After Pearl Harbor did we invade Germany or Japan first?

Question

I'm almost positive we, America, went after Japan first, especially since in FDR's speech it seemed he declared war on Japan and then you had the whole Doolittle raid. My history teacher however says that we went after Germany first and the people of America were annoyed because they wanted us to go after Japan first.

what I mean really when I say invade is "go after"

Answer 1

Here is how it happened ...

Dec. 7th 1941: Japan Bombed Pearl Harbor
Dec. 8th 1941: US Congress declares war on Japan
Dec. 11th 1941: Germany declares war on the United States

It is important to note the United States never officially declared war on anyone but the Japanese -- Germany declared war on the United States which, in turn, gave the Americans a casus belli to engage in the war in Europe.

The American strategy was to fight a two front war which they divided into "Theaters" -- they consisted of the "European Theater," and the "Pacific Theater." Even before the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor the American military had been preparing for the eventuality of war, and considered Germany a greater threat than Japan. Accordingly, the primary focus of the US military after the declaration of war was to win the European Theater first, and then focus their attention on the Pacific ... and, if you look at history thats exactly what happened. The Pacific Theater, while waged at the same time as the European Theater, did not come to the fore until after the defeat of Germany.

As for the question of invasion ... the United States never invaded Japan. After the detonation of the atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagosaki the Japanese capitulated, and the United States occupied Japan during the immediate post-bellum. The United States also occupied Germany (primarily Western Germany), but after it had invaded it.

Answer 2

Attacks were simultaneous, but priority was given to the European campaign. The key words have to be "Priority". Germany was tied to Japan and declared war on the US. Talks with European Allies set Europe as the Priority. FDR would be hearing the arguments of Churchill and Stalin, while no Leader would be saying Japan was a priority.

Keep in mind that the Doolittle raid was just a small bombing run. It was more of a morale thing to show the US was fighting back and not really of any other significance. All the real bombers went to Europe.

As for time-lines.

North Africa November 1942 the precursor to Sicily and Italy

Guadalcanal - August 1942 (The Naval battle of midway was before this but it was the turning point. Midway was defensive, Guadalcanal was offensive.)

Answer 3

4 days after after Pearl Harbor, Germany declared war on the US, December 11, 1941.
Due that the European front was considered the most important war front, the greatest effort war put there.
RESON: England as well as Russia were in a very tight situation in their war against Germany and the USA could not risk to loose any of these two important Allies if defeated by Germany, because it would go against its best interests. So on the 8th and 9th of May 1945 Germany surrendered to the USA, England and Russia.

Nevertheless, simultaneously to the war on Germany a secondary effort was put on the pacific against the Japanese.
Becoming Japan the prime target after the defeat of Germany.
Japan surrendered the 15th of September 1945. Four months after germany.

Answer 4

The US was actually somewhat engaged with both Japan and Germany pre-Pearl Harbor. American service men under the shield of 'volunteer' were fighting Japan in the unit 'hired' by China, the Flying Tigers. The aircraft were US Military P-40 Warhawks on 'lend' to the Chinese government. American volunteers were also flying aircraft and fighting the Germans out of English airbases. So we had an early start with both.
But the first actual assault against either was the Doolittle Raid. Our first amphibious landing was at Guadalcanal.

Answer 5

FDR made the war against Germany the priority. thus Germany was invaded and conquered first. Japan was never invaded, but surrendered after the two atomic bombs were dropped, which convinced the emperor to force the country to surrender.

Answer 6

The key word there is "invade." We never invaded Japan. The first offensive battles we fought in WWII were both against Japan: The Doolittle Raid and Guadalcanal.

Answer 7

We declared war on Japan and then Germany declared war on us.

We invaded Germany, we did not invade Japan.

We targeted Germany a little more since it took a long time to secure the areas to attack Japan. There was a wide ocean to move across.

In some ways we did place the war with Germany first. In Europe we had allied nations under enemy control and we had other allies that were under siege. We had to move faster there.

Answer 8

blurs and Juan have it........all I will add is.....while about 75% of the Navy and 99% of the Marines were in the Pacific, only about 15% of the Army fought the Japanese.......Douglas MacArthur complained bitterly especially when it was announced, to curry favor with Italian Americans, that there were more US Army troops in and more $ being spent on Italian relief efforts in 1944 than Mac had as fighting troops in the SouthWest Pacific.....

we were certainly involved in a shooting war with the Japanese long before we came to grips with German troops...... 8 December 1941 to 15 April 1942 when 20,000 American and 45,000 Filipinos troops surrendered to the Japanese at Corregidor and Bataan,,,,,,and then were put on the Bataan Death March.....and the ceaseless war between the American and Japanese Navies that started at 8:02 AM 7 December Hawaii time......until American and British troops invaded North Africa in Operation Husky in late 42 no German and American troops had shot at each other..but a lot of destroyers and merchant ships and U-boats had fought and died in the Atlantic up till then.

Answer 9

The American forces never invaded Japan. They dropped a coulple of atomic bombs on them. The allies took Germany long before that.

Answer 10

I believe we engaged both countries at once. The annoyance with the public was that Germany did nothing to us yet we entered WWII full force in order to help our allies.