Pearl Harbor- 1941

Pearl Harbor was a crucial day in history. The Day of Infamy was  when Japan first attacked America, The Miracle at Midway was when the Japanese failed to destroy a US repair, oil, fuel yards. Not quite The atomic bomb was another cause of so much death. It was a devastating time in history. 

Before the war had begun, the world was in complete isolationism. However, Japan sought to be a Western power. So they began their conquest by expanding to Korea and China in 1937 through the Oil Embargo. The reason why the Japanese attacked was because they were seeking out resources in Indo-China. The plan was to attack the Philippines and Pearl Harbor. The Emperor at the time was Emperor Hirohito, and the military leader in Japan was 

Hideki Tojo. However, Admiral Tarnarnoto was the one planning behind the scenes. The attack on Pearl Harbor occurred on December 7th, 1941. The US missed several warning signs that the Japanese were gonna attack. Japan surprised the US. 2,000 people were killed and 18 ships sank. Franklin D. Roosevelt declared war on Japan.

At the battle of Coral Sea, Japan failed to destroy US oil, repair and fuel yards.no Aircraft carriers also failed to be destroyed. The Coral Sea was the first carrier to carrier battle. This battle was the cause of a stalemate in May, 1942. Americans intercepted a Japanese telegraph and detected that they were planning on attacking Midway, this was called Operation Magic. The US had time to set a trap for the Japanese. The US sent three carriers within minutes, and instead of the Japanese being on offense, they were on defense. 

The Japanese began Island Hopping, they sought to reach the Mainland by taking Islands first. This was a general strategy throughout the war. Tarawa was a small island that held airfields as well as 4,000 defenders and only 17 Japanese surrendered. Okinawa was the last major battle in the Pacific. There were many civilian suicides on Okinawa because of the bad stories told about Americans. About one million casualties were estimated if the US would have come to Japan Mainland. 5 million people would’ve died if the US were to invade Japan.  The Manhattan Project was a race against Germany to create the Atomic Bomb. the US bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The total death was 150,000, the war ended in September 1945.

This was a Nuclear Age in History, as well as brutal fighting that made the nuclear bomb necessary. Code Breaking also played a large part in the War. After the US resolved and recovered, the Japanese hoped that we would back down, but we fought back. Warfare shifted to carriers and aircraft, whoever controlled the sky, controlled all the fighting.