On December 7, 1941 the U.S. troops stationed on the island of
Pearl Harbor were not waken up by the familiar sound of a bugle but
instead by gunfire and explosions. This is what it might have been
like if you were one of the troops at Pearl Harbor. This attack was
important because it led to other events in World War II.
Some of
these events were America’s involvement in the war and the dropping of
the Atom Bomb at Hiroshima.
Between the years of 1920 and 1940 dictators came to power in
Germany, Italy, and Japan. The first country to have a dictatorship
was Italy. Thier dictator was Benito Mussolini. He became dictator
in 1922. Mussolini organized and founded the Fascist party before he
became dictator.
After thier loss in World War I Germany had severe problems
with thier economy. Adolf Hitler and his political party the Nazis
promised they would end Germanies problems if Hitler became dictator.
The Germans made Hitler thier dictator in 1933.
Italy and Germany decided to become allies in 1939. They
called themselves the Axis Powers. Japan joined the Axis Powers in
1940.
The emperor of Japan at the present time was Emperor Hirohito.
After he joined with the Axis Powers he started taking over
countries, cities, and island in and around Japan that belonged to
countries who opposed the Axis Powers.
Joseph Stalin, the ruler of Russia at the present time, sided
with Hitler until Hitler double crossed him and tried to take over
Russia. After the double cross Stalin decided to side with the
Allies.
The Allies were the countries that were opposed to the Axis
Powers. These countries were Britain, France, the U.
S.A., and Russia.
The three leaders of the Allied Powers were Franklin D. Roosevelt,
the president of the U.S.
A., Winston Churchill, the prime minister of
Britain, and Joseph Stalin.
After World War II started Japan grew angry with the U.S.A.
because they were helping China by sending them war supplies.
Japan
didn’t like this because China was the main target of Japanese
attacks. As a result of this Japan decided to take a “peace” trip to
the U.S.A. . They made the trip in November of 1941.
During this
“peace” trip Japan made three proposals to the government. These
proposals were, to stop aiding China, to stay out of Asian affairs,
and to begin shipping oil to Japan right away or Japan would attack
the U.S.A. . President Franklin D.
Roosevelt and the government of
the United States didn’t carry out these proposals.
As a result of this Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on the
morning of December 7, 1941 at 7:55 AM. The reason they attacked that
early was because Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, the person in control of
the Japanese warships in that area, knew most of the troops at Pearl
Harbor would be asleep.
The main planes Japan used for the attack were bombers. The
number of bombers used was 350. Six aircraft carriers are what these
planes were carried on.
They chose to use bombers because thier
primary objective was to destroy as many ships as possible. They did
have one squadron of fighter planes in each wave, however. The reason
they did this was because Yamamoto predicted that the troops at Pearl
Harbor would be able to a launch a few planes. There were two waves
of planes. The first wave of planes were to destroy as many capital
ships as possible. Capital ships are ships that are powerful.
The
planes that were still up and running after the first wave were to
join in the second wave. The second wave of planes were to destroy
whatever was left after the first wave of planes finished thier
mission. These were mostly carrier ships and submarines that were
surfaced.
During this attack exactly ten major command ships were
destroyed. Some of the ships that were destroyed were the U.S.
S.
Arizona, the Pennsylvania, the Maryland, and the West Virginia.
The major results off the bombing of Pearl Harbor were
the involvement of the United States in World War II. The second
major result was the dropping of the Atom Bomb at Hiroshima in Japan.
Harry S. Truman was the president .
