It is important to United States History as it marks the first time war had been brought to the country’s shores. It ended the belief that the United States was untouchable because of its distance from other worldly powers and it propelled the country into the spotlight as a world power to be reckoned with. In the early morning hours of December 7th 1941 an intelligence report was obtained by United States government officials indicating that an attack on a United States port by the Japanese was imminent. But the information was not passed on to officials at Pearl Harbor until after the attack was already in progress. The attack came in two waves, the first of which consisted of 183 planes and the second of which consisted of 167 additional planes.
Discuss the decision made to drop the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. By August 1945 the Second World War was as its final stages. Only one last victory was need for the Allies in order to win the war, a victory over Japan. Ending the war with Japan during World War 2 was both difficult and problematic for the Americans. The decision to drop the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki had many influential factors effecting the decision.
earA Rhetorical look at Pearl Harbor Address to the Nation Given by Franklin Delano Roosevelt David Thayer English 112 This speech was in relations to the horrible and reprehensive attack on Midway. It was the start of the Unites States in World War II (WWII). The influence this speech had on the American people was of great importance to the acceptance of our entrance to the war. It showed that by allowing the people to know the gravity of this incident it would get their approval. President Roosevelt used Pathos and Logos to attract the nation to the idea that if we did not act swiftly with force we would get attacked again and many more innocent lives would be taken.
The historians who support Truman, sometimes called the traditionalists, agree that Japan had been defeated but argue that Japan was not ready to surrender and was, in fact, preparing for one last great battle that would have cost millions of lives. Popular opinion tends to side with the revisionists, but I will argue that Truman made the right decision, not only for the United States but also for Japan; in fact, the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki saved Japan. Revisionists argue that the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima after Japan’s armed forces and over sixty of its major cities had been already been destroyed. Moreover, historians such as Howard Zinn argue that Truman knew that the Japanese were trying to surrender but that he ignored them because he wanted to use the Bomb (23). Gar Alperovitz, another revisionist, says that Truman’s main purpose in dropping the bombs was to demonstrate its power in order to intimidate the Russians (127).
Up until this point in the war, the U.S., had not entered yet. FDR said after the attack, "Yesterday, December 7th, 1941, a date that will live in infamy." Many Americans felt that Europe was its own issue and had its own problems seperate than ours. The U.S. had still been revovering from the Fisrt World War and was not inclinded to join another.After being attacked though, America could not sit around like a bunch of wuss girls and take it. On Dec 7, 1941 the U.S. officially entered WWII.
There are many statements and arguments that suggest that the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima was necessary to end World War II. Such as the Japanese were not surrendering, they still had fighting power as they had sunk U.S. Naval Ship Indianapolis only two days before the bombing Many of this argument can be counted as the only reason the Japanese weren’t surrendering is because they didn’t want to give up there emperor to the “unconditional surrender”, they practically had nothing left. They were sending their battleships and pilots out on suicide missions as they were desperate. Necessity of the bomb lies with the amount of people that would have been killed in a land invasion, although it was vastly exaggerated.
Japan was preparing for war as it was negotiating peace. In November 1941, an aircraft carrier air strike force secretly set sail toward the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The incident, which shocked the U.S. Pacific Fleet, confirmed that the United States would turn out to be a major trouper in the war. On November 29, the Japan government and the military chief met, and discussed the cause and effect of the war. They decided to attack the pearl harbor.
The League did nothing except protest against Germany’s past aggressive behavior and Japan and Mussolini’s invasion. All this caused Hitler to be more confident that nothing will happen if they were to invade Poland. Britain and France were also at fault for appeasing Germany. When Germany had started its rearmament and invaded Czechoslovakia, they did nothing as they wanted to appease Hitler as they believe they were not strong enough to defeat Hitler and they fear setting economic embargo on Germany would affect their own economy as they have not recovered from World War 1 and the Great Depression. Hitler was a gambler rather than a planner.
This led to the U.S. to abandon their support for non-interventionism, declaring war on Japan and entering World War II. The U.S. entered World War II in support of China, France, the Soviet Union, and the United Kingdom. These were later called the Allies. Four days later, Hitler along with Germany and the Axis powers, declared war on the United States. The Japanese seemed to have great success after Pearl Harbor as they followed this with the rapid conquest of Hong Kong, Singapore, Burma, the Philippines, Malaya and New Guinea.
The pact was the final cause of war as Hitler could now invade Poland without any interference from Stalin. Britain and France had declared war on Germany as they guaranteed Poland’s independence. However, the policy of appeasement in the 1930’s also played a big role in causing the Second World War. Appeasement had led Hitler to believe that Britain and France were weak. Britain and France gave Germany the Rhineland, the Sudetenland and they were allowed to have an Anschluss with Austria.