The attack didn’t make sense to Americans because they knew that Japan believed that the U.S. was stronger, but to the Japanese, Adkison 5 the Pearl Harbor attack probably seemed like their best option at the time. Not only would the attack diminish the American defenses on the West Coast, but it would force the U.S. into a twofront war, one in the Pacific and the other in Europe. Logically, a nation whose military is split between two fronts would be weaker than if its military only needed to worry about fighting on one front. Maybe Japan thought that between its alliance within the Axis powers and the U.S. fighting on two fronts, there was a distinct chance at victory and moving up in the world as a powerful nation. A surprise attack on the fleet could weaken Americans and give the Japanese the power that they craved.
When Stalin agreed to join a partnership with the Americans, officials were having second thoughts. Stalin was considered a troublesome ally. When news of the successful Alamogordo test reached Potsdam, top American officials began to view the atomic bomb as a way to avoid the need for Soviet involvement in the Pacific War, rather than viewing Soviet involvement as a way to avoid the need for the Bomb. Secretary of State James Byrnes was eager to “get the Japanese affair over before the Russians got in” and felt that knowledge of America’s new weapon would make the Soviets more manageable. Ways to avoid dropping the atomic bomb were never really a matter of discussion.
If our territory, interests, and citizens are in danger, they would be foolish to advocate for keeping our “isolationist” position in the war President Roosevelt uses the organization and style of his speech with great skill, grabbing the audience and then feeding them the information at just the right time and in the right order to be effective. Everyone knew that on the previous day, we had been attacked by Japan. However, Roosevelt is very specific in his introduction, citing the date, and using words such as "infamy," "suddenly," and "deliberately" in his introduction to grab the audience and pull them in to his every word. The words and style are vital, for if they had failed, the whole speech would be for naught. In his organization, Roosevelt starts his speech with very general ideas, gradually getting more specific and only after all the details are presented does he ask for war, which is the purpose of the speech.
Toland then deduced that the President must have known about the attack. Roosevelt allowed this to happen because he felt it was the only way to get the U.S into the war to save Europe and liberate the pacific. Getting us to the war allowed us, as a country, to stop Hitler and the Holocaust (Stinnett). So maybe it was a good thing after all. We all know that many American died at the horrifying attack.
Paul Fussell begins “Thank God for the Atom Bomb” with a quote from an advertisement: “In life, experience is the great teacher” (13). Throughout the paper, he argues that experience is necessary in order to make informed, pragmatic decisions. Accordingly, he uses ad hominem attacks on people who do not have experience with war yet still preferred invading Japan to dropping the atom bomb. He explains that using the atom bomb was necessary because Japan was not going to surrender – Japan’s war minister wanted to “fight to the bitter end, defending the main islands with the same techniques and tenacity employed at Iwo and Okinawa” (Fussell, 22), and after the Emperor did surrender following the atom bombs being dropped, many soldiers committed suicide because of the dishonor (Fussell, 23) – and an invasion could have had 1,000,000 American casualties (Fussell, 15). The ad hominem attacks are not necessary to support his argument that dropping the bomb was the right decision because he refutes opponents’ arguments before resorting to ad hominem, so the ad hominem must have a different purpose altogether.
Both sent air attacks on one another at almost the same time only two hundred miles apart from one another. Both sides only suffered little losses. The Japanese eventually called the invasion of Port Moresby off because they feared Americans could demolish an excruciating amount of their landing craft. The Japanese came out of the Battle of Coral Sea on top in terms of numbers. However, the Battle of Coral Sea is an American victory because Americans stopped the Japanese from doing what they had planned to do, which was to isolate Australia and to attack and take capture of Port Moresby.
After the events of Midway, the U.S. opened a gate with many successes by conquering islands invaded by Japan in an effort to stop attacks on U.S. forces. Gaining the islands was essential in order to invade Japan’s mainland in order to get closer to victory over Japan. Later in the war Japan would not have it’s mainland invaded. Most islands consisted of airfields and Japanese Bases, which were required to conquer and gain an advantage over Japan’s Army. America’s success at Midway was a crucial blow to the Imperial Navy’s fleet, which would not fully recover until the war was lost.
US wanted to focus on itself and the problems they faced within the country, never mind foreign problems. It would be a citizens surprise that the United States became a world superpower at one point and was becoming involved much more in global events and issues. Some believe that the United States shifted from isolationism to being involved in war for self-defense reasons while other say its a combination of economic reasons and self-defense. It began due to the bombing of Pearl Harbor and ever since then the US has not been for isolationism. The country then feared the spread of communism which lead into more global involvement.
Why We Fight On December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked upon American naval forces and air defenses at Pearl Harbor. This event gave Franklin Roosevelt the justification he needed to enter the United States in World War II. Other than that there were additional motivations for America’s entrance into the war. In 1931 Japanese invaded Manchuria. American had good relations with China so they told Japan if they don’t leave they will stop trading oil with them.
(Vat) After that, Japan continued its naval expansion after World War I. Looking at Japans success; Great Britain and United States realized that the Japanese Navy could threaten their interests. In order to preserve their goals, they came up with The Washington Naval Treaty. This Treaty placed restrictions on the tonnage of battleships, aircraft carriers, and cruisers that Japan could build in relation to those of the United States and Britain (Willmott). The United States argued that they had naval commitments outside of the Pacific, so the Japanese would effectively have equal