How had attack on Pearl Harbor effected the relationship between United States of America and Japan from 1941 until 1950s free essay sample

In my Extended Essay I am talking about the effect of the attack on pearl harbour on the US-Japanese relationship. In the begining of the essay I am talking about the actual attack and the stratagy which was used to achive the Japanese Admirals goals. The Actual attack was only the begining of the whole story , in this case it was a good begining for Japan , but the action which was taken against Japan after the atack was very unfortunate for the Japanese nation. After the attack, in 1945 Japan got occupied by the Allies, mostly by US military forces. All the government was strictly controlled by MacArthur who was the Head of the Administration in the â€Å"Occupation Commity†. US had suplied Japan with food and a finantial aid , military oficers were patroling their areas for safty. There still were war crimes done during the invasion and the attack on the Pearl Harbor. We will write a custom essay sample on How had attack on Pearl Harbor effected the relationship between United States of America and Japan from 1941 until 1950s? or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The trials were led by the â€Å"International Tribunal for the Far East† but some people had imunity given to them by MacArthur , those people were the Emperors family members and the members of 731 Unit. The government reforms also took place after the occupation. Word Count: 203 2 Table of Content. Pearl Harbour is was a millitary base in the Hawaiian teretory. On the Base there were 8 battle ships , 8 cruisers, 40 destroyers, 4 submarines, 1 USCG Cutter, 49 other ships, ~390 aircrafts. †( A Monster Company)â€Å"With this strenghts American soldiers had an adventage in the millitary power over Japans local milittary fleet. Japan on their mobile unit had 6 aircraft carriers ,2 battleships, 2 heavy cruisers, 1 light cruiser, 9 destroyers, 8 tankers, 23 fleet submarines, 5 midget submarines, 414aircraft. The attack on Pearl Harbor was intended to neutralize the U. Pacific Fleet, and hence protect Japans advance into Malaya and the Dutch East Indies. In 1920s both countries new that there will be a war between them at some point. †( A Monster Company ) There had plans of attack and deffence pland way before the war had started. The tension had began to grow more seriously when Japan had an invasion in 1931 in to Manchuria. Japan kept on expending into China which led to a war in 1937. () Japan had spent plenty of their resources for making weapons and making gear for soldiers. â€Å"The main point of Japan was to isolate China and win the war in the main land, The â€Å"Southern-Operation† was made to assist the efforts. †( EMBER) â€Å"From December 1937 events such as Japanese attack on USS Panay and Nanking Massacre made the public of the Western Sosiety to turn sharply against Japan and made them fear the uncontrolable expansion of Japan. †(EMBER) United States, United Kingdom and France had to provide loan assistance to Republic of China for geting more war machineries and gears for the soldiers. In 1940 Japan had invaded the French part of China to stop the supplies for reaching to the Chinas battle ground. United States have stoped providing Japan with airlanes, repairment parts, machine tools, and the gasoline for the machinary and the aviation gasoline. (The History) Japan did not like this at all and had encountered this as an unfriendly act. â€Å"Only oil exports have not stoped because U. S. Government in Washington had made an decision that it would be an extreme step, 4 and also they wanted Japan to depend on the U. S. A.   In early 1941 The pacific Fleet was mooved from San Diego to Hawaii, there also was a military buildup in the Philipines to let the Japanese understand that they should not aggress towards U. S. A. But The Japenese military plans were to get the Philipines attacked and under their contol. (The History) In the Philipines there was 40,000 man who were trained in the elite forces. (EMBER) Douglas MacArthur had said that U. S. Needs a force ten times that size, but he was not heard. (EMBER) The Japanese invasion had began. This was the breacking point for the oil export from U. S. to Japan in July 1941. Because of the oil shortage Japan had to invade Dutch East Indies for the great, reach oil territory. On 17 August 1941 Roosevelt had warned Japan that U. S. is ready to take any acttions if they would attack the neighboring countries. Japan had a choice of either withdrawal and loosing some of Chines teretory which they earned during the millitary actions or going â€Å"all-in† and fighting to the end no matter what. Japan Tried to improve relationship with U. S.   And they had writen a proposal which stated that they will stop attacks but keep the Chinese teretory to them selfs, U. S. A. had rejected it. U. S. A. Had proposed for Japan to evacuate the Chinese territory and sign non agression pacts with all th countries which were attacked by them and with pacific powers. (The History) The first plan of the attack on the Pearl Harbour had began to build up very early, in 1941. Admiral Isoroku Yamomoto had made a perfection of the plan and then had taken the commanding on the Japans Combined Fleet. (EMBER) He had moved his plan and sucseeded with its aproval. The full-scale planning had began in spring 1941 by Captain Minoru Genda and Deputy Chief of Staff,Captain Kameto Kurojima. Japanees Admirals had studied the 1940s British air atack on the Italian fleet at Taranto. (EMBER) They made a great use of that while planing an attack on Pearl Harbour. Over the next several months pilots were trained and all the equipment was adapted and made to feet the conditions of the new battle field. 5 All the best technicians were guethered to work on the modification nad the planing of the strategy. Even tho the preperation was going on the attack plan was yet not approved by the Emperor Hirohito until November 5,it only got approven after the third of four conferences. The final authorization by the Emperor was given only on the December 1st. It was finalized by emperor only because of the advises by the japanese leaders. â€Å"By late 1941 many observers were shure that hostilities by the japanse side was imminent. By statistics 52% of americans expected a war between U. S. and Japan, 27% did not expect war and 21% had no oppinion on that. †(EMBER) U. S. Pacific bases were put on allert and multiple times, but the comanders had not expected the attack on pearl harbour to be the firs one on the list. First attack was expected to be on the Philippines bases. This mistake was made because the Japanese fleet was mooving south and U. S. comanders asumed that Japanese Admirals were not capable of doing several major operations at a time. Those mistakes had led to the miscalculations in the area of the attack. The attack had several aims at a time. At first they were supossed to destroy the important American fleet units, to prevent pacific fleet to interfer in their upcoming actions. â€Å"As secondary aim they had to buy time for the Japan to make their position more powerful and increase its naval strenghts before ship building authorized by th 1940 Vinson-Walsh Act erased any chances of Japans victory. †(EyeWitness) And the last aim was to deliver a severe blow to American morale, one of which would discorage Americans from commiting to a war extending into the western Pacific Ocean. As a maximum morale demolishment Japan chose the U. S. s prestige battle ships as the aim because they were the best ships of any navy at the time. The main object was to conquer the Southeast Asia without any interference from the side. Striking the Pacific Fleet in Pearl Harbour had two main disadventages which were that the water in the harbour was shallow and that it was easier to repair the ships, as well as the most of the fleets crews would be on the shore or even be evacuated to the shure which ment that not as many soldiers would be 6 killed. â€Å"A great disadventage was as well the timing of the attack, as it was known to Japanese that all three U. S. Pacific Fleets aircraft carriers, Enterprice, Lexington, and Saratoga, were absent from the Pearl Harbour. Ironically, the major plan was to destroy as much ships as posible, and they were upsest with it. Ironically, the major plan was to destroy as much ships as posible, and they were upsest with it, despiting this Yamamoto decided to press ahead. Japanese confidence was so high that their short† war would make a gigant influence on U. S. that they didnt even consider other targets such as the submarine base, oil tank farms, and especially navy yard, they thought that it could be safly ignored, since the war would be over before the influence of these facilities would be felt. This was their perspective of action on the battle field. â€Å"On November 26, 1941 Japanese task force of six aircraft carriers Akagi, Kaga, Soryu, Hiryu, Shokaku, and Zuikaku had departed northern japan to their position in northwest of Hawaii to launch the aircrafts for the attack on Pearl Harbour. †( Anderson)â€Å"They had 408 aircrafts on board. 360 aircrafts were planed to be sent to the atack , 48 were ment to stay for the defencive combat air patrol. The first wave was to be the main attack, when the second wave was to finish what ever was left after the first wave. 1st Group (targets: battleships and aircraft carriers) 50 Nakajima B5N Kate bombers armed with 800 kg (1760 lb) armor piercing bombs, organized in four sections 40 B5N bombers armed with Type 91 torpedoes, also in four sections 2nd Group – (targets: Ford Island and Wheeler Field) 54 Aichi D3A Val dive bombers armed with 550 lb (249 kg) general purpose bombs 3rd Group – (targets: aircraft at Ford Island, Hickam Field, Wheeler Field, Barbers Point, Kaneohe) 7 45 Mitsubishi A6M Zeke fighters for air control. †(Encyclopedia) ? He first wave carried most of the weapons to attack the bigest ships, mainly specially adapted Type 91 aerial torpedoes which were designed with an anti-roll mechanism and a rudder extention.? Encyclopedia )The Pilots were ordered to hit the high value targets first such as battle ships and aircraft carriers or, if these were not present, any other high value ships. Dive bombers were to attack ground targets. Fighters were ordered to destro as many aircrafts ,which were parked, as possible to ensure they did not get into air and attack the bombers in the first wave. When the fighters fuel was low they had to return to the carriers, refill and then get back to the battle ground. The Attack took place before any formal declaration of war, but this was not Admiral Yamamotos choice. He wanted to start the attack 30 minutes after the Japan would tell the U. S. A. about the war. The Japanese were trieing to uphold the convention of the war while still making it a surprise, but the attack began before the declaration of war. Tokyo had transmited the 5,000-word notification in two blocks to the Japanese Embassy in Washington, but transcribing the message took long for Japanese embassador to deliver it in time. The second attack:1st Group 54 B5Ns armed with 550 lb (249 kg) and 132 lb (60 kg) general purpose bombs 27 B5Ns – aircraft and hangars on Kaneohe, Ford Island, and Barbers Point 27 B5Ns – hangars and aircraft on Hickam Field 2nd Group (targets: aircraft carriers and cruisers) 81 D3As armed with 550 lb (249 kg) general purpose bombs, in four sections 3rd Group – (targets: aircraft at Ford Island, Hickam Field, Wheeler Field, Barbers Point, Kaneohe) 36 A6Ms for defense and strafing† (Encyclopedia) â€Å"Ninety minutes after the attack has began it has come to an end. Americans died including 48-68 civilians, a further 1,139 wounded. Eighteen ships were sunk including five battle ships. † (Anderson) 8 The Aftermath â€Å"15 Medals of Honor, 51 Navy Crosses, 53 Silver Stars, four Navy and Marine Corps Medals, one Distinguished Flying Cross, four Distinguished Service Crosses, one Distinguished Service Medal, and three Bronze Star Medals were awarded to the American servicemen. †( Stoddard ) The day after the attaack, Roosevelt delivered his famous Infamy Speech to a Joint Session of Congress, calling for a formal declaration of war with the Empire of Japan. U. S. A. declared war hour later. Germany and Itally had declared a war against U. S. A. due to the tripartile pact. The Tripartile Pact was an earlier agreement between Germany Itally and Japan which was ment to limit the U. S. s intervention in any conflict involving the three nations. The war against Germany and Itally was declared that same day. â€Å"Britain had declared a war on Japan 9 hours earlier than U. S. A. did, partially because of the attack on Malaya, Singapore and Hong Kong. Winston Churchill promised to declare war as soon as posible after the Japanese attack on United States. Admiral Hara Tadaichi summed up the Japanese result by saying, We won a great tactical victory at Pearl Harbor and thereby lost the war. † (Burbeck )By those words he made a really good conclusion of their attack on U. S. A. Fortunatly for United States Fleet aircraft carriers were untouched, otherwise the Pacific Fleets ability to conduct offencive operation would be unreall for a year or more. A major flaw of Japanese strategic thinking was a belief that the ultimate Pacific battle would be fought by battleships, in keeping with the doctrine of Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan. As a result, Yamamoto acounted battleships for a decisive battle that never happened. 9 The Occupation The relationship between U. S. A. and Japan was horrible. U. S. was really surprised by the attack , even though they were waiting for it. With in the first year after the attack on the Pearl Harbor, U. S. was really strict and was really aggressive towards Japan. † In 1945 Allies occupied Japan , the occupation was led by U. S. A. Not as a revenge for the attack that Japaniese had performed on the pearl harbor, but to keep the agressor , Japan, calm and that it could not produce any harm to U. S. And allies. Japan had surrendered to the Allies on August 14 1945. †( Smitha) On the same day Emperor Hirohito announced that Japan had surrendered ,to the allies, on the radio. This announcment was first ever radio broadcast and the first most of the citizens of Japan had heard his voice. â€Å"Mac Arthur arrived in tokyo on 30 of August and immediatly relised laws; No Allied personel were to assault Japanese people. No allied personel were to eat the scarce Japanese food. The â€Å"Rising Sun† flag was strongly restricted. On September 2 Japan had formally surendered by signing the Japanese Instrument of Surrender. On the 6 of the same month U. S. President Truman approved all the documentation , and had realesed a document which was called â€Å"US Initial Post-Surrender Policy for Japan†. †( Smitha) â€Å"The main principle of this document was to set two main objectives , which are 1. Eliminate the war potential of Japan, 2. Turn Japan in to a western like nation with a pro-American orientation. †( Smitha) Allied forces , mostly Americans, were imported in to the country to look after the recovering nation , and keep the peace and the safety of the people. MacArthur was the head of the Occupation administration and his firs priority was to set up a food distribution network in Japan. Even with the measures that US did millions of people were still sturving several years after the surender. â€Å"As Kawai Kazuo said : â€Å"Democracy can not be taught to a starving people. † (Stolley)†Aid which was sent in to Japan was US$ 92 million in loans. By the end of 1945 ore than 350,000 U. S. Personel were located on Japans grounds. †(Stolley) â€Å"By June 1950 all of the army units had suffered extensive troop reduction, and 10 Their effectivness was weakened sereously. When North Korea got in to a war with South Korea, elements of the 24 were sent to South Korea to try to stop the massive invasion of the Norths forces. â€Å"( Smitha) The Impacts of Occupation Purging of war criminals. While the other reforms took place, different military tribunals also took place. The â€Å"International Tribunal for the Far East† were trying Japans war criminals and giving a death sentence or an imprisonment. However, many suspects ssuch as Tsuji Masanobu, Yoshio Kodam and Ryoichi Sasakawa were not judged at all. All the Emperial family and the members of Unit 731 including the director Dr. Shiro Ishii got an immunity from being trialed for the war crimes by the General MacArthur. (The History) Politics â€Å"Japanese had retained their nativ government throughout the occupation. The Japanese government authorities were strictly limited at first. Senior figures in the government like Prime Minister effectively served at the pleasure of the occupation authorities befor the firs post-war election. The first post-war ellection was held in 1946 and the Liberal Partys vice presedent Yoshida Shigeru became the prime minister of Japan. In the 1947 elections, anti- Yoshida forces lef the Liberal Party and established Japan Democratic Party. After a short period of time of administration , Yoshida returned to the prime ministers chair in 1948 until 1954. †( Osprey ) Conclusion By the information that was represented above it comes out that the Attack of Pearl Harbour was well planed and was a major strategic move for the Japanies military forces. It is also represents how unexpected the attack was and how well the operation was thought through out a short period of time. It was a big hit on the USAs military forces and made them look weaker in the â€Å"worlds eyes†. At the time the tecnology US forces used wasnt perfect, that also played a role in the 11 combat. The theory in which people tell that US generals knew about the attack was confirmed, but the issue is that the generals didnt know the exact location where would the Japanes strike. They had couple of location which could be attacked by. Pearl Harbour was not really the location that they though would be attacked. This unexpected attack was horible for US because no one was ready to deffend the harbour and most people were relaxing, sleeping, and on the shore , not on the battleships. By concluding the attack, it can be clearly seen that Japans forces specialy made the attack in the time when no one had expected it , by doing that they had tha adventage even though they had less troops and lees vehicles than US in the Pearl Harbour.