Essay About Japanese Army And East Indies

Pearl Harbor
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Pearl Harbor was the beginning of a war between two countries that would last nearly 4
years and cost hundreds of thousands of lives. The attack was swift and successful for the
Japanese, and it caught the Americans totally off guard. The “Day that will live in infamy”
drew the United States into a World War in which would change American history forever.
The political climate in the pacific area in 1940 was filled with turmoil. The Japanese had
extended their empire south through French Indochina and the Japanese Army was
invading China, conquering a third of the country. The United States of America was
shocked to see this after witnessing Hitler and his Nazis conquer most of Europe. So, the
Americans had placed embargoes on their extensive trade with Japan and both countries
were negotiating to try to solve their differences.
The U.S. tried to negotiate with the Japanese to try to avoid war, trying to convince them
that if war broke out between Japan and the United States, Japan, in the long run, would
be devastated. Secretary of State Cordell Hull and Japanese ambassador Namura and
Kiruzo talked on how to solve this crisis. These negotiations proceeded into the summer of
1941.By this time, the Japanese had realized that if they wanted to expand their empire,
they would have to fight America and, possibly, her allies. Japan decided to fight.
In order for Japan to fight America on even terms, they would have to move south, into the
East Indies (where there was a lot of raw materials for the Japanese War Machine), which,
at that time, were controlled by the western powers: Britain, the Netherlands, Australia,
and the United States. But, there was another thorn in Japans side, the United States
Pacific Fleet was moved from San Diego to Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. This was a knife at
Japans throat. If they decided to move south, then the Americans would attack. The
Japanese had to come up with a plan to get rid of this threat. They called upon their new
Commander in Chief of the Combined Fleet, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto. He saw that the
British, in 1940, torpedoed the Italian fleet at Toranto using old Fairy Swordfish torpedo
bombers. Yamamoto thought that if the British could use old biplanes to sink three
battleships at Toranto, then he could use his modern Nakajima B5N torpedo bombers and
Aichi D3A dive bombers to destroy more. He came up with a daring plan.
He would use his six fleet aircraft carriers to strike Pearl Harbor from the sea and he
ordered his invasion fleet to wait until X-Day, the Day of attack.
The six aircraft carriers, commanded by Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo, would leave the
Kurile Islands on November 26th, head towards Hawaii, bomb the airfields, torpedo the
American ships, and destroy Pearl Harbor.
While they were planning for war, Prime Minister Hideki Tojo instructed his ambassadors
in Washington, D.C. to keep up negotiations for as long as they could, to try to deceive the
Americans. But what Tojo didnt know was that American cryptographers had cracked the
Japanese Imperial Code and were reading every message that was coming from Tokyo to
all of the ambassadors in Washington D.C. and Berlin. So, the Americans knew the
negotiations were not sincere and that they were planning so kind of moved on the Pacific.
But, they didnt know where. It couldve been the Philippines, Guam, Wake, or the East
Indies Little did they know that it was to be all of them. Finally, the Americans started
building up its armed forces, just in case.
On November 26, 1941, the First Air Fleet left Japan en route to Hawaii. This cruise had
to be of the utmost secrecy. If the American found out about this force, they might destroy
it and Japan would lose the war automatically. On December 6, the officials in Hawaii,
Admiral Husband Kimmel and General Walter Short, received a war warning from
Washington and