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In the movie Tora! Tora! Tora! , the American Naval Base at Pearl Harbor was attacked by the Japanese Air and Naval forces. The main question that is trying to be answered is; did the Americans know that the Japanese were going to attack Pearl Harbor? There is sufficient evidence to supply both sides with an argument.
Nevertheless, I feel that the evidence supporting the statement that the Americans were previously unaware of the attack on Pearl Harbor outweigh the evidence supporting the statement that the Americans knew beforehand of the attack. I feel that the Americans could have discovered Japans plans, but through a series of unfortunate coincidences, were unable to know the location and time of the attack. The American Government was definitely suspicious of the Japanese, and took precautionary measures resulting from the trade embargo between America and Japan that began when the Japanese occupied French Indo-China. To keep a close watch on Japans actions, the Navy intelligence set up a confidential task force to intercept all outgoing messages from Tokyo to every Japanese embassy in the world. When an alert was sent to look out for a possible Japanese attack, there were suggestions from the Navy that 180 planes were to keep a 360 degree patrol of Pearl Harbor. Since there were an insufficient number of planes to carry out this order, the navy set up a new radar system to monitor any planes coming onto the island.
They were planning to put it on the highest point on the island, a mountain peak. Through an order from the national park system, they were unable to put it up on the high peak, but instead on a low beach shore with many objects blocking radar reception. Lieutenant General Walter C. Short also concluded that the Japanese would attack Pearl Harbor, but in a different way.
He believed that the huge Japanese population on the Hawaiian Islands would up rise, and sabotage the airplanes on the Naval base. His solution was to round up all the planes together and keep them heavily guarded. This proved to be a fatal decision. Many doubted that the Japanese would attack America at Pearl Harbor, and gave sufficient evidence for their reasoning. Admiral Husband E. Kimmel, the Commander of the US Pacific Fleet pointed out that torpedoes plunge to a depth of 75 feet, where Pearl Harbors depth only reaches 40 feet.
Others looked towards the past, stating that Japan has never launched an attack on another country preceding a Declaration of War. President Roosevelt himself was quoted in saying that the Japanese ambassador to America was someone trustworthy, and would not stall with negotiations. America also received numerous hints that the Japanese were going to attack. Through the intercepting and decoding machine, Lieutenant Commander Alvin D. Kramer found that the Japanese wanted to end negotiations on November 29 th, and afterwards, things will happen.
He believed that America would be attacked the next day, and sent out a full alert because of that suspicion. An argument for the side that believes America knew of the attacks beforehand was the advisory sent out stating that in the event of a breakdown in negotiating, the US wants Japan to make the first attack. A counterargument would be that this was for the attacks thought to occur on November 30 th, not December 4 th. The last suspicious advisory was sent out warning that Japan would attack the Philippines, Thailand, the Crop Peninsula, or Borneo, not including Pearl Harbor. The events of December 3 rd and 4 th were the defining events that prove the hypothesis that America was unaware of the attack about to be carried out on them.
Many coincidences occurred that kept the American Government from preparing to defend themselves from the Japanese. First of all, the 13 messages sent in from Japan to the Japanese embassy in America were not read by the President, and any other officers just said to wait until the morning for the 14 th message. Little did they know that it would be too late. When the 14 th message was received, it stated to destroy the ambassadors code translating machine, and to deliver the message at 1: 00. When the Naval Intelligence intercepted this message, they attempted to contact General Marshall, but he was out horse riding. At 11: 00, Washington D.
C. time, Admiral Harold R. Stark, Chief of Naval Operations decided to notify the President about their findings, instead of any Navy officer in Hawaii. Later, an American battleship blew up a Japanese submarine, but this event was ignored and thought of as a false sighting. The radar that was set up detected aircraft coming in, but when it was reported, the superior of the people who monitored the radar told them that it was the B- 17 s coming in from mainland America. Lastly, the Japanese ambassador typing out the Declaration of War typed too slowly, therefore not getting it in to the government officials as a warning before the attacks.
In conclusion, all the coincidences stated, and the attitudes of the military officials towards the attack, kept the Americans from realizing the exact place and time of the attack. The unpreparedness of all the sailors and soldiers when the attacks actually occurred proved to be the defining factor to represent Americas ultimate mistakes in prevention of being attacked by the Empire of Japan.
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Research essay sample on Declaration Of War Pearl Harbor
