80 years ago, The attack that propelled us into the World stage and made us into a World Power when the War was over.
At 0755 a bomb exploded on the seaplane ramp at Ford island, this
signified the start of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. When it was
done, the American Pacific fleet was crippled, and 0ver 3000 Americans
were dead. The sinking of the fleet at Pearl Harbor galvanized the
Americans, and since it was a sneak attack it was considered
"dishonorable and underhanded". This infuriated the Americans sense of
fair play. The Japanese had planned on attacking right after the
ultimatum was delivered, but the secrecy that the Japanese demanded
forced the Ambassador himself to decode it slowing the response down so
they delivered the message to Secretary Hull after the attack has
started. The attack gave the Japanese several things...It was a
tactical victory, it allowed them to move against the Philippines and
the Dutch East Indies with the rubber and oil that the Japanese war
machine needed to build the stuff that a modern nation needs to wage
war. The Japanese Admiral Yamamoto who lead the attack on Pearl Harbor
had studied the Americans at length while he was a naval attache and he
told the General Staff who was pushing for the war "I will be able to
give you 6 months, after that I cannot guarantee victory. And true to
events, the Japanese raised hell for 6 months until the Americans
smashed 4 of the Japanese fleet carriers at Midway, a blow that the
Japanese Naval aviation never recovered from. The attack also forced
the Americans to utilize the carriers to do any offensive work against
the Japanese. Also the Japanese didn't launch the 3rd strike against
Pearl Harbor, the drydocks and the fuel farms were still intact. The
victory was a Pyrrhic victory because it ended on August 6 and August 9
of 1945 4 years later when the Japanese cities were the site of the Atom
bomb and a small part of the logic of the bomb drop was to pay Japan
back for the sneak attack.
The attack on Pearl harbor was a huge shock to the Americans, for the
fleet and the Army air corp to be so woefully unprepared for battle
left a mark on the American psyche. Never again would we be so
defenseless. Also the end results was that out of all the ships sunk
and damaged at Pearl Harbor, all but 3 were repaired and returned to
service.
Interesting that today unlike beginning of WW@ the greatest enemies of this nation are held with positions of political power of... the USA. Our own.
ReplyDeleteAnd we're heading that way again... sigh
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