Pearl Harbor Attack in 1941
(Attaque de Pearl Harbor en 1941)
[Updated in February 2012]
There is a homeless man in Japan as televised so recently.
He said, "I am more than 90 years old. I had been in military service for 18 years..."
If this respectable old man had been in service till August 1945 when the Empire of Japan collapsed, he must have been first drafted into the Imperial military in 1927.
The, it means that he had already spent ten years in the military of the Empire when the Shanghai-Nanjing Battle started in the summer of 1937. It is incredible. He must be respected.
SECTION I: Pearl Harbor Attack in 1941
It is not an easy and simple task to send 6 aircraft carriers and other war ships to Hawaii from Japan even in December 1941 without being noticed by the whole world.
(Click to enlarge.)
More specifically,
The Mobilized War Capability by the Empire of Japan for the Pearl Harbor Attack:
Aircraft carriers: 6
Battle ships: 2
Heavy cruisers: 2
Light cruisers: 1
Destroyers: 9
Small submarines: 5
Carrier-based planes: 350
This was the world first air-craft carrier centered task force at the time. No naval forces of any other countries, except the U.S., in the world at the time could match this naval task force of the Imperial Japan's Navy. Yet they expected to encounter the following U.S. Naval forces around Hawaii.
U.S. Forces in Hawaii:
(Aircraft carriers: 3...out of port at the time of the attack)
Battle ships: 8
Heavy cruisers: 2
Light cruisers: 6
Destroyers: 30
Other naval ships: 48
Patrol planes: 14
Ground-based planes: 399
If both the fleets had met on the ocean off Pearl Harbor, it would have been mutual destruction. The Imperial fleet should have lost at least one third of their ships and ship planes if they had been able to sink half of the U.S. ships and shoot down half of U.S. planes.
But, it resulted in one-sided victory of the Imperial Navy, since the U.S. military could not find the Imperial fleet approaching Hawaii before the start of actual assaults on U.S. ships in Pearl Harbor from the air.
If you observe it now carefully, you will see that it is a very courageous act of military operation on the Imperial Japan's side. The U.S. Navy should have detected their access, which was commonsense at the time, though the American Government did not order fleets and troops in Hawaii to be alerted beforehand.
And, most importantly, this attack was aimed at solely U.S. military facilities and personnel. The casualties on the American side in Pearl Harbor were as follows:
Deaths of military personnel: 2,345
Deaths of civilians: 57
In addition, it is an incredible fault on the American side that they could not notice a big Japanese fleet consisting of 6 aircraft carriers were approaching Hawaii where a great American military base was set up. While the fleet came just 200 miles off Hawaii, they could not find it. It is their fault. It is not a matter of one-hour delayed declaration of war by the Empire to America.
SECTION II: Truth of Pearl Harbor
The task force of Imperial Navy of Japan made attack planes, including Zero fighters, take off from flying-off decks of six aircraft carriers at 350 km (220 miles) north of Hawaii.
http://www.biwa.ne.jp/~yamato/nagatogata.htm
http://blog.goo.ne.jp/su3824/e/957d92995adaac2e8734d6204c385ee5
(http://www.denkaisui.com/tubuyaki8/index1125_2.html)
(http://www.denkaisui.com/tubuyaki8/index1125_2.html)
http://sakurasakujapan.web.fc2.com/main03/weaponjpnaczuikaku/zuikaku.html
On July 25, 1941, the Empire of Japan advanced its troops and fleets to Vietnam following an arrangement with the French Government that was under control of Nazi Germany in Europe.
On July 26, 1941, the U.S. Government froze assets of the Empire kept in the U.S.
On August 1, 1941, the U.S. Government imposed oil embargo to the Empire while crude oil the Empire imported from the U.S. accounted for 70% of all the oil consumption within the Empire.
However, on July 31, 1941, Chief of the General Staff of the Imperial Navy Admiral Nagano met the Emperor to report the situation: "If diplomatic relation with the U.S. should be broken, we have oil reserves only enough for two-year operation. If it should be aggravated to war with the U.S., we would consume oil fuel in one and half years. Accordingly, we cannot help but take action launching war (in order to take an advantageous position in future negotiation with the U.S.)."
In August 1941, Japanese Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe sent a letter to US President Roosevelt to propose a summit meeting to solve the urgent diplomatic issue between the Empire of Japan and the US. Roosevelt praised the contents of the letter to be about to accept the offer.
In early September 1941, Roosevelt changed his mind to reject the offer for the meeting by Konoe, leading to resignation of Konoe. Army General Hideki Tojyo succeeded Konoe. But Tojyo couldn't change the tide while both the countries were getting determined to exchange fire, though very implicitly, especially, in the US.
So, the Imperial fleet attacked Pearl Harbor, and the Imperial Army advanced to South East Asia to occupy oil fields which were mainly in Indonesia.
(Of course, to get oil fields in Indonesia, then colonized by the Netherlands, the British military forces in Singapore and American troops in the Philippines had to be conquered or destroyed. So, very easily, the Imperial Army and Navy defeated them after the Pearl Harbor Attack. The Imperial troops did not advance to South East Asia to simply rule or harass local Asians there. Anyway, this Imperial Japan's victory over Western powers in South East Asia led to independence of local Asians from their colonial masters after WWII.)
Nonetheless, the U.S. had requested the Imperial troops to withdraw from China before July 25, 1941, which the Imperial Army could not accept, since the Imperial Army had already borne a heavy burden sacrificing many soldiers in China.
So, the Japanese-Chinese War in the Chinese Continent that started in Shanghai in August 1937 turned to be a fatal cause of Pearl Harbor Attack in 1941, eventually.
*** *** *** ***
Finally, today, New Prime Minister of Japan Mr. Yoshihiko Noda formed his cabinet.
However, PM Mr. Noda appointed relatively young politicians to the ministers of Finance and Foreign Affairs, respectively.
Even Mr. Noda himself is the third youngest prime minister of Japan among those in PM Office after WWII.
Anyway, all he has to do is to promote recovery in the tsunami affected areas and the nuclear radiation hit areas in northeast Japan. Yet, I have a feeling that we will have the fourth prime minister under the DPJ regime next year, since the DPJ took over power from the LDP in September 2009.
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EA46jZD6ZM0&feature=related)
Luk 9:2 And he sent them to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick.