Pearl Harbor

first answer:

He didn't chose to bomb Pearl Harbor, he was ordered to. He was a man who followed the orders so he devised the plan to bomb Pearl Harbor. He was completely against it the decision to attack the United States.

Correct answer:

Admiral Yamamoto was actually the person that had the idea to attack Pearl Harbor and actively pushed for it in late 1940 and during 1941.The Japanese military leaders running Japan decided in 1940 that they would attack the British & Dutch in Asia, even at the risk of war with the United States. Although, Admiral Yamamoto did not propose the war against the British & Dutch,he wasnot opposed to it.

At this point, Admiral Yamamoto began thinking about the existing Japanese Naval Strategy & the contingency war plans for facing the US. He strongly disagreed with the currentplan to defeat the US Navy in a defensive campaign. He offered an alternative that required taking bold offensive actions to start the war. Included was a secret large surprise attack on the US military in Hawaii (including those at Pearl Harbor). He was very involved in the detailed planning of the attack, and wanted it to occur before Japanese Declaration of War.

Although Admiral Yamamoto expressed his concerns about the results of the attack after the war began, there is absolutely no doubt that he was fully 100% committed to proposing, planning, organizing, ordering and overseeing the attack.

Now, as to how wise a decision it was:

In my opinion: No, it was not a wise decision.I recommend youread the bookA World At Arms by Gerhard L. Weinberg.

The original Japanese intent was to hold the American military off for 6 months to a year. The Japanese navy leadership correctly understood that the United States was too strong to defeat in a long war. Instead the Japanese made the assumption that the US would not be willing to fight in Asia & the Pacific and would negotiate a peace that would allow the Japanese to keep its conquests.

Among the numerous mistakes of Japan was the idea (by the Japanese Army) that Japan had to attack the United States. Next was the idea, by Japanese Admiral Yamamoto, to initiate a surprise attack on the US military at Pearl Harbor and other places in Hawaii.

This surprise Sunday attack at Pearl Harbor had many unfortunate results for Japan, the most important are:

1) The attack was well documented by photographic means, proving to the American publicthat this was an intentionally planned surpriseattack that did happen on US territory on a Sunday while the US was at-peace by the Japanese (versus a chance meeting at sea that got out of control).

2) It so angered the American public and the US leadership that the Japanese would have absolutely no chance for a peaceful settlement.Instead the American public would strongly support the utter & complete defeat of Japan, even if it meant bringing the horrors of war to the Japanese Home Islands and the Japanese people.

3) Because the attack was carried out in the shallow harbor of Pearl Harbor, it would allow several battleships that were sunk in the attack to be laterrefloated, raised, rebuilt, and put back into service during the war. It also allowed for the survival of most of the valuable US navy crews of the ships in the harbor.

4) Also because the attack on the US Navy occurred at the harbor, US anti-aircraft firepower (Navy & Army) was much more concentrated than it would have been at sea. Although US anti-aircraft defenses were un-manned at the start, they were able to shoot down nine Japanese aircraft in the first wave, and then 20 Japanese aircraft in the second wave of the attack. The US Navy also sank several Japanese midget-submarines in-and-around the harbor. These are actually fairly heavy losses for Japan’s best navy aircrews in a surprise attack. The Japanese Navy up until this time only produced 100 pilots per year, so it would take them almost four months to replace these losses (with much less experienced pilots).

5) The temporary loss of battleships in the Pacific forced the US Navy leadership to adopt & successfully fight the early months of the war with only its aircraft carrier & cruiser task forces. This would create a new way for the US Navy to fight & win in the Pacific. This concept was improved as the war went on, and as many more US Aircraft Carriers were built & put into service, the US Navy would gain naval supremacy in aircraft carrier combat operations.

6) The US Navy was given a first-hand (& very personal) lesson on the absolute importance of having good anti-aircraft defenses on-board all its ships. Very quickly US ships replaced their .50 cal machine-guns with the more powerful & potent 20mm & 40mm anti-aircraft cannons in very large numbers. Also these weapons would be manned by additional & dedicated crews that were trained especially for this duty. The earlier practice of manning these guns with anybody available (cooks, clerks, etc.) during an air-raid was discarded in favor of highly trained specialists. By the end of the war, US warships had AA guns installed on just about every available free space on the deck, superstructure & even on top of major gun turrets. Ship crews grew in numbers by adding the AA crews. Additionally the US Navy adopted & practiced very effective AA tactics for ships using “mutual-support” between ships. US ships, during enemy air-attacks, were close enough to one-another to be able to provide AA fire to protect other nearby ships. This required that these ships maneuver together in-formation to avoid collisions, hence the importance of lot of practice & training. Side-note: The Japanese never learned this particular method of AA defense.

7) The Japanese leadership & public were given the false impression that their victory was at-hand, and that they were invincible. This “victory disease”, as the Japanese would later call it, led them to make several strategic & tactical mistakes in combat with the Americans & Australians.

Sunday, December 7, 1941 at 7:55 AM.

The surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Hawaii, was aimed at the Pacific Fleet of the United States Navy and its defending Army Air Forces and Marine air forces. The U.S. public saw the attack as a treacherous act and rallied against the Imperial Japan, causing the United States to enter World War II. Since the attack was on Sunday, the US was undermanned.

The attack damaged or destroyed 12 American warships, destroyed 188 aircraft, and killed 2,403 American servicemen and 68 civilians.

By 10 A.M. the last attack wave was on it's way back to the aircraft carriers that they took off from. A surprise attack, that went off smoothly and caught the Americans asleep .

It was not by chance that the attack was timed for early on a Sunday morning. The Japanese had studied the habits of the US navy and knew that many men would be drunk and sleeping it off by that time. Many more would be " in town " and unable to take part in the defence of their ships.

This attack has also been called the Bombing of Pearl Harbor and the Battle of Pearl Harbor but, most commonly, the Attack on Pearl Harbor or simply Pearl Harbor

The Japanese Navy sent four aircraft carriers on a secret mission to attack the US Navy base at Pearl Harbor on the island of Oahu. The planes achieved surprise by approaching from low over the ocean. Although the US suspected that Japan was about to launch an offensive, they did not decipher the key documents that would have told them where the attack would be, at least until it was too late.

On the morning of Sunday, December 7, 1941, the attacking planes attempted to knock out most of the ships of the US fleet docked at Pearl Harbor.

The Japanese planned to attack Pearl Harbor almost immediately after a declaration of war was delivered to the US. However, the Japanese consulate officials in Washington ran behind schedule and the attack took place before war was declared. In any case, it would have been a "sneak attack" or "surprise attack" and the US forces were almost completely unprepared for it. President Roosevelt addressed Congress the following day and war was declared on Japan.

The Attack

The Japanese sent their carrier planes into Pearl Harbor dropping bombs, strafing, and releasing torpedoes into the water. The attacks killed 2463 soldiers, sailors, and civilians. Of those, 1177 of those killed were the crew on the battleship USS Arizona which was hit in an ammunition magazine and exploded, then capsized, flipping over and sinking to the bottom of the harbor.

The US might have been better prepared, and two incidents should have indicated that an attack was under way. Just hours before the attack, a US destroyer attacked and sank a midget submarine in the waters near Oahu. The US radar stations reported contacts which were dismissed as US B-17's being ferried to the air station. The Japanese sank several US warships. But by missing the two US aircraft carriers in Hawaii, the Japanese became the victims of their own plans. Six months after Pearl Harbor, 4 Japanese carriers were sunk while attacking again at the Battle of Midway.

The Intent

The Japanese sought to destroy the US fleet so that it could not oppose their conquests in the Pacific until it was too late, with major forces having occupied the territories as they had in China and Indochina. The US had been enacting an embargo against Japan for its attacks on China (beginning in 1937), and Japan needed raw materials from abroad to use in their conquests of the western Pacific and east Asia.