Japanese Preparation and Attack on Pearl Harbor: 1941

Introduction

During the early part of the 20th century, Japan faced fundamental challenges in its effort to expand its empire throughout Asia and beyond. Although Japan had enjoyed significant successes during the first decades of the century — including the colonization of the Korean peninsula and military advances in China and Indochina — 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 needed 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, however, beyond the Neutrality Act passed by the U.S. Congress in 1935 — which prohibited arms sales to countries at war — America was still gripped by a lingering economic downturn and by a sense of isolationism that kept domestic attention focused primarily on internal affairs, to the exclusion of events unfolding 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" (Divine, 1969).

The Japanese attack on American forces stationed at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on December 7, 1941, would change all of this in fundamental ways.

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 secure access to sorely needed resources in China and throughout Asia. 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 given the perception by the Japanese military and, to a lesser extent, its political leadership, that the United States was threatening Japan's access to the resources required to achieve its expansionist goals. As Wirtz explains, "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 theater 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 examined further below.

Japanese Forces and Leadership

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 were killed and another 69 wounded; 218 Army and Air Corps members were killed, missing, or died of wounds, with another 364 wounded; and over a hundred civilians were also casualties. U.S. warship casualties are summarized in Table 1 below.

Table 1: U.S. Warship Casualties at Pearl Harbor

Sunk, not repaired: Arizona (battleship), Oklahoma (battleship), Utah (target ship). None of these ships was restored. Oklahoma was sold for scrap in 1944 but was subsequently lost in 1947 en route to the boneyard; 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 decommissioned after the attack; however, much of their machinery and equipment was determined to be salvageable and was installed in new hulls. These ships carried the same names and hull numbers but were essentially new construction.

Sunk or beached but later salvaged: West Virginia (battleship), California (battleship), Nevada (battleship), Oglala (minelayer).

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 these naval losses, the United States also suffered the complete destruction of 64 aircraft and damage to an additional 82 aircraft.

The top Japanese commanders involved in the attack were as follows:

Naval General Staff — Admiral Nagano Osami. An experienced naval officer with substantial political experience, Admiral Osami emphasized the need to attack Pearl Harbor because the Americans had left the Japanese "no choice left but to break the iron fetters strangling Japan," in response to America's freezing of Japanese assets.

Combined Fleet — Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku. Admiral Yamamoto preferred a more aggressive campaign against the Allied Pacific forces, including a follow-up invasion of Australia, but was opposed by the army. Described by Rimer as "one of the great heroes of the war," Admiral Isoroku was killed in 1943 when his plane was shot down over the Bougainville Islands.

First Air Fleet and First Carrier Division — Vice Admiral Nagumo Chuichi. Described by Tsuzuki as the "commander of the mobile fleet which brilliantly attacked Pearl Harbor," Vice Admiral Chuichi had extensive experience commanding the Central Pacific Fleet headquartered at Truk prior to the attack.

The personalities of each of these Japanese military leaders were reflective of the bushido ethic that dominated the Japanese military before and during the war. These Japanese commanders were faced by U.S. Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Harold R. "Betty" Stark and the Commander in Chief, U.S. Fleet, Admiral Husband E. "Mustapha" Kimmel.

Significance of the Attack on Pearl Harbor

Short-term significance. Besides serving as the focal point that catalyzed American resolve to avenge the attack, the Japanese assault on Pearl Harbor resulted in the almost immediate internment of more than one hundred thousand Japanese Americans and Japanese immigrants living in the United States. According to Flamiano, "After the Japanese Navy attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the United States entered World War II and anti-Japanese hysteria gripped the home front. Then, on February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 authorizing the War Department to exclude any group of people from military areas for the duration of the war."

Moreover, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor yanked Americans from their isolationist cocoon and galvanized public opinion that war was the only viable response. Hill emphasizes that Pearl Harbor "convinced a majority of Americans to escalate to total war against Germany; most Americans believed that Germany was either an accomplice or the political master of Japan, thus making Hitler at least as guilty as Japan for the attack on Pearl Harbor. The attack on Pearl Harbor was the defining event for U.S. entrance into World War II, not only as it regarded the Pacific theater, but also the European theater."

Conclusion

The long-term significance of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was the utter destruction of the Japanese empire, with Hiroshima and Nagasaki representing only a tithe of the destruction visited on the island nation through incendiary bombings of most major cities. What began as a preemptive strike intended to secure Japan's regional dominance ultimately accelerated the very outcome it was designed to prevent — the full entry of the United States into the war and the irreversible turn of the tide against the Axis powers.

References

Burns, G. E. (2011). The war years. Pan American Historical Foundation.

Czarnecki, J., Worth, R., Noch, M. C., Horan, M. E., & DiGiulian, T. (2011). Order of battle: Pearl Harbor — December 7, 1941.

Divine, R. A. (1969). Causes and consequences of World War II. Chicago: Quadrangle Books.

Edgar, B. (1999). Warrior of Kokoda: A biography of Brigadier Arnold Potts. St. Leonards, NSW: Allen & Unwin.

Flamiano, D. (2010). Japanese-American internment in popular magazines: Race, citizenship, and gender in World War II photojournalism. Journalism History, 36(1), 23–24.

Hill, R. F. (2003). Hitler attacks Pearl Harbor: Why the United States declared war on Germany. Boulder.