Reasons For U.S Involvement In World War 2: Attack on Pearl Harbor.
During the late 1930s, Japanese aggression on Chinese territories has reached its peak. It was clear that Japan was bent on taking over Chinese territories beginning with the attack on Manchuria, Shanghai and Nanjing _ cities in Chinese territory.
The Japanese, after ending the Nanjing massacre in february 1938, shipped all they looted from the Chinese to Japan via American seas. The United States being Chinese allies, were totally against Japanese brutality on china. To curb their excessive attacks, they placed trade embargoes on the ship and froze their assets. They demanded Japanese withdrawal from Chinese soil. An action which caused Japanese government to start planning their attacks on Pearl Harbor in order to stop future interference of American military in their attacks on Asian territories.
Japanese government believed that the only way to solve it's economic and demographic problems was to expand it's neighboring territories and take over its import market, hence they refused to give in to US demands despite several months of negotiations with the US government. To prevent United States Pacific fleets from interfering with it's planned military actions in South Asia, Japan aimed it's attack on US Naval Port _ Pearl Harbor.
Pearl Harbor is a US Naval Base near Honolulu Hawaii
Attack On Pearl Harbor
On the Sunday morning of December 7th 1941, just before 8am, hundreds of Japanese fighter planes descended on the base of Pearl Harbor, raining bombs and bullets on the military vessels. The battleship USS Arizona exploded and sank with more than 1,000 men trapped inside. Next, torpedoes pierced the shell of battleship USS Oklahoma. With 4,000 sailors aboard, the ship sank underwater.
In less than two hours of surprise attack, every battleship in Pearl Harbor _ USS Arizona, USS Oklahoma, USS California, USS West Virginia, USS Utah, USS Maryland, USS Pennsylvania, USS Tennessee and USS Nevada _ had sustained significant damage.
Nearly 20 American Naval vessels including eight battleships and over 300 airplanes were damaged or destroyed. More than 2400 Americans died in the attack including civilians. 1000 more were wounded.
The day following the attack, US president Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan on 8th December 1941, Congress approved Roosevelt declaration of war in Japan. Three days later, Japanese allies _ Germany and Italy declared war against the United States. Congress reacted by declaring war on the European powers, hence America joined in the ongoing war of world war 2.
Reason For The Success of Pearl Harbor Attack
No one believed that the Japanese will start an attack in the distant island of Hawaii. American Intelligence Officials were convinced that any Japanese attack would take place in one of the nearby European colonies in South Pacific ; The Dutch East Indies, Singapore or Indo-china. Because the military leaders were not expecting an attack so close to home, the Naval military facilities were undefended.
Fortunately all the Pacific fleets carriers (aircrafts) were away from the base on the day of attack, hence the Pacific fleets weren't destroyed. Also, the vital onshore facilities in the base _ oil storage depots, repair shops, ship yards and submarine docks _ were intact. So they were able to recover quickly from the attack.
