Pearl Harbor?

Question

Ok, so i am doing an essay on the event (Pearl Harbor) in american history that most accurately defines the american character in either a positive or negative way. BUT i feel as though the American character should be defined positively because we did things like when we entered the war we set people free from the nazi's , BUT i dont know what else to say to make the American Character look Positive. Can someone help?

Answer 1

Pearl Harbor can illustrate the American character, but not by discussing that we set people free.

We were attacked. How did we respond? Japan thought we'd decide to let them alone in the Pacific if our fleet was destroyed. What actually happened? What does that show about the American character? How did Americans on the home front feel about what happened and how did they respond? Okay, we all know Americans came together to fight Japan and the other Axis countries. But, we also interned our Japanese Americans, even those who'd been here for generations, in miserable camps. We confiscated their worldly property. It took 50 years before we said we were sorry and before there were any reparations. Generally, when we say property was confiscated, it doesn't mean the government took the property. Who took it? What does that show about the American character.

I think you'll conclude there are examples of our generosity, valor, loyalty, and other examples of our venality and fear of those who are different.

Answer 2

The United States was signing/under a peace treaty with Japan at the time of the Pearl Harbor bombing. This is why it was such a surprise. What the Emperor of Japan did was the lowest thing any country can do. Pearl Harbor began the war in the pacific against Japan. The two atom bombs dropped on Japan essentially ended it. Some say that many innocent people died in the atomic bomb attacks but remember, we have an obligation to police our leaders and when they do things that are obviously wrong we are to rise up against them. If we do not, if we sit silently by we will suffer the consequences.

Answer 3

The American character can look positive by the way we as Americans had suddenly shifted gears from a country that was mixed between isolationalism and being involved in Europe and the war to become a power player on the world scene unto this day. We can state how a sleeping giant arose to the occasion and turned their industries into a very arsenal for the Allies. It took character to rise from such a humiliating defeat to come back in a short period of time to alter the tide against the Axis powers.

Answer 4

What your prompt is actually asking you to do is to brainstorm how the way Americans responded to the unprovoked attack on Pearl Harbor shows good qualities about what kind of people we are (were). Think about how Americans responded to the announcement of the "day which will live in infamy." What did Americans do-- young men-- young women-- What did we do without? How did we work together? What is admirable about the way America met the challenge? Do your research, come up with three or four ways that we responded which show you (in your opinion) typically American character qualities that are honorable (adjectives!) and prove that Americans showed strength of character in response to that adversity. Keep focused on Pearl Harbor, on enlistment, on handling shortages, on stepping up to new kinds of jobs for women, etc. Decide what Americans are like and how Pearl Harbor shows that. That's your real assignment.

Answer 5

Pearl Harbor= World War I
Nazi's= World War I I

Answer 6

You could refute the whole concept of <200 million people being represented as a single character. Moreover, that any attempt to talk about the "American Character" is meaningless.

Answer 7

While of course there was alot of good, there was alot of negitive things we did, we put Japanese Americans in camps, took away thier property and never gave it back

Also we did not help most of Europe when they needed it, but waited till all of Europe excpet England was already taken over

And of course we leveled entire cities killing civilian as well as military even bombing at times our own troops in POW camps.

Not to forget the A bombs in Japan that killed millions