Why did Japan attack Pearl Harbor? What challenges did the US face in the Pacific after the attack?

Question

how was the US able to win the war? What were the long-term effects of American's victory in the Pacific?

Answer 1

Do your own homework.

Btw, the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor - John Belushi said so in Animal House.

Answer 2

Why did Japan attack Pearl Harbor?

To prevent America from responding as it invaded South East Asia to secure oil supplies

What challenges did the US face in the Pacific after the attack?

Did not have a carrier fleet in the Pacific for at least six months

how was the US able to win the war?

Superior production and technology, intelligence gathering, plus Japan as an island country was vulnerable

What were the long-term effects of American's victory in the Pacific?

Asia's subsequent democratisation and affluence over the following decades

Answer 3

Michelle pretty much covered the events leading up to the attack and raztamn4 did a good job with the after effects left on Japan so here are some reasons why Japan lost.
1. They had few natural resources.
2. Japanese Fighter planes had no parachute so as to allow for smaller more maneuverable aircraft. American Fighter planes did have parachutes. This improved the odds of survival for American pilots which allowed them to learn from their experience.
3. American had better troop rotation (pulling troops from the front line to rest and replacing them with fresh troops.) This did two things, 1. it allowed troops time to pass their experience on to younger troops, 2. it gave the U.S. a steady stream of troops.
4. MacArthur's Island hopping, do your own research to find out what that is.
5. Some people will think I'm an a** for saying this and some will think I'm a fool. But I truly believe that the fact the America was right and Japan was wrong was a contributing factor to winning the war.

Answer 4

It was meant to cripple the Pacific navy, but in that regard the Japanese failed. I think somewhere in the neighborhood of only 3 destroyers (out of like 30) sank as well as about 4 battleships. The only other four battleships were damaged. A little over 2000 killed plus many injured. As you probably know, these loses were not heavy enough to cripple the fleet and the antagonizing of America would spell disaster for the Japanese later on. (Hiroshima and Nagasaki)

Answer 5

In short, Japan "awoke the sleeping dragon" to get the United States involved in WW2, since they didn't previously get involved dispite what was going on over there. There were some fierce battles on the Japanese islands of the Pacific, and Truman decided that dropping an atomic bomb twice would convince Japan to give up the fight and spare thousands more from that fate. It worked.

Since then, USA has a number of military bases in the south pacific and a national monument of the Pearl Harbor attack in Hawaii. Japan has taken a large interest in many aspects of United States culture, including sports, food and entertainment.

The biggest example of an adoption of American culture by the Japanese is the automotive industry. Due to their culture as hard working, noble and loyal workers, the Japanese have created their own style of automotive craftsmanship that rivals the big companies in Michigan! They have created a superior product by studying and improving upon American ingenuity.

There is still an older generation who refuse to do business with Japanese and many Asian products (due to WW2). I'd challenge them to look at everything they own and use and find something NOT made over there. The theory is just (support Americans and what they do), but if a Japanese product is superior to an American's, than my money goes to the best value, regardless of origin. This is how our free enterprise system works, competition gives the consumer more choices.

By emulating many of our own consumer products and methods, the Japanese have improved upon them and thus have helped the United States in doing so.

I wonder what things would be like if they dropped the bomb on us.

Answer 6

Japan attacked Pearl Harbor because the U.S. enacted an embargo on all oil supplies to Japan. The reason for the embargo is because Japan was invading China. The U.S. embargo cut-off 90% of Japans resources, which crippled their economy and most importantly military. They didn't specifically want to go to war, they just wanted to cripple the United States so they could bring them to the bargaining table to negotiate expansion into Asia. Unfortuantely, the Japanese didn't understand the United States way of thinking, which was "You bomb us, you declare war, and we pulverize you." On the Japanese side of the equation, it was simply a misunderstanding about how to negotiate terms with the Americans.

Japan attacked Pearl Harbor specifically for an important reason. Pearl Harbor was the home of the U.S. Pacific Fleet. Japan did not want the U.S. in the war because the U.S. at this time had the greatest Naval force. They concluded that if the Pacific Fleet was destroyed, Americans would feel de-moralized and not want to fight. Additionally, an attack on the Pacific Fleet would take the U.S. six months to recuperate and rebuild the Navy.




Incredible as it may seem, the Japanese empire claimed that it was to establish world peace by uniting the 'whole world into a big family,' or "hakko ichiu" or "All 8 corners of the world under 1 roof". This became the slogan goading the Japanese into bloodshed. "The basic aim of Japan's national policy," declared the Japanese cabinet in 1940, "lies in the firm establishment of world peace in accordance with the lofty spirit of hakko ichiu in which the country was founded, and in the construction, as the first step, of a new order in Greater East Asia." (See a Willamette University in-depth piece called "JAPAN'S DARK BACKGROUND 1881-1945" - http://www.willamette.edu/~rloftus/moremilitarism.html)

In addition to the slogan hakko ichiu, liberation of Asia from the Western powers became the other great goal of the Japanese war effort. Both causes were considered to be the will of the emperor. In order to accomplish this world conquest, militarists led the nation into a war with China and then with the Western powers, including the United States.

Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, commander in chief of Japan's Combined Fleet, though, realistically concluded that there was no way that Japanese forces could overpower the United States. He saw only one chance to maintain Japanese dominance in Asia. The Imperial Navy should "fiercely attack and destroy the U.S. main fleet at the outset of the war, so that the morale of the U.S. Navy and her people" would "sink to the extent that it could not be recovered," he reasoned. Thus the idea of a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor was born. However, he was reported as saying on Dec. 7th 1941: "I fear that we have awakened a sleeping giant and filled him with a terrible resolve". While on an inspection tour in the Northern Solomon Islands, he was killed in a premeditated aerial ambush by U.S. Army Air Force planes on April 18th 1943.

Answer 7

Michelle already gave you the best answer yet. It is very clear and very well written. I don't know who gave her answer a thumbs down.

Even Japanese would agree with her as she doesn't condem or pass any judgement, she just states facts.

Answer 8

If this is a homework question, then I have only one answer for you - DO YOUR OWN HOMEWORK. Stop cheating yourself.

There's this marvelous new place called a library. And it's full of truly terrif items called books. Now you know where to start.

Even if it's not a homework question, it's still worth doing the reading.

Answer 9

+Why did Japan attack Pearl Harbor?+

After the Meiji Restoration, the Empire of Japan embarked on a period of rapid economic, political, and military expansion in an effort to achieve parity with the European and North American powers. This strategy included extending territorial and economic control to increase access to natural resources which were thought needed to sustain and accelerate growth. Military personnel played an increasing role in government. For example, Generals Hideki Tojo and Kuniaki Koiso became Prime Ministers.

Japan's economic and military expansion caused many confrontrations with other countries. These included the First Sino-Japanese War with China in 1894, in which Japan took control of Taiwan, and the Russo-Japanese War with Russia in 1904, by which Japan gained territory in and around China and the Korean peninsula. From about 1910 through the 1930s, Japan became extensively militarized, building a large and modern navy, third largest in the world at the time. After World War I, the League of Nations awarded Japan custody of most of Imperial Germany's possessions and colonies in East Asia and the Pacific. In 1931, Japan imposed the puppet state of Manchukuo in eastern Manchuria. Starting in 1937, Japan ramped up its conflict with mainland China, killing over 7 million Chinese.

These attacks against China were condemned by the U.S., the UK, Australia, and the Netherlands, all of which had territorial interests in Southeast Asia and the Philippines. In response to the diplomatic pressure, Japan resigned from the League of Nations. In July 1939, the U.S. terminated the 1911 U.S.-Japan commerce treaty, an action which showed official disapproval and, more concretely, allowed the U.S. to impose trade embargoes. Nevertheless, Japan continued its military campaign in China and later signed with Nazi Germany the Anti-Comintern Pact, which formally ended World War I hostilities and declared common interests. In 1940, Japan signed the Tripartite Pact with Germany and Fascist Italy to form the Axis Powers.

These actions by Japan led the U.S. to embargo scrap metal and gasoline and to close the Panama Canal to Japanese shipping. In 1941, Japan moved into northern Indochina. The U.S. responded by freezing Japan's assets in the U.S. and instituting a complete oil embargo.[1] Oil was Japan's most crucial resource; her own supplies were very limited, and 80% of Japan's imports were from the U.S. The Imperial Navy relied entirely on imported bunker oil stocks.[2] To replenish its oil, Japan could have forcibly obtained it from the Dutch East Indies; however, the Navy was certain this would bring the U.S. into the war. With the Hull note of November 26, 1941, Japan's leaders felt they had to choose either continued expansion or compliance with U.S. and U.K. demands of backing down from its actions in China and surrounding areas. The latter meant losing international prestige and "losing face". The former meant possible war with the United States, United Kingdom, and Netherlands.

On September 4, 1941, at the second of two Imperial Conferences concerning an attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese Cabinet met to consider the attack plans prepared by Imperial General Headquarters. It was decided that:

“ Our Empire, for the purpose of self-defense and self-preservation, will complete preparations for war ... [and is] ... resolved to go to war with the United States, Great Britain and the Netherlands if necessary. Our Empire will concurrently take all possible diplomatic measures vis-a-vis the United States and Great Britain, and thereby endeavor to obtain our objectives ... In the event that there is no prospect of our demands being met by the first ten days of October through the diplomatic negotiations mentioned above, we will immediately decide to commence hostilities against the United States, Britain and the Netherlands.

+What challenges did the US face in the Pacific after the attack? +

The challenges are abouut US homeland security.
The Japanese attacked the Philippines, which is An American colony back then.

+How was the US able to win the war?+

Leapfrogging was a military strategy employed by the Allies in the Pacific War against Japan and the Axis powers during World War II. It involved attacking some islands but not others, effectively strangling the unattacked islands by not allowing them to be resupplied or to take part in trade. This saved time, men, and supplies.

General Douglas MacArthur greatly supported this "island hopping" strategy in his plight to regain the Philippines.

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The Battle of Midway was a pivotal naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II. It took place from June 4 to June 7, 1942, approximately one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea, and six months after the Empire of Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor that had led to a formal state of war between the United States of America and Japan. During the battle, the United States Navy defeated a Japanese attack against Midway Atoll (located northwest of Hawai’i) and destroyed four Japanese aircraft carriers and a heavy cruiser while losing a carrier and a destroyer.

The battle was a crushing defeat for the Japanese and is widely regarded as the most important naval battle of World War II. The battle permanently weakened the Japanese Navy, particularly the loss of over 200 naval aviators.[2] Strategically, the U.S. Navy was able to seize the initiative in the Pacific and go on the offensive.

The Japanese plan of attack, which included a secondary attack against the Aleutian Islands by a smaller fleet, was an attempt by the Japanese to lure America's few remaining carriers into a trap and sink them.[3] The Japanese also intended to occupy Midway Atoll to extend Japan's defensive perimeter farther from its home islands. This operation was considered preparatory for further attacks against Fiji and Samoa, as well as the invasion of Hawai’i.[4]

Had the Japanese captured Midway, the northeastern Pacific Rim would have been essentially defenseless. Japanese success also would have removed the last capital ships in the U.S. Pacific Fleet, ensuring Japanese naval supremacy in the Pacific until perhaps late 1943. The Midway operation, like the attack on Pearl Harbor that had plunged the United States into war, was not part of a campaign for the conquest of the United States itself, but was aimed at its elimination as a strategic Pacific power, thereby giving Japan a free hand in establishing its Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. It was also hoped that another defeat would force the U.S. to negotiate an end to the Pacific War with conditions favorable for Japan.

After that the US and Japan battle in Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima.

Battle of Leyte Gulf ( Japan was defeated in this battle.)

Hard-fought battles on the Japanese home islands of Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and others resulted in horrific casualties on both sides, but finally produced a Japanese retreat. Faced with the loss of most of their experienced pilots, the Japanese increased their use of kamikaze tactics in an attempt to create unacceptably high casualties for the Allies. Upwards of a third of the U.S. fleet was hit,[citation needed] and the U.S. Navy recommended against an invasion of Japan in 1945.[citation needed] It proposed to force a Japanese surrender through a total naval blockade and air raids.[citation needed]

Towards the end of the war as the role of strategic bombing became more important, a new command for the U.S. Strategic Air Forces in the Pacific was created to oversee all U.S. strategic bombing in the hemisphere, under USAAF General Curtis LeMay. Japanese industrial production plunged as nearly half of the built-up areas of 64 cities were destroyed by B-29 firebombing raids. On March 9-10 1945 alone, about 100,000 people were killed in a fire storm caused by an attack on Tokyo. In addition, LeMay also oversaw Operation Starvation which the interior waterways of Japan were extensively mined by air which seriously disrupted the enemy's logistical operations.

In August of 1945 the U.S. attacked two cities with nuclear weapons; these were a well-kept secret until August 6, when Hiroshima was destroyed with a single atomic bomb, as was Nagasaki on August 9. More than 200,000 people died as a direct result of these two bombings. Precise figures are not available, but the firebombing and nuclear bombing campaign against Japan between March and August 1945 may have killed more than one million Japanese civilians. Official estimates from the United States Strategic Bombing Survey put the figures at 330,000 people killed, 476,000 injured, 8.5 million people made homeless and 2.5 million buildings destroyed.


+What were the long-term effects of American's victory in the Pacific?+

Once again, The US showed to the world that it is a superpower and that it is capable of invading countries without being defeated. The atomic bomb showed that US can make wepons of mass destruction to destroy its enemies.