Effects of the attack on Pearl Harbor Battle

Pearl Harbor Naval Base, Hawaii, was attacked by the Japanese torpedo and bomber planes on December 7, 1941. The sneak attack sparked outrage in the American populace, news media, government and the world. The Japanese raid arrived in two groups, totaling 353 planes, which were assigned to attack different air bases across the island of the Oahu and Pearl Harbor.

“Yesterday December 7th, 1941 The United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan”(Franklin D. Roosevelt, December 8, 1941)

The Japanese had developed a shallow running torpedo that would skim the surface of the water in the Pearl Harbor after being dropped from a low-flying aircraft. The primary targets were the aircraft carriers and the battleships that were among 92 naval vessels at anchor in the Pearl Harbor. About 360 Japanese attack planes had launched at dawn from aircraft carriers in an attack force of about 33 ships, causing immediately the destruction of the United States ships.

The Principal effects that this battle caused were that military started to believe in the value of the newly developed radar installation, before then they didn’t have much confidence, but the radar operator had seen a rather large indication of incoming aircraft and blamed it on birds instead of the possibility of the Japanese invasion. By destroying the main fighting power of United States Pacific fleet at Pearl, the Japanese were given free reign for about a year in the pacific. They ran a brilliant campaign and conquered territories.

Pearl Harbor may have been a military disaster for the United States, but it also unified the nation behind the war effort. The US fleet was rebuilt very fast and they started preparing their self for the war. The worst effect that this conflict gave was the United States declaration of war against Japan. US wanted to stay away from the war but with this problem they didn’t have many options. This made them change their neutral status.

This attack also caused the deaths of 2,000 American servicemen and 68 civilians and wounded 1100 other Americans. Making United States military weaker.

A good effect of this is that when the Americans enter to the war, they controlled it a little bit, and they also had the opportunity to save Jewish people in Germany and Poland. They also made an alliance with Great Britain and the most powerful countries against Germany and Japan, and this made Germany weaker causing the end of the Second World War.

We can conclude that this conflict had bad effects like lots of life lost in United States and also Japanese and the declaration of war form US to Japan, but it also had good things like the liberation of Jews in Poland and Germany and also the end of the war, because when US enter to the war, they made alliances with the powerful countries causing the extermination of Germany in the war, and also if Germany was defeated, the countries that had alliances with them like Japan would be out of the war too making the end of it.

By: Andrea Alva