Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor was the beginning of a war between two countries that would last nearly 4

years and cost hundreds of thousands of lives. The attack was swift and successful for the

Japanese, and it caught the Americans totally off guard. The “Day that will live in infamy”

drew the United States into a World War in which would change American history forever.

The political climate in the pacific area in 1940 was filled with turmoil. The Japanese had

extended their empire south through French Indochina and the Japanese Army was

invading China, conquering a third of the country. The United States of America was

shocked to see this after witnessing Hitler and his Nazi's conquer most of Europe. So, the

American's had placed embargoes on their extensive trade with Japan and both countries

were negotiating to try to solve their differences.

The U.S. tried to negotiate with the Japanese to try to avoid war, trying to convince them

that if war broke out between Japan and the United States, Japan, in the long run, would

be devastated. Secretary of State Cordell Hull and Japanese ambassador Namura and

Kiruzo talked on how to solve this crisis. These negotiations proceeded into the summer of

1941.By this time, the Japanese had realized that if they wanted to expand their empire,

they would have to fight America and, possibly, her allies. Japan decided to fight.

In order for Japan to fight America on even terms, they would have to move south, into the

East Indies (where there was a lot of raw materials for the Japanese War Machine), which,

at that time, were controlled by the western powers: Britain, the Netherlands, Australia,

and the United States. But, there was another thorn in Japan's side, the United States

Pacific Fleet was moved from San Diego to Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. This was a knife at

Japan's throat. If they decided to move south, then the Americans would attack. The

Japanese had to come up with a plan to get rid of this threat. They called upon their new

Commander in Chief of the Combined Fleet, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto. He saw that the

British, in 1940, torpedoed the Italian fleet at Toranto using old Fairy Swordfish torpedo

bombers. Yamamoto thought that if the British could use old biplanes to sink three

battleships at Toranto, then he could use his modern Nakajima B5N torpedo bombers and

Aichi D3A dive bombers to destroy more. He came up with a daring plan.

He would use his six fleet aircraft carriers to strike Pearl Harbor from the sea and he

ordered his invasion fleet to wait until X-Day, the Day of attack.

The six aircraft carriers, commanded by Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo, would leave the

Kurile Islands on November 26th, head towards Hawaii, bomb the airfields, torpedo the

American ships, and destroy Pearl Harbor.

While they were planning for war, Prime Minister Hideki Tojo instructed his ambassadors

in Washington, D.C. to keep up negotiations for as long as they could, to try to deceive the

Americans. But what Tojo didn't know was that American cryptographers had cracked the

Japanese Imperial Code and were reading every message that was coming from Tokyo to

all of the ambassadors in Washington