the navy minister a bit too late, after the decision to fight with U.S had been made.
But since he would lead the attack on Pearl Harbor, he made an operation plan for the attack. He was called it “騙まし討ち“, which means ‘to deceive the U.S. and to attack the U.S.’
In Japan, for his efforts in planning the invasion, many people evaluated him as hero, whereas in the U.S, he was just invader. He betrayed his thought and fought for Japan.
Yamamoto thoughts for attacking “Pearl Harbor”
Yamamoto thought thatthe U.S wouldnot interfere with the East Asia Pacific, granted that Japan would win.
What Japan used for Pearl Harbor
6 carries: Akagi, kaga, Hiryu, Soryu, Shokaku, and Zuikaku
2 battleships, 2 heavy cruisers, 1 light cruiser, 9 destroyers, and 3 submarines
(Type I)
How they invaded
(pictures:
Crewmen cheered as wave after wave of planes were launched for the attack. 353 planes took off from the flight decks of six Japanese aircraft carriers on the morning of December 7th 1941; 183 at 6:00 am. A second wave of 170 followed at 7:15. Pearl Harbor was the objective of their lethal attack.
TheUS carriers were in a 33-ship task force which had moved without detection to 200 miles north of Oahu. As the planes approached the island, they divided into 2 groups. Some dove on Pearl Harbor from the west, strafing the marine Airfield at Ewa, others from the north hitting Schofield towards their main target, and the rest zoomed in from the east past Diamond Head.
At 8:05, they converged on Pearl Harbor and by 1:00 pm. All but 29 were back aboard their carries. The task force immediately left the area on a direct route to Japan. Before the end of the war everyone of the 33-ship force, with the exception of one destroyer, had been stunk.
(The Pearl Harbor Story : USS Arizona Memorial)
Yamamoto thought Japan couldnot win despite using aircrafts might affect of victory.He had two thoughts: one was for the opposing of war with the U.S, but the other was to fight with the U.S and become a hero with a victory. His performance led to victory of this battle. Japan won the battle but lost the War in the long run.
3 .Importance of Asian Pacific
As I mentioned, Japan wanted many natural resources that they lacked, as well as creating territories where they could use their Yen, in an economic move to make the Yen stronger than other countries. At that time, Japan realized that Indonesia had a lot of oil. So what Japan should have done was to avoid interferences from other countries. So these three important aspects made Japan attacked Pearl Harbor.
3.Through attacking “Pearl Harbor”
What happened after “Pearl Harbor “ were mainly three incidents.
- Many people were involved
- U.S decided to fight in WW II
- Conversion to main soldier of Aircrafts
- Many people were involved
Through this war, many people, even innocentcitizens, were involved and killed in Oahu, Hawai’i. Also many aircrafts and ships were destroyed or damaged.
U.S / JapanPersonnel killed
Navy / 1,999 / 64
Marine Corps / 109
Army / 233
Civilian / 49
Personnel Wounded
Navy / 710 / Unknown
Marine Corps / 69
Army / 364
Civilian / 35
Ships
Sunk or beached / 12 / 5
Damaged / 9
Aircraft
Destroyed / 164 / 29
Damaged / 159 / 74
(Data : USS Arizona Memorial TO HONOR OUR DEAD Figures are subject to further review)
Japan attacked not only the U.S. navy and army, but also innocentcitizens, some who were on their way to work. Most of the casualties were on or near military bases, but some were in Manoa Valley, Downtown Honolulu, the airport, Ewa and Waipahu. Many people in the world criticized what Japan didwithout declaring the war.
2.U.S decided to attend WW2
(picture: Peace and War online)
This war led Japan to invarsion but also led US to participate in World War II.
"Think of those we left behind, in death or angquished pain, For he that remains forgotten, has truly died in vain. ---Art Morsch, USS New Orleans (CA-32), Pearl Harbor Survivor
One of the reasons why the U.S got angry was that Japan had faked negotiations for peace and even after clearly demonstrating their true intentions, Japan was late by one hour to declare war on the U.S. Needless to say, the worst reason was to invade to Pearl Harbor without declaration of the war.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt president required that the U.S conference decide to declare war on Japan and thus joiningthe Allied effort during World War II. In fact, after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Japan invaded Malaysia for oil and fought with the U.S even though the U.S .had not decided to join the war effort at that moment.
Moreover, Germany declaredto attack the U.S. Germany was one of the countries which became partners with Japan. That is why many areas like Europe, North Africa, and Asia Pacific turned into famous battle ground of World War II.
3. Conversion to main soldier of Aircrafts
Before this war, other nations rarely thought that they could use aircrafts for war since it was really difficult to reach their destination. The idea to sink a leading warship like battleships was thought to be impossible but soon that thought had changed after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor.
- My Interpretation
It has been 67 years since Japan had attacked Pearl Harbor. Few people only know the fact of Pearl Harbor. Iresearched what our generation thought of Pearl Harbor.
Web Questionnaire
Our generationthat does not know much about important wars answered about Pearl Harbor:
日本が真珠湾を攻撃したことは、その当時の日本としては正しい選択だったと思いますか、それとも間違った選択だったと思いますか。（日米のみ）
(Do you think that Japan was right to attack “Pearl Harbor” in 1941 in that situation?
Or was wrong decision?)
日(JPN)/米(U.S)
正しかった(Right) 7.5 /16.0
間違っていた(Wrong) 48.6 /69.3
何ともいえない(Nothing to say) 28.7 /14.0
わからない(I don’t know) 14.5 / 0.6
(Data; 日米比較 「原爆投下」「真珠湾攻撃」の是非)
According to this data which wassurveyed in 1996, even though after 50 years had pass, 48.6% of Japanese and 69.3% of U.S citizen thought that it was the wrong way. But I found interesting answers for the U.S. and Japan.
Some Americans (16%) thought it was right to attack “Pearl Harbor”, which means, ‘It couldn’t be helped in that war situation’, I thought.
14.5% of Japanese said “I don’t know”. That’s a sad answer. Of course they didn’t know since they did not attend that war but at least they can feel something through history classes or when they went to a library. I can say that many Japanese do not have a clear opinion about something, comparedwith U.S students.
In U.S education, they need to think of what’s going on about such topics, and they have their own opinion, and they are encouraged to discuss the matter.
As many have said, Japan should not have attacked Pearl Harbor. If Japan had not attacked Pearl Harbor, the U.S.would not have dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Japanese web site
According to twoJapanese web sites, I found that some people still talk about which is good or wrong. People ask a question, then some people answer that question. There are various opinions in just one question. For example, the question is if Japan was bad or not.
“Japan invaded Pearl Harbor so it was the Japanese fault”, some said. Then, the next comment:“The U.S. already knew that Japan was coming but the president did not admit it and hid this fact. The U.S. forced Japan to attack as if Japan were an evil power.” Basically people just write about only parts of the story, some of which is not facts. Still, there are many Japanese who think that the attack on Pearl Harbor could not be helped. They still strongly feel victims of atomic bombs from U.S.
(Yahoo 知恵袋
OK Wave
U.S citizen’s opinion
According to a commentary video uploaded onto Youtube.com, many people said that it was the Japanese fault and that they hate the Japanese. The words they use words are very cruel. I can feel their anger very clearly. But there are some people who commented that it was not only the Japanese fault. Their histories were related each other prior to the attack.
Hitler was one of the reasons of it, some said. I think that is true. There are many facts thatsupport the tie between histories. I realized there are many Americans who care about the Japanese invading. Using terms like “Japs” and terrible words show their anger.
(Youtube “Attack on Pearl Harbor”
Virtual Tourist is a site, which mentions that people should go to the U.S.S. Arizona memorial when they go to Hawaii. People commented about their impression. They usually mentioned that they felt so bad and were moved by the unspoken remorse from being at the battle site. Basically we should not fight for wealth like for natural resources, which leads to colonization. From the U.S. side, Japan suddenly invaded and many people were killed on the Sunday morning of December 7th, 1941. To them, they died for nothing, and some were just protecting the U.S. and its people, but it was a sudden and unexpected event. That is why many people, especially Americansrespect and admire victims who were regretfully killed by this terrible event.