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Pearl Harbor Research Paper

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In the beginning days of World War II, the Imperial Japanese Empire launched several campaigns to expand their empire along the Pacific Front, extending from the islands north of Australia to bases located in Northern China. In June 1942, six months after the Pearl Harbor attack, the Japanese attacked the Aleutians Islands, a chain of islands over 1,000 miles extending from west coast of Alaska into the Bering Sea. On 3-4 June, despite heavy fog and rough seas, the Japanese conducted naval air raids on Dutch Harbor, the United States' only major military base in the region. Forty-three Americans were killed, Sixty-four wounded, and eleven aircraft destroyed while the Japanese only had a loss of ten aircraft. On 6 June, the Japanese landed at Kiska Island and on the following day, 7 June, Attu Island, approximately 200 miles away, and immediately established a small garrison on each island to prepare for the American response. Attu and Kiska had little value to either military because of the barren, mountainous terrain and harsh weather. However, the U.S. intercepted radio transmissions from Japan outlining the attack on the Aleutian Islands in a feint attack to divert part of the U.S. Pacific Fleet during the Japanese attack on Midway Island (June 4–7, 1942), allowing them a numerical advantage in order to destroy what was left of the U.S. Navy after the attack on Pearl …show more content…

Another possibility is the Japanese believed that holding the two islands could prevent the U.S. from an attempt to invade Japan from the north by moving through Alaska down through the Aleutian chain, protecting its northern

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