Japanese Preparation and Attack on Pearl Harbor
During the early part of the 20th century, Japan was faced with some fundamental challenges in its effort to expand its empire throughout Asia and beyond. Although Japan had enjoyed some significant successes during the first decades of the 20th century, including the colonization of the Korean peninsula and military successes in China and Indo-China, the United States stood poised on the other side of the Pacific as a formidable bulwark of democracy with its naval forces stationed at Pearl Harbor representing a geographic thorn in Japan's side. Following its alliance with the Axis powers in World War II, Japan was faced with the need to counter this potential threat to its expansionist plans as well as America's efforts to restrict its access to badly needed resources through a preemptive air strike on Pearl Harbor and ancillary facilities. In reality, though, beyond the Neutrality Act passed by the U.S. Congress in 1935 that prohibited arms sales to countries that were at war, America was still gripped by a lingering economic downturn as well as by a sense of isolationism that kept domestic attention focused primarily on domestic issues to the exclusion of what was taking place in Japan and Europe.
In this regard, Divine notes that during the 1930s, the prevailing view "was a policy of continentalism, claiming that what happened abroad was of little consequence to a United States whose mission was to perfect democracy at home."
The Japanese attack on American forces stationed at Pearl Harbor located in Hawaii on December 7, 1941, though, would change all of this in fundamental ways as discussed further below.
Review of the Strategic Setting
The overarching immediate goal of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 was to disable the United States' Pacific fleet, particularly its aircraft carriers, to the maximum extent possible, thereby allowing Japan the opportunity to consolidate its forces in the region and provide it access to sorely needed resources in China as well as throughout Asia.
For instance, according to Nish, "The focus of Japan's policy in this period was predominantly continental, that is, securing her objectives in China and later in Southeast Asia."
This goal is understandable, perhaps, given the perception by the Japanese military and, to a lesser extent, political leadership that the United States was further threatening its access to the resources it would need to achieve its expansionist goals throughout Asia. For instance, according to Wirtz, "Prior to Pearl Harbor, U.S.-Japanese relations had reached a nadir. By the summer of 1941, the administration of U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt had placed economic sanctions on the Japanese to force them to end their war against China. These sanctions were the proximate cause of the Japanese attack."
Even though Japan gained a short-term tactical advantage in its theatre of operations, the true significance of the attack was America's declaration of war on Japan and the solidification of American resolve to avenge the attack at any cost, a strategic failure that is discussed further below.
Opposing Forces -- Japan
The order of battle for the attack on Pearl Harbor is provided at Appendix A. In sum, the Japanese suffered the loss of just 55 crewmen plus nine men killed and one captured on minisubmarines; by contrast, American Navy casualties numbered 2,008 (killed, missing or died of wounds) and 710 wounded, 109 Marines killed and another 69 wounded, 218 Army and Air Corps members killed, missing or died of wounds and another 364 wounded and over a hundred civilian casualties, as well as the warship casualties described in Table 1 below.
Table 1
US Warship Casualties at Pearl Harbor
Status
Description
Sunk, not repaired
Arizona (battleship)
Oklahoma (battleship)
Utah (target ship)
None of these ships has been restored (Oklahoma was sold for scrap in 1944 but was subsequently lost in 1947 on its way to the boneyard and portions of the other two remain at Pearl Harbor today).
Destroyed but rebuilt
Cassin (destroyer)
Downes (destroyer)
These two destroyers were very badly damaged and were decommissioned after the attack; however, much of their machinery and other items were determined to be salvagable and so were installed in new hulls. These ships carried the same names and hull numbers but they were essentially new construction.
Sunk or beached but later salvaged
West Virginia (battleship)
California (battleship)
Nevada (battleship)
Oglala (mine layer)
Damaged
Tennessee (battleship)
Maryland (battleship)
Pennsylvania (battleship)
Helena (light cruiser)
Honolulu (light cruiser)
Raleigh (light cruiser)
Shaw (destroyer)
Curtiss (seaplane tender)
Vestal (repair ship)
Source: Czarnecki, Worth, Noch, Horan & DiGiulian, 2011
Besides the foregoing naval losses, the United States also...
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