World War Two CHAPTER 3: What happened in Pearl Harbor?
Pearl Harbor is the most dramatic opening of any war.
It was Very cold, Some accounts said that it was snowing. On 30 ships were Japanese soldiers who did not know where they were going to war. They did not even know who the enemy was.
They initially thought they were going to attack Singapore or Hong Kong. All radio communications were cut off.
special provisions were made to not dump garbage over the sides of the ships.They formed a box in the seat several miles across and they were Always fearful that someone was going to appear in the sky above them.
What happens if an American vessel or even a fishing vessel or anyone at all comes across the entire Japanese Navy. It would be a terrible event for them. And it would ruin the element of surprise which was the Japanese entire plan because it has to be.
This was the largest gathering of naval air power in history on a top secret mission.
30 ships carrying 408 airplanes and 16,000 men are traveling 4000 miles across the Pacific, aiming to attack a country 10 times richer and more powerful. It is seen as one of the most audacious and reckless military Gamble’s in all history.
They’ve calculated that they have only a 50% chance of success and failure is suicide. What really forced the Japanese into this desperate situation.
118 months of fighting against Imperial Russia. Japan emerges in triumph.
After centuries of being ignored by other nations, the Japanese have finally arrived on the world stage as a serious military power.
And that shocked the world that this vast czarist Empire could be beaten on the battlefield by the Japanese. Japan was now convinced they should be considered a world power.
A decade later, after the outbreak of World War One. When Imperial German forces started moving into China, Japan teamed up with Britain help drive them out. Thanks to the Japanese the Allies gain victory.
Afterwards, Japan gets a seat at the top table. And they want more recognition.They were also one of five countries invited to The Paris Peace Conference. Japanese didn’t have major say but they were there. The Japanese broader racial equality clause.
As part of the postponed treaty, Japan asks the Allies for their citizens to have free immigration to Western countries like Australia and America. But their request is denied.
The Japanese went home angry, but Japanese leaders persevere having recently transformed their society into a parliamentary democracy. They hope their new politics will help in line with the West.
When the US bans all non whites from moving to American soil, the Japanese are included.
So this kind of discrimination made them more angry.
Japanese belief that far too much of Asia was in western hands. The Dutch control what we today call Indonesia, the French controlled Southeast Asia, the British had Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong, the United States and the Philippines. And they believed that Asia should be for the Asians.
In 1931, Japanese army invades the Chinese province of Manchuria.
An international summit is called where the other nations agreed to help China resist Japan.The Japanese at this time are furious because The Westerners had stolen, occupied and taken land all over Asia, and so to be denied the same privilege seem to the Japanese to be Western hypocrisy.
When their expansion in 1937, Japan moves even further into China, marking the beginning of a savage, bloody war. In weeks thousands of Chinese citizens have been killed in the hands of the Japanese army. There was reported cases of rape and civilian massacre in the city of kings, this The world was horrified. Certainly the rape of Nanking in 1937 is shocking.
Prime Minister Winston Churchill has been asking for America’s aid. From 1940 onwards, he was urging the Americans to see the disadvantage of a Nazi controlled Europe. Publicly President Franklin Roosevelt is careful to the wishes of these people but he knows the Allies need help.
His goal in 1940 was to provide the raw materials, the airplanes, the tanks, the shipping, the equipment, the ammunition, the oil that would allow Britain to hold on.
Facing a rapidly escalating crisis in Europe and the Pacific, Roosevelt turns his attention to Japan.
Franklin Roosevelt, Roosevelt was worried that Japan would seize that moment to start capturing the colonies of defeated European powers. In line with his policy of doing everything short of using force, he sent Japan a warning.
when his Pacific naval fleet to go to Hawaii for training, he takes the unusual step of keeping the
United States Pacific fleet was largely based in California. Roosevelt figured that if you move the fleet and keep it permanently based at Pearl Harbor,
The majority of the people within the Japanese military look at the successes of Nazi Germany and that’s something that they want to emulate. But the pact is not without its critics within Japan.
Once Hitler rolled over the powers of Holland and France, their embassies is the opportunity to invade Vietnam.
It’s exactly what Roosevelt did feel Japan would do about his hands and now, he wants to avoid intervening with force. But he can.
Roosevelt imposes harsh sanctions, suspending all American exports to Japan, including all knowing that Japan gets 80% of their oil from America. Roosevelt will remove the embargo only if they reverse all their expansionist actions to date.