Pacific Campaign

Pearl Harbor: causes of Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor

The attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters and the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941. The attack was intended as a preventive action in order to keep the U.S. Pacific Fleet from interfering with military actions the Empire of Japan was planning in Southeast Asia against overseas territories of the United Kingdom, Netherlands and the United States.

The attack on Pearl Harbor had several major aims. In first place, it intended to destroy important American fleet units, in order to prevent the Pacific Fleet from interfering with Japanese conquest of the Dutch East Indies and Malaya. Also it was hoped to buy time for Japan to consolidate its position and increase its naval strength before shipbuilding authorized by the 1940 Vinson-Walsh Act erased any chance of victory. Finally, it was meant to deliver a severe blow to American morale, one which would discourage Americans from committing to a war extending into the western Pacific Ocean and Dutch East Indies. To maximize the effect on morale, battleships were chosen as the main targets, since they were the prestige ships of any navy at the time. The overall intention was to enable Japan to conquer Southeast Asia without interference.

The confidence of Japan in its ability to achieve a short, victorious war meant targets in the harbor, especially the navy yard, oil tank farms and submarine base, could safely be ignored, since by their thinking the war would be over before the influence of these facilities would be felt.

The reason why USA has a large naval fleet in Pearl Harbor was that they saw Japan´s aggressive expansionism policy as a direct threat to its nation, so the Naval Fleet was stationed there and more troops deployed to Philippines and the rest of the Pacific.

The reason why Japan attacked Pearl Harbor was that USA placed an embargo on Japan on its steel, scrap metal and oil supply and this considered to be a threat to Japan´s survival so they hatch plans to take revenge against USA striking back. USA was planning to stop Japan´s plan on controlling  Asia-Pacific so Japanese military leaders felt that Japan had to attack US Pacific fleet in order to cripple the USA's ability to fight a war in Asia-Pacific and act as a warning to USA not to interfere. Also, Japan would be in a better position to fight off American attempts of invasion, as it would have enough time to built up troops to protect the countries it had conquered in that continent.

The main cause of the attack to Pearl Harbor was the need of the Japanese to show they had superiority of Asia and the Pacific. They were sure that the USA would become involved in their claims in Asia and they wanted to destroy American Navy based at Pearl Harbor.

References: 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_on_Pearl_Harbor

http://www.conspire.com/the-government-allowed-the-bombing-of-pearl-harbor/

By: Nicole Miñan