Why japan bombed pearl harbor

Hawaii time, a Japanese dive bomber bearing the red symbol of the Rising Sun of Japan on its wings appears out of the clouds above the island of Oahu.

A swarm of Japanese warplanes followed, descending on the U. The surprise attack struck a critical blow against the U. With diplomatic negotiations with Japan breaking down, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his advisers knew that an imminent Japanese attack was probable, but nothing had been done to increase security at the important naval base at Pearl Harbor.

It was Sunday morning, and many military personnel had been given passes to attend religious services off base. Thus, the Japanese air assault came as a devastating surprise to the naval base. Much of the Pacific fleet was rendered useless: Five of eight battleships, three destroyers, and seven other ships were sunk or severely damaged, and more than aircraft were destroyed.

A total of 2, Americans were killed and 1, were wounded, many while valiantly attempting to repulse the attack. Fortunately for the United States, all three Pacific fleet carriers were out at sea on training maneuvers. These giant aircraft carriers would have their revenge against Japan six months later at the Battle of Midway , reversing the tide against the previously invincible Japanese navy in a spectacular victory. The better men of two cabinets had been murdered or wounded because they were seen as too accommodating to the foreigners who wanted to colonize Japan or reduce the nation that had never lost a war in modern times to a vulnerable third-rate power.

Konoye himself had been threatened with assassination if he made too many concessions, and there had been serious attempts to overthrow the emperor in favor of his brother or his son.

Hirohito knew that his dynasty itself could be wiped out like the Romanovs or marginalized, as the Japanese themselves had done to the Korean royalty, if he bowed to demands that the Japanese saw as not merely insulting but insane. Yamamoto, who spoke fluent English, had studied at Harvard, and in happier times had hitchhiked across the United States, knew that Japan could not conquer, or even defeat, the United States.

The Japanese grand strategy, if war could not be avoided, was to inflict enough damage and seize enough territory that the Americans would guarantee Japanese sovereignty in return for an armistice and restoration of all or most of what Japan had taken outside Korea and perhaps Manchuria.

Theoretical plans for a Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor had existed for decades. General Billy Mitchell had warned as early as that the next war would be fought with aircraft carriers.

The Navy judges ruled that it would have sustained substantial damage if the attack had been genuine, and the attackers won the war game. While the United States hoped embargoes on oil and other key goods would lead Japan to halt its expansionism, the sanctions and other penalties actually convinced Japan to stand its ground, and stirred up the anger of its people against continued Western interference in Asian affairs.

To Japan, war with the United States had become to seem inevitable, in order to defend its status as a major world power. Because the odds were stacked against them, their only chance was the element of surprise. Proudly, the Japanese Army author ties sent out this bombing photograph as the Akiyama Squadron of Japanese planes, as they bombed an objective in China.

The scene changed and afterwards, Japanese bombers flew over U. Islands in the Pacific and the bombs, such as these, left the planes aimed at the Pearl Harbor Naval base and other Strategic U. Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku spent months planning an attack that aimed to destroy the Pacific Fleet and destroy morale in the U. As Japan industrialized during the late 19th century, it sought to imitate Western countries such as the United States, which had established colonies in Asia and the Pacific to secure natural resources and markets for their goods.

To a certain extent, the conflict between the United States and Japan stemmed from their competing interests in Chinese markets and Asian natural resources.

While the United States and Japan jockeyed peaceably for influence in eastern Asia for many years, the situation changed in That year Japan took its first step toward building a Japanese empire in eastern Asia by invading Manchuria, a fertile, resource-rich province in northern China. Japan installed a puppet government in Manchuria, renaming it Manchukuo. On the one hand, the doctrine took a principled stand in support of Chinese sovereignty and against an increasingly militaristic Japanese regime.

On the other hand, however, it failed to bolster that stand with either material consequences for Japan or meaningful support for China. In fact, US companies continued to supply Japan with the steel and petroleum it needed for its fight against China long after the conflict between the countries escalated into a full-scale war in But a powerful isolationist movement in the United States countered that the nation had no business at all in the international conflicts developing around the world.

The strong isolationist movement also influenced the initial US approach to the war in Europe, where by the end of Nazi Germany controlled most of France, Central Europe, Scandinavia, and North Africa, and severely threatened Great Britain.

But neutrality laws and isolationist sentiment severely limited the extent of that aid prior to