How Did The Attack On Pearl Harbour Affect Ww2

Japan bombing Pearl Harbor left 2,403 Americans dead, and millions of citizens startled. Pearl Harbor is a naval base off the coast of Hawaii. After killing thousands of America’s military, the United States was forced to join World War II. Immediately after the strike, many Americans became anti-Japanese and had vengeance for years to come. Japan had many reasons for causing this national uproar. Many people believe the Japanese government bombed Pearl Harbor due to financial disputes, power gains, and safety precautions.

Japan during the 1940’s was a nation that prided itself on the concept of never surrendering. It was something that they took fierce and obsessive pride in. Their culture dictated that they are never to give up, even if they fought until every single man,woman, and child living in Japan was slaughtered, they would never surrender. This doctrine was one of the key deciding factors that influenced Truman in making the decision to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Several weeks before the Atomic bomb was dropped, The Untied States of Military issued a warning to the Japanese government. “It warned the Japanese to surrender immediately or face ‘prompt and utter destruction.” (Yes! Harry Truman’s Simple Decision) Unfortunately, a mere two weeks before the first atomic bomb dropped, the Japanese prime minister publically dismissed the warning and refused to surrender. Even after the bombing of Hiroshima, the Japanese government refused to stand down. Even though they had suffered over 225,000 civilian casualties in the attack, the Japanese military refused to surrender. It took until the second bombing of Nagasaki to finally force the Japanese to surrender on American

In Pearl Harbor and the Coming of the Pacific War by Akira Iriye, the author explores the events and circumstances that ended in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, an American naval base. Iriye assembles a myriad of primary documents, such as proposals and imperial conferences, as well as essays that offer different perspectives of the Pacific War. Not only is the material in Pearl Harbor and the Coming of the Pacific War informative of the situation between Japan and the United States, but it also provides a global context that allows for the readers to interpret Pearl Harbor and the events leading up to it how they may. Ultimately, both Pearl Harbor and the subsequent Pacific War between

Japanese forces to surrender or prepare for a new lethal weapon at the Potsdam Convention

The US’s declaration of unconditional surrender was called the Potsdam Declaration and it was issued on July 26, 1945 demanding that Japan surrender or face utter destruction. In addition to administering the Potsdam Declaration, US warplanes rained 63 million leaflets on 35 cities that were to be targeted by the bomb. These leaflets said that these 35 cities ,which got the leaflets, should evacuate due to the fact that they were being targeted by US warplanes. The Japanese had known that the US had something specially planned for them, so it was fair game to drop the bomb. Also the leaflets stated that the Japanese should evacuate but since they ignored the leaflets and didn’t evacuate the people, they had to suffer the consequences. In addition, the Potsdam Declaration was never responded to so the US went ahead with their plan and dropped the atomic bomb. This was entirely Japan’s government fault because although many Japanese citizens feared of what was to come and believed the leaflet, the Japanese arrested anyone who had a copy of it. The atomic bomb was justified due to the negligence of Japan not responding to the Potsdam Declaration or following the orders of the

The Japanese saw this as an incredible insult to their ruler, and therefore refused surrender (Lawton). The only reason why America could follow through with the term of “The alternative for Japan is prompt and utter destruction” (“Potsdam Declaration”) was because it had made the terms of the Potsdam Declaration completely disgraceful and unacceptable for Japan. Clive A. Lawton argues “Many Japanese politicians would only agree to surrender if Emperor Hirohito remained on the throne”. Had the U.S. revised its treaty terms in order to keep Hirohito in power and leave at least some of the Japanese military intact, Japan would have likely surrendered quicker and the bombs would not be needed.

They think that the Japanese were going to surrender, that Truman’s advisers didn’t all agree that the bomb was necessary, and that there was a better way to get Japan to surrender. But, it turns out that this was not the case. Japan was an honor-based country. Surrendering was not honorable to them. They were taught that suicide was an honorable death. “A prominent local Navy man, a former employee, had committed suicide the day before by throwing himself under a train- a death considered honorable enough to warrant a memorial service.”. (Hersey, 16). If it was honorable enough for a normal man to commit suicide, then people wouldn’t hesitate to die for their country. Japan would be wiped out because they wouldn’t know when to give up. In an interview with a high ranked Japanese officer on v-j day, Karl T. Compton asked him what he thought would happen if we hadn’t dropped the bomb, and invaded instead. He said, “We would have kept on fighting until all Japanese were killed, but we would not have been defeated.”. By this he means that they would have kept fighting until they were dead, and even though they would lose, it wouldn’t be losing if they died honorably, fighting for their country. Another reason why people did not think that he atomic bomb was not necessary was because people think that Truman’s advisors were not in favor of the bomb, therefore making the decision to drop the bomb only up to Truman,

Before the United States dropped the bomb, they allowed Japan a chance to surrender. On July 26, 1945, the allies issued the Potsdam Declaration. This treaty was meant to make Japan surrender without a war. This was a warning that Japan will undergo harsh and utter destruction if they refused the declaration. Two days later Japan stated that they were going to ignore the Potsdam Declaration (“Was the Atomic Bombing”).

On Sunday morning, December 7, 1941, at 7:55 AM the Japanese Empire led a surprise attack on the US Naval base Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, that would leave millions of Americans in shock, and heartbroken. Before the attack, the United States kept a low profile on International affairs, and concentrated on the domestic affairs at hand. This tragic moment in American history forever remembered. It is a mournful day for the American people, although, for the Japanese Empire it was an honorable day, one they would call a

December 7, 1941, was on of the worst attacks ever on the United States. Out of that day, 2,403 soldiers were killed in action, 1,178 were wounded in action. Through the misjudgments of numerous U.S. armed forces personnel, the Japanese were able to carry out this terrible attack, which crippled the United States’ Pacific Fleet in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

On July 26, U.S. President Harry S. Truman and Allies issued a final ultimatum to Japan, known as the Potsdam Declaration. The Potsdam Declaration is a statement that called for the surrender of all Japanese armed forces. The Proclamation Defining Terms of Japanese Surrender consisted of thirteen conditions that the Japanese had to abide by. Japan was warned numerous times from the United States about the potential threat of an invasion or the use of a new weapon. “Japan would be warned that the new weapon would be used against Japan unless surrender was forthcoming.” Premier Kantaro Suzuki had rejected Truman’s final warning by stating that it was unworthy of public notice. January of 1945, a reporter for Newsweek wrote, “This intense hatred was first aroused by the sneak attack on Pearl Harbour. I remember men who, when they came to the Pacific, had no particular hatred of or desire to kill Japanese. When treachery affects you, or somebody you know, you grow to hate violently.” President Truman was disturbed over the unwarranted attack of Pearl Harbour and the murder of their prisoners of war. Japan had, not only attacked Pearl Harbour, involvement of the Bataan Death March, and the bloody battles in the Pacific. Leaflets were also dropped over Japan to let the people acknowledge that if Japan would not surrender, the U.S. is willing

December 7, 1941, was one of the worst attacks on the United States in U.S. history. Of that day 2,403 soldiers were killed in action, 1,178 were wounded in action. Numerous U.S. armed forces personnel were misjudged, which allowed the Japanese to carry out this terrible attack. Not only did the Japanese hit the U.S. where they knew it would hurt the most, but it crippled the United States’ entire Pacific Fleet.

On May 1945, a long-awaited V-E Day finally came and brought an end to the war in Europe. But, the war in the Pacific was still continuing against Japan since they are being reluctant to surrender despite the continuous indiscriminate bombardments The United States began to consider about using the atomic bombs as the only way to end the war immediately. On the other hand, many argued that Japan’s staggering losses were enough to force Japan’s surrender. In the end, President Harry S. Truman didn’t hesitate to use this nuclear weapon and bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki with only three days interval between the two bombing. As a result, Japan has surrendered, but if I were to make a decision, I haven’t used atomic bombs because it was unnecessary since Japan has virtually lost already.

As the war continued and violence escalated, bombings caused enormous destruction and high death tolls, leading inevitably to the use of the atomic bombs. The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki represented a culmination in the destructiveness of bombings, not a significant deviation from previous bombing practices. The alternatives to the use of the atomic bomb were likely to have caused equal suffering for the Japanese people. The use of the atomic bomb was no less moral than these horrific wartime practices. Harry Truman’s decision to use the atomic bomb against Japan was justified by Japan’s refusal to immediately surrender. Harry Truman gave the Japanese time to surrender in order to preserve the existence of their people. They did not comply and as a result endured the consequences. (Walker) Yet an alternate perspective states that it was quite unnecessary to drop the Atomic Bombs in that Japan was practically an already defeated opponent. If a conditional surrender were to be issued by the United States to Japan in

The decision to drop the bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was the hardest decision for President Truman to make. He had the power right there in his hands to end the war but he would have to unleash the most powerful weapon known to man, at this time. Everyone was very tired of fighting but the Japanese would not give up so Truman decided to drop it. Even though we told Japan that if they did not surrender we would completely demolish some of their cities, they did not listen and they did not surrender. Maybe they did not think about what kind of weapons we would use because