japan
Attack on Pearl Harbor- December 7, 1941
On December 6th Franklin Delano Roosevelt made a final appeal to the Emperor of Japan for peace, but there was no reply. Meanwhile in Washington D.C. the U.S. had intercepted a from the Japanese and were trying to decipher it, part of the message stated “diplomatic relations with the U.S. are to be broken off”. A diplomatic relation is a relationship between two countries in which they send officials representing their own country to work in each other’s country. This relation between America and Japan would now be broken off. On the morning of December 7th, 1941 a Japanese Naval aircraft took off from the aircraft carrier Shokaku to attack Pearl Harbor. The attack was planned by the commander in chief of the Imperial Japanese Combined Fleet, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto. Pearl Harbor was located on the Hawaiian island Oahu and was where U.S. had a Navy Pacific Fleet base, this naval air station occupied most of the island. At approximately 7:02 a.m. two army operators saw the planes approaching Pearl Harbor. Not expecting any attack the operators thought they were American B-17 planes which were the planes they were expecting. This attack was so unexpected in fact, U.S. Navy Secretary William Knox initially didn’t believe the news that Pearl Harbor had been attacked. A Japanese Navy Type 97 Carrier Bomb dropped a 250 kilogram bomb, and 183 planes dropped bombs as well as fired bullets at American ships in Pearl Harbor and planes at three nearby airfields. A second round of 167 planes followed about an hour later. These air raids lasted until about 9:45 a.m. This bold Japanese attack was not only out of the ordinary, but it was also very successful for the Japanese. For example, 18 U.S. Warships were damaged and or sunk (eight battleships) and 188 Army and Navy aircrafts were destroyed. 2,403 U.S. military personnel and civilians were killed as well as 1,178 people were wounded. Where on the other hand, the Japanese only lost 29 aircrafts and fewer than 100 casualties. The USS California sunk next to Ford Island due to bomb and torpedo damage. This brought the U.S. into the war, President Franklin Roosevelt declared war on Japan the next day. Everyone was quick to blame others for this attack. Many say a big blame was on Admiral Husband Kimmel, the commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, and Lieutenant General Walter Short, who was an Army officer responsible for defending U.S. military installations in Hawaii. The government found that Kimmel and Short had failed to take sufficient defensive measures at Pearl Harbor, and therefore had left the Pacific Fleet open to attack. Others argue that these two men could have done more if the government were to provide enough funding and equipment to have a proper defense methods to defend Pearl Harbor. Roosevelt called December 7th “a date which will live in infamy…” By December 8th the U.S. and Britain had declared war on Japan.
Atomic Bomb--Hiroshima August 6, 1945--Nagasaki August 9, 1945
The U.S. secretly began researching the atomic bomb after the research of the atomic bomb during the 1930s in Germany broke through. The U.S. was hoping to prevent the Germans from gaining information that might assist them in building a bomb. The top American science researchers began on building the atomic bomb; this was known as the Manhattan Project. Researchers studied the bombs at three main universities, Columbia University, the University of Chicago, and the University of California. The producing of the atomic bomb was based in a laboratory at Los Alamos, New Mexico. A total of over 100,000 people helped and worked on the completion of the atomic bomb. Soon enough (February 1945) Franklin D. Roosevelt was educated that the bomb would be completed and ready for use by August of 1945. The first atomic bomb was successfully exploded in Trinity, near Alamogordo, New Mexico in July 16th, 1945. It made a “mushroom-shaped cloud” of dust and smoke along with other various substances that rose 35,000 feet in the air. Although it was only a test run it caused massive devastation to the area. At this time Harry Truman was president he sent out a final threat to Japan saying surrender or suffer through the consequences. Japan decided to suffer the consequences. The U.S. now aimed for two big Japanese cities; Hiroshima and Nagasaki. On August 6th the Enola Gay (a B-29) dropped the first atomic bomb used in war Hiroshima, over 92,000 people were killed. Three days later another atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki killing 40,000. These series of atomic bombs basically killed of two cities, which made the Japanese realize how harmful and impacting an atomic bomb could be to a city. The discovery of the atomic bombs said to have brought a quicker end to WWII since the Germans never developed a bomb. Atomic bombs later helped the Cold War that soon followed.
End of WWII- August 14, 1945 (V-J Day)
End Results 3 years, 8 months, and 22 days after the attack on Pearl Harbor WWII ended. On August 14th, 1945 Japan accepted the surrender terms. On September 2nd President Truman signed the surrender agreement. This became known as V-J Day meaning Victory over Japan Day. Later 52 different country representatives met in San Francisco (September 1951) to make a peace treaty with Japan as well. By September 8th 49 of the 52 country representatives signed the treaty. The treaty required Japan to give up positions outside its four home islands and gave Japan the right to rearm itself for self defense and trade agreements. After Japan d General Douglas MacArthur who was the supreme commander of Allied powers ruled Japan. Japan and America ended the war officially on April 28th, 1952. By the end of the war the Soviet Union was now in control of Germany. Eastern Europe and East Asia suffered the most. For example, Germany, the Soviet Union, and the nations surrounding them lost almost a tenth of their populations. This was the most expensive war, it costed “$1 and $2 trillion, and the property damage amounted to more than $239 billion. The United States spent about 10 times as much as it had spent in all its previous wars put together. The national debt rose from $42 billion in 1940 to $269 billion in 1946” stated U.S. History.
Courtney Murphy