Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Pearl Harbor
On December 7th, 1941 Japan bombed Pearl Harbor in the Hawaiian Islands. This was the main trigger for America to enter into World War II. It resulted from a ban on Japanese goods in America. However, Japan had bombed an American gunship in Chinese waters before this attack. If Japan had not bombed Pearl Harbor, would America have gotten involved in WWII?
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If Japan had not bombed Pearl Harbor, the US would not have gotten involved in the war at that time. However, it was evident that bitter hostilities were building up against America by the Japanese. If it was not the bombing of Pearl Harbor that caused the US to enter, it would have been another violent act carried out by Japan. In conclusion, the US would have entered the war at a later time if Pearl Harbor had not happened.
ReplyDeleteEven if Japan hadn't bombed Pearl Harbor, I think that the U.S. would have still gotten involved in WWII. When Japan bombed the American gunship in Chinese waters, they immediately apologized after and the U.S. was still at a point where they were trying really hard to stay out of it. The U.S. began to worry about the possibility of England being taken over and what the future could hold for America. Since England was struggling, the U.S. sent over old ships from WWI and continued to bend the rules in England's favor. In addition, Roosevelt began increasing the strength of the U.S. army from 1939 to 1940. Why raise an army if you don't plan on fighting? FDR may have been thinking "just in case" but along with his aid to England and France, I think he was preparing for war. Japan bombing Pearl Harbor was the final straw for the U.S. but with or without it America would have eventually gotten involved in World War II.
ReplyDeleteAmerica would have gotten involved in the war eventually, if not for helping other countries, then simply to stop Hitler. Germany was gaining power quickly and adding in the Holocaust, I think American citizens would have started to support the war even without the bombing.
ReplyDeleteconsidering what we talked about today, the question of why did Japan bomb Pearl harbor may be relevant to bring up here? Are there other perspectives. Also the earlier question of did the US provoke Pearl Harbor, or was it really caught unprepared can be asked
ReplyDeleteTo answer your question, Jenna, i would say America wuold have gotten into the world even if Japan had not attacked. FDR seemed very interested in going into war because of the peacetime troops and production, as well as the immediate action to the bombing. Also, the people backed the war, so i think America would have gotten involved no matter what. Also, I agree with what Shawna said in class that Japan bombed Pearl Harbor in order to prove themsselves as a World power and to show the other countries that they can be considered a threat
ReplyDeleteI think AMerica would have reluctantly got involved. The rest of the world would be depending on AMerica to stop Germany from taking over all of Europe. Once Europe was taken, AMerica would have been the only place left that Hitler would maybe invade. Either through fear of invasion or the need to help Europe, AMerica would have entered the war.
ReplyDeleteSome say that Japan bombed Pearl Harbor to prove that they were a powerful force. Japan had felt underestimated and shafted from the Treaty of Versailles, like we read about in class the other day. I agree with this. I think a big part of it had to do with the Treaty and that Japan wanted back territories that they had lost. Another reason I think they may have bombed Pearl Harbor is that America was raising an army, sending aid to Great Britian, and providing the Allies with old war ships. Neutral America? Not so much. Japan could have been thinking that the U.S. was about to get involved and wanted to attack before they were attacked.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Shawna's point and I think Japan wanted to get the US involved with the war. They wanted to prove their strength as a world power and they did this by attacking one of the most powerful forces in the world. Japan bombed Pearl Harbor to prove itself, and the US immediately joined the war to protect itself and other nations.
ReplyDeleteJapan attacked Pearl Harbor because the US was a major world power, perhaps the most powerful. Japan wanted to spread their ideas of socialism and America would be a perfect place to take over and convert. With Pearl Harbor being in close proximity to Japan and its new bases in the Philipines it was a perfect target.
ReplyDeleteA good question would be if FDR knew about Pearl Harbor before it happened? There is a lot of information to back up the argument that he did know about it and let it go. For example how he was creating troops in peacetime, and they were in almost wartime production before the attack. Also, he called war the day after the attack happened. But if he knew, why did he not do anything? One theory of why he did not do anything about it was because he wanted to go to war. America had a neutrality proclamation and he did not want to break it without a good cause, and he knew the attack would send Americans into a fit of nationalism. This way he could play up involvement in war as a defense for the country.
ReplyDeleteBecause FDR was building up the army and war time production was already starting I think that FDR was just preparing America for the war. It was likely that America would need to get involved because it was and is one of the leading powers in the world. In my opinion if America did not get involved then it could have worsened the economy because nations would be mad that we did not help them and therefore not want to trade with us in the future.
ReplyDeleteI've heard people say that Bush knew about 9/11 before it happened. People want to blame someone for not being prepared and it's easy to blame the president. It was smart of FDR to build up the army as Jessie said because it was likely that America would have gotten involved in the war anyway. America was already helping the allies, it was only a matter of time before they got involved.
ReplyDeleteThat is a good question soph. Another might be why did Japan decide to attck this specific location? Why not a major city that could cause more damage?
ReplyDeleteReferring to Meghan's point, even if FDR knew about Pearl Harbor, he should have evacuated the people and let Japan attack an empty area. It still would have made AMericans crazy and zealous for war, without all of the deaths. However i don't think FDR really did think this plan would go through, so that's why he did not evacuate.
ReplyDeleteJapan chose to attack Pearl Harbor because of its location. Because it was located right in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, Pearl Harbor posed a threat to Japanese expansion. Japan also chose to bomb Pearl Harbor because it was where most of the American fleet was located. In order to have an effect in the war, Japan would need to eliminate most of the US's resources.
ReplyDeleteI was watching a documentary on Pearl Harbor today and came across some interesting facts. Japan's mission was to hit major American air craft carriers to ensure many deaths. However, most of the carriers were out on some sort of mission at this time. They also wanted to hit oil storages, but did not hit far enough inland. They had hoped for more deaths. Unfortunetly, some of the deaths were caused by America itself. In the confusion and chaos of the attack some military men shot their own planes, and shot toward pedestrians.
ReplyDeleteSo if Japan was aiming to destroy air craft carriers, they probably wanted to ground America, because Japan also attacked other places at the same time as Pearl Harbor. They were trying to create confusion, and buy some time to invade other places and get oil.
ReplyDeleteThe Japanese were definately hoping for an element of surprise and for teh most part they got it. Pear HArbor was a military base, but was in no way prepared. Some soldiers thought he first few planes were practice. And if What Jenna said is true, hoe some casualties were caused by friendly fire, and if FDR knew about it, he could have prevented at least those casulties.
ReplyDeleteJapan was smart to hit a military base. Attacking a military sight sends the message that they want America in the war. America was already helping Britain and the Axis powers were not happy about that. America had declared neutrality. Pearl Harbor was a surprise hit and it sent the message of war to the Americans.
ReplyDeleteThat's a really interesting point Jenna. I think that Japan hit Pearl Harbor because, like we talked about in class Pearl Harbor was much closer to Japan than the mainland, but i never thought that japan would want to have causes a lot of deaths. It seemed to me like it was a way to get America involved in the war, not an attack for killing purposes. that puts a new perspective on the way the Atomic bombs are seen for me because i wonder if Japan had invented the atomic bomb first, would it have dropped it on us, instead of the Pearl Harbor attack? that would have been much worse.
ReplyDeleteThat is a good point. I believe that Japan attacked Pearl Harbor to get America into the war not to cause innocent deaths. Also they would not want America to stay isolated an regain stability, while the other major powers in the world continued to flourish.
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