World War Two CHAPTER 3
For the Japanese the sanctions are heavy, because let’s remember, they’ve got over a million troops in China by this point, so they need fuel oil desperately. Roosevelt believed that by putting the sanctions on that would definitely keep the Japanese occupied.
Now desperate for oil Japan decides to invade Dutch East indies, because the have oil and there is a lot of that in the Pacific, but it’s in the Dutch East Indies, what is now known as Indonesia. The risk is that any move can puts them dangerously close to the American held Philippines.
And the war is now inevitable. Japan will strike the first blow. They believed the Americans were busy fighting wars in different front line and would not be able to start another one with them. They don’t think the have the resources.
The idea was not to defeat the United States it was to wear out the United States. They knew they had a bigger population had more factories and could produce more airplanes. Japan thought -we should not go to war with the Americans. The obvious place to attack America is in the Philippines or route south towards the oil fields. They estimated their chances at probably about 50/50.
Meanwhile in Washington. American intelligence has broken Japan secret communication. And it’s clear from the messages.
One of those was at the farthest northern point of the island of Hawaii, manned by private and they had been told to operate their radar just for practice. Nobody had told them there’s anything to worry about. And at 7:02am they detected on the screen, a large a blob of airplanes.
And they called down to their headquarters. There’s this blob of planes out there. We don’t know how many, but it’s a lot. And headquarters essentially told them. Don’t worry about it. They’re probably Navy planes that could be army planes coming from the mainland.
Wave of Japanese aircraft heading directly towards them. At 7:53am, the planes arrived to no fight.
Pearl Harbor happens on a quiet Sunday morning when American sailors are going about their business as if it is any other Sunday in peacetime. The initial thought is and for some reason, there is training banked on the element of surprise that they would catch the American fleet and the airfields unawares, but they had to assume that there’d be some reaction.
The site that greets them, no enemy fighters in the sky. not only are they going to pull off this attack, but they may in fact walk away with far fewer casualties than we had anticipated.
They cruise in on a lovely morning, the air is clear, makes it very easy to identify their targets. And so they go into their dives and they drop their bombs, Taking out any defense planes before they have a chance to fight back. Nnextthe Japanese turn that attention, battleships, cruisers and battleships with time, mostly behind he said almost every considered invulnerable, the grid narrow passageway to run. The Attack is more than a national catastrophe. The Japanese have dropped hundreds of bombs, dozens of torpedoes to cripple the American Pacific, 328 American aircraft are put out of action, 19 Navy ships destroyed, and in total 2,403 Americans were killed in the attack.
Japan moves on with the territorial expansion in the South Pacific. Within 24 hours, they invade Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, and the Philippines and quickly drive south. In weeks, they will have taken over 1000s of miles of territory between even the ultimate prize the oil of the Dutch East Indies.
Emboldened by the success of Pearl Harbor, territorial games, and with the valuable oil supply feeding, the Japanese feel more powerful than ever. But some Japanese generals feared the American public hadn’t reacted as his military colleagues were hoping, far from being shocked into submission. The attack had completely the opposite effect.
Now Americans are eagar to strike back. People want to be involved in this war, people are rushing to the recruiting stations. A country like the United States is never going to be brought to its knees as the result of losing one battle. No matter how devastating the Japanese attack had been it is right to say the Americans are now planning for a full scale war.
Less than a week after the Pearl Harbor attack. United galvanized America is now a fully fledged competent in World War Two. Within days, Roosevelt leaves plans for the bombing of Tokyo, using two of the aircraft carriers that were untouched during Pearl Harbor. In just three months, half of the ships destroyed during the attack are returned to service.
As the Pacific conflict continues into 1942, The full military might of America is unleashed.