![]() The lieutenant had heard Hawaiian music playing on the radio station earlier that morning, a signal that typically indicated an approaching American aircraft to Hawaii, and determined that the blotch on the radar’s oscilloscope screen must be the incoming fleet.Ĭareful Japanese precautions and comprehensive planning allowed the attack on Pearl Harbor to remain completely shielded from US intelligence. ![]() Confused, one of the privates called the information center across the island, reaching an army lieutenant who assured them the light was simply a fleet of American B-17s. A slight disturbance on the screen gave pause to their actions – a large yet indistinct patch of light, which appeared to the men to come from 50 planes, seemed to be heading towards the island. Army privates on the Hawaiian island of Oahu were just about to turn off a mobile radar station they had manned since 4:00 AM. The first sign of the Japanese fleet racing towards Pearl Harbor came at 7:00 AM the morning of December 7, when two U.S. The message did not, however, mention Pearl Harbor as a potential attack site, as the United States was instead expecting an attack on the Philippines. Execute an appropriate defensive deployment preparatory to carrying out the tasks assigned” (390). Negotiations with Japan looking toward stabilization of conditions in the Pacific have ceased and an aggressive move by Japan is expected within the next few days. Pacific Fleet, received a message from the Navy: “This dispatch is to be considered a war warning. Only hours before the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Admiral Husband Kimmel, the Commander of the U.S. Ongoing negotiations to end Japanese expansion were not producing results, particularly since the start of the American trade embargo. The United States was expecting an attack. Commanded by Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo, the Japanese fleet included six aircraft carriers, 24 supporting ships, and a group of submarines. In October 1941, the attack was approved by the Japanese naval general staff. The attack at Pearl Harbor was the idea of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, the Commander in Chief of the Japanese Combined Fleet, who argued that it would “give a fatal blow to the enemy fleet” (Rhodes 392). Japan knew that this move risked war with the United States. In July 1941, Japan moved into southern Indochina, on the doorstep of colonies controlled by Western powers such as India, Singapore, the Dutch East Indies, and the American-controlled Philippines. The Japanese were reliant on American resources to fuel their war effort, and ultimately concluded that they needed to conquer the resource-rich territories in Southeast Asia to continue. Pacific Fleet from the West Coast to Pearl Harbor. President Roosevelt also moved the majority of the U.S. In response, the United States put a complete embargo on all trade with Japan. In 1940, Japan became part of the Axis Alliance with Germany and Italy and occupied parts of French Indochina (modern Vietnam) with the permission of the Vichy government, the puppet state created after the fall of France. Although Japan said it was a mistake and paid reparations, it further stirred sympathies for China and anger against Japan in the United States. ![]() In December of the same year, Japanese planes sunk the Panay, an American gunboat, in the Yangtze River, killing three Americans. began to embargo supplies of oil, steel, and scrap iron. The League of Nations reprimanded Japan, but this did nothing to stop its expansion.Īs Japan had limited natural resources, 55.4% of its imports at the time came from the United States (Rhodes 39). Western powers were distressed by Japanese expansion, particularly because it violated the “Open Door” Policy supported by the League of Nations (a precursor to the United Nations), which had been put in place to ensure equal trading opportunities with China. ![]() China would lose as many as 14 million people by the end of World War II. In 1937, Japan invaded the rest of China and by some estimates killed as many as 300,000 people during the infamous Nanking Massacre. In 1931, the Japanese invaded Manchuria, a small, resource-rich province in northern China, and set up a puppet state called Manchukuo. ![]() The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in the Hawaiian Islands on Decemmarked the official entrance of the United States into World War II.ĭuring the 1930s, Japan, having already annexed Korea in 1910, sought to further expand its empire, particularly to gain natural resources. ![]()
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