In our quest to discover why did Japan attack Pearl Harbor? Let’s start with a quick glance over what actually Pearl Harbor is.
Pearl Harbor is situated in Oahu, Hawaii, and is therefore a lagoon harbor. Due to its shallow entry, Pearl Harbor was not used by the militants to enter or exit through their ships, however, with the hike in the number of people involved in the US navy, the Pearl Harbor was reconstructed and became an official harbor for the US navy.
So here in this post we will be telling you that Why did Japan attack Pearl Harbor – The Real Reasons!!!
Now let’s get to the core of why Japan attacked Pearl Harbor…
- Why did Japan attack Pearl Harbor – the inception? We all know that the Japanese are highly advanced in the fields of technology. It’s not a new gem in the achievements of japan as; the Japanese are totally habitual of being the sharpest people on earth as far as the technology is concerned. However going back in 1940s more than being technologically advanced, the Japanese were more interested in conquering foreign territories. The reason behind the Japanese, conquering the foreign lands was to improvise their demographic and economic conditions.
- In 1931, the Japanese troops attacked Manchuria and founded a puppet state which they named as Manchukuo, where the colonists were made to reside so as to have a control over the invaded area. The place was successfully made into a puppet in the hands of the Japanese and later in 1937; they started blasting Chinese cities and its citizens. The raping of Nanking is regarded as the most brutal slaughtering by the Japanese in which approximately one million Chinese were killed.
- Since the US was not stronger than Japan in terms of military strength, therefore the US did not intend to have a war over Japan. However the US was economically strong, but at that time, the military and navy strength was not able to upgrade themselves to the warfare techniques harnessed by the Japanese.
- Till 1940 the Japanese continued invading Asia, which made President Roosevelt, to migrate the Pacific Fleet to Hawaii from California. Because of these disturbing interference made by the Japanese troops the US embargoed the Japanese from trading aviation fuel, steel and scrap iron. The embargo made the Japanese to respond in the form of signing a tripartite pact which stated that the US would be pushed to a two-front war from all the three countries, if it attacks any of these countries.
- The main objective of signing this treaty was to back off the Americans from serving as a hindrance in the Japanese’s path of expansion. Earlier in 1941 the Japanese ambassador Mr. Nomura decided to maintain peace with the US, however Japanese being extremely sly, they secretly continued invading the southern china. However the secret had a short life, when the unfair acts of the Japanese troops were brought to limelight, immediately the US put a ban on all kinds of exports to Japan.
- Later on negotiations were held In the Washington, in which the urge to pardon the embargo was put forward, unfortunately the event didn’t end as scheduled. The failure of the proposal made Japan to fall under pressure by Germany for a war in the Pacific Ocean. Since the US was not technologically advanced as compared to the Japanese and the German militants, therefore US decided not to take a part in the upcoming violent activities.
- For the US it was a clear cut sign of complete refusal of the removal of the ban, they were completely unaware of the fact that the refusal ignited the flame of revenge in the Japanese.
- However, the Japanese decided that they would stop invading other countries, but also decided to not to free china from their clutches. The ignition made the Japanese war Minister General Hideki Tojo, to bring his masters in warfare into action. He strongly believed that the proposal for peace with the US was not less than the Japanese completely destroying themselves. Therefore he starting training his Japanese troops to such a level that nobody would even imagine of challenging those might Japanese after witnessing there warfare pattern.
- The US was totally unaware of the intentions of the Japanese therefore no such preparations were made from the US Military sides.
- Why did Japan attack Pearl Harbor: the happening? Early in the morning of 7th Dec 1941, the bright blue sky was darkened by the roaring Japanese troops which were flying high above the American naval base at pearl harbor started bombarding the area with their missiles each weighing about 1800 pounds!
- Later torpedoes were set to pierce the shell of the USS battleship Oklahoma. Due to the terrible force, the battleship was completely damaged and drowned along with the 400 sailors who were onboard. The battle lasted for about 2 hours but the damage was such that the day of war is highly defamed in the history of mankind.
- About 2000 valuable human lives were lost, with over 1000 of people left behind severely injured. Due to the unexpected war and the infidelity shown by the Japanese, the other day the Americans declared a civil war on Japan.
These were the real reasons behind the unforgettable war by the Japanese on the Americans. We hope you enjoyed reading the article.