Japan and Pearl Harbor

[steyr8x56r]

A friend of mine is doing a paper on why Japan bombed Pearl Harbor.
Her prof. wants to know what the Japanese perspective and reason was for the attack. She has done some research and cannot find any books written by Japanese authors on this subject.
Any help from those of you who would know anything about this please respond, the help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[Matadon]

Well, I'm not Japanese, but the general reason I know of is that the U.S. had placed a shipping embargo against Japan, and that due to this, the Japanese military was starving for oil. Knocking the U.S. out of the war quickly and decisively would allow Japan to continue expanding their presence in mainland China, and would allow Japan to start taking on the Russians up north[1].

[1] They'd be too confused to fight; I mean, who the hell is going to GO to Siberia?

 

[sabro]

I would not downplay the role of militarism and nationalism in Japan's expansionist desires. Japan was looking at other sources of natural resources. They had been denied colonies and even a seat at the big table at the Treaty of Versailles, and even though they had been militarily successful against the Russians, Germans and Chinese, they were still looked down upon.

Dutch Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia had oil and rubber. The Japanese hoped that by knocking the US Navy out of the Pacific in one decisive blow, that they would be able to consolidate and hold China and most of the entire western pacific and negotiate a settlement. By "freeing" Asia from western domination, there was some hope that a pan-Asian empire would be strong enough to hold off the Americans.

 

[Davey]

here are some websites about it...

( sometimes my knowledge of Google, is bigger then my mounth... )
Why did Japan attack Pearl Harbour?
Pearl Harbor - Mother of All Conspiracies

The Mystery of the Attack on Pearl Harbor

To many text...

i hope that there is some usefull information.... if not, i hope somebody else will find it for you...

greetings Baka dutchi

 

[Brooker]

I always wondered if Japanese people generally feel attacking Pearl Harbor was a mistake or not? :?

 

[Davey]

mmm imagine japan didnt... would america atack japan? would they use the atomic bomb.... if america wouldn't use the atomic bomb... who else would use it first... rusia vs america would be the first one then??

was it a mistake or not.... mmm I dont know, we never know i geuss

 

[Sensuikan San]

I always wondered if Japanese people generally feel attacking Pearl Harbor was a mistake or not? :?

Certainly Admiral Yamamoto did - although, wether or not he actually did make the famous quote about the "sleeping giant" is questionable.

But I don't think the Japanese of the day did generally feel it to be a mistake, any more than many Germans felt invading Poland to be a mistake. I get the distinct feeling that propaganda regarding both the general situation and the ability of the military had done its dirty deed .....

Regards,

ﾆ淡ﾆ停?｡ﾆ停?

 

[steyr8x56r]

RE: Japan.....

Thank you for all your replies. They helped alot.....She will be pleased.

 

[Tim33]

mmm imagine japan didnt... would america atack japan? would they use the atomic bomb.... if america wouldn't use the atomic bomb... who else would use it first... rusia vs america would be the first one then??

was it a mistake or not.... mmm I dont know, we never know i geuss

Japan was really placed in a situation where they had little choice but attack America.

America would of used the bomb even without japanese involment yes. Japan had already pretty much lost the war before the bomb was dropped it was just a small matter of time. The weapon was gonna be used, if not Japan then someone else. That is the sad truth about new 'Toys'

 

[Hiroshi66]

Japan attacked the United States for economic and political reasons. The shipping embargo gave Japan a need for oil as someone said above, and without it they would not be able to do anything else in Asia. Also, they needed more territory to expand into.

It was partly also the US's fault, who needed to get into the war. Secret intelligence reports recently excavated tell that Roosevelt knew that the Japanese were going to strike somewhere in Hawaii, but didn't take action. He needed to get into the war against Germany, but it was a package deal.

 

[sabro]

Japan had a significant array of choices besides attacking the United States. Their options were only limited by the choices they made in the 1930's including the invasion of China and the Tripartite Pact. Among their possible choices was withdrawing from China to re-open trade. Abandon militarism and expansionism altogether. You have to remember that the attack on Pearl Harbor took two years of planning and the development of technology such as shallow water torpedos.

No one forced Japan to adopt extreme militarism, expansionism, or to desire a colonial empire. No one forced Japan to commit a litany of attrocities from comfort women, to Nanking and the rest of China, to unit 731, and the abuse of POW's. The Japanese of 60 years ago made no excuses for these actions. (Sorry guys, I have to bomb you now.) I don't think we should make excuses for them.

 

[TheKansaiKid]

I have heard from a couple of Japanese people,

that in the end getting in to the war with America was the best thing that could have happened to the Japanese people. Their lives were hell for many years, but in the end their defeat allowed the the common man to have a quality of life he would have been unable to have had history taken another course.

 

[Hiroshi66]

If World War II in Asia had not occured Japan would have been a communist nation. If Japan did not surrender it would have been a communist nation. The Peace Preservation Law of 1924 was a blow to the left-wing but it managed to survive and DID survive. The Japanese people would have gotten tired of the war and militarism and would have rebeled. Prince Konoe Fuminaro advised Emperor Hirohito that surrender was the only option because of a communist revolution.

 

[shiroma]

対米覚書

This is the content of the investigation report of diplomatic shame that MOFA finally disclosed on Nov. 20th 1994, about what "elite" bureaucrats really did or did not do for the "sneak attack."

窶｢ Tokyo started transmitting the instruction at 6:30am EST on Dec. 6th 1941 to the embassy in Washington DC. It said that the war declaration equivalent ("memorandum" technically speaking) was to be fragmented into 14 encrypted telegrams.

窶｢ 13 telegrams followed, they went through by 3pm, Dec. 6th.

窶｢ The 14th part, which also meant to be the go-ahead sign, was sent at 2am, Dec. 7th.

窶｢ The final instruction marked urgent (sent at 3:30am Dec. 7th) told the ambassador Kichisaburo Nomura to hand the document at 1pm EST Dec. 7th, preferrably to the secretary of state Cordell Hull directly.

窶｢ Telegrams were to be first deciphered, the 14 document parts needed to be officially typed up. Tokyo specified the secretary officer, not typists, to do the second part for the security reasons.

窶｢ There was plenty of time, no rush for typing the short 14th part for delivery to Department of State by 1pm either. In fact the first 13 parts were all decoded by 8pm Dec. 6th, ready for typing.

窶｢ What happened was: the only person in the embassy at that time who was authorized for type-up, First Secretary Katsuzo Okumura, went out to attend a coworker secretary Hidenari Terasaki's farewell party at a Chinese restaurant. Okumura was playing card games after the party, with others instead of returning. Councillor Sadao Iguchi told staff to go home, although the telegram department chief Masana Horiuchi wanted to stay. There was no one with decipher skills there early in the Sunday morning of Dec. 7th.

窶｢ That was how they missed the most important deadline for the nation. They say it was 55 minutes after IJN bombed the naval base in Pearl Harbor as planned, when Hull received it. MOFA kept telling that everything was an entry-level employee's fault. Iguchi was promoted to vice foreign minister on Jan. 30th 1951. Okumura became the vice foreign minister on Oct. 17th 1952.

For more background, consequence and accuracy, read Between Incompetence and Culpability by Seishiro Sugihara.

Just bad, although US already was capable of decrypting Purple.

 

[Kinsao]

Thank you for that final link, | | | - that looks like an interesting book, I must try and get hold of a copy to improve my knowledge. *waits for January sale*

 

[EdZiomek]

Additive from History: for your information

My in-law, a certain Ms. Lacsamana, was a Navy dependent wife living at Pearl City, Hawaii, when on the morning of December 5, 1941, the Naval Chaplain came around to 300 Navy wives and their dependents and told them they had 6 hours to hand carry their most important documents and possessions, and get out to the wharf at Pearl Harbor and board the "California". The "California" was the military ship that was ferrying dependents back and forth to California from Hawaii.

They were expecting an invasion at that moment. Two days out to sea, California bound, they heard the news that Pearl Harbor had been attacked.

PS... the California, on its inbound trip, had picked up unknown radio transmissions to the Northwest of Hawaii, far from the shipping lanes. They passed this information to the authorities, and this may have instigated the immediate evacuation at Pearl City.

On a different historical note, the second largest Nazi party in the world was on Long Island, known as "the Bund", and had as its members Charles Lindbergh, and as its sympathizers Joe Kennedy and Henry Ford. America, after Pearl Harbor, declared war on Japan, but Germany then reciprocated and declared war on the United States!

After these turn of events, of course, all of America became staunchly anti Nazi and anti-Japanese.

I blame the militarists in both Germany and Japan for turning their own people towards war. It is one of the profound reasons for the civilians in America to control and manage the military. When the military takes over the governments, bad things happen, no matter what the nationality.