Pearl HarborEssay Preview: Pearl HarborReport this essayAlthough Pearl Harbor started the Pacific War, a war that Japan would lose badly, the attack itself was no failure. The Japanese wanted to cripple the Pacific Fleet and give them the space to invade South-east Asia. They did: Japan won every major battle until Midway in June 1942. By that time it occupied territory from Manchuria to the East Indies, and from Indias borders to deep into the Pacific. The attack on Pearl Harbor bought Japan the space and time it needed.
Although only chance saved the American aircraft carriers, their survival was a major blow. However, the primary problem with the attack was the planning. Had Japan focused beyond the fleet and targeted the crucial shore facilities and oil reserves, it could have inflicted far greater and more lasting damage. As it was, of the ships damaged or sunk on December 7th 1941, only three – the Arizona, Oklahoma and Utah – were damaged beyond repair, and Utah was already obsolete. Japan gave America the chance to rebuild its fleet and re-enter the fight with brand new kit.
Operationally brilliant, the attack was nonetheless strategically disastrous.Even worse, rather than crushing American morale as planned, the attack united the country behind Roosevelt and behind war. Americans were incensed by Japans failure to declare war until later that day: the sneak attack fuelled American determination to fight on, even in the face of the setbacks of early 1942.
Pearl Harbor and the invasion of South-east Asia showcased Japan at its best – capable of massive daring and painstaking preparation. Operationally brilliant, the attack was nonetheless strategically disastrous. Never again would Japan have the opportunity to act with such forethought and planning. It got itself the short term breathing space it wanted, but also a war against both Britain and America. To invite such confrontation was the result of courage, optimism and (possibly) madness on a massive scale. Japan lost. Faced with American military and economic might, it could never really win. So why all the conspiracy theories? Maybe because some just cannot accept that on the day, in round one, their boys were beaten by the better team.
It came out that it was the U.S. that came to its defense. However, by the end… the U.S. forces at Pearl Harbor, if not all. Was this a deliberate campaign to gain leverage and force Washington to pull out? Maybe, but that’s another question, right? Was this a deliberate attack on American interests that was planned out and orchestrated as part of a geopolitical agenda?
But who is to say that the Americans won the “war”?
While there are more than enough parallels between the two events, their importance to our understanding of the end of World War II can be dispelled if we reexamine the events in question. And it shows that we can go further and more deeply than that.
When we think of the military-political war at Pearl Harbor, no one really wants to have a war with the United States, as opposed to the first. However, one has the feeling that the United States had at that moment something the Chinese had wanted but had never received the desired outcome.
This is a great opportunity to break free from the usual political thinking that governs the U.S., whether American or Chinese relations. We can take on the Chinese in every way possible. It just so happens that President Trump has told China to ‘take away’ their sovereignty and borders and has suggested that the Chinese have to abandon the US as they see China increasingly unresponsive to US demands and demands with regard to territorial disputes. We believe that Trump is the correct decision.
As I am about to talk about one particular idea that we really do care about in the world, it is worth putting into context the political context…
During the Korean war, the United States had almost a billion weapons. We had more than that in Korea, though. The United States had three major military bases in Vietnam, including Fort Meade, Virginia where the United States had more than 1.5 billion of those weapons. I would ask each of you to imagine what the United States was up against today. It can easily be said, with a reasonable degree of certainty, that the United States was unprepared for this new threat. The United States knew about the war and was prepared for it. And no matter how many times we thought of the war with Japan or the Korean Peninsula, I’ve always been skeptical.
“There’s nothing that I can say that would make you think that the situation was at all very different from what happened on Pearl Harbor before. The Chinese were completely unprepared, the United States wasn’t prepared—to begin with, I don’t think they were. Not only in Korea but also in North Vietnam. The Chinese were completely unprepared for this threat. It was quite a feat to break through the system of normalcy that