Pearl+Harbor+3

=**Pearl Harbor ** = = =  Hawaii had became increasingly important to the United States business interest in the late 1800's. In 1887, Hawaii and the United States renewed a trade treaty that allowed Hawaiian sugar to be sold duty-free in the United States. Hawaii also leased Pearl Harbor to the United States as a fueling and repair station for naval vessels. As President Roosevelt focused his attention on Europe, he was aware of Japan's aggressive moves in the Pacific Ocean. In July 1940, Roosevelt began limiting what Japan could buy from the United States. In September, he ended there sales of scrap iron and steel. He was hoping that using further restriction would stop Japan's expansion. Another year came and Japanese forces took complete control of French Indochina. As a response, President Roosevelt froze Japanese financial assets in the United States. After He cut off all oil shipment, that Japan relied on.

As you have read, Japan desperately relies on raw materials, and this embargo encouraged Japan to look to the lightly defended Dutch East Indies for new supplies of oil. After a few months, leaders in the United States and Japan sought ways to avoid war with each other.


 * __Final Weeks of Peace__**

While Japanese and American diplomats negotiated, a militant army officer took power in Japan. General Tojo Hideki, who supported war against United States, became Prime Minister in October, 1941. Yet President Roosevelt still hoped for peace, and continued to negotiate. A year earlier, American technicians had cracked a top-secret Japanese code. The code allowed them to read intercepted diplomatic messages. By November 27, based on the decoded messages, American leaders knew that Japanese aircraft's were on the move to the pacific. They expected an attack, but didn't know where. They were correct, a Japanese fleet of 6 air carriers and more than 20 other ships were on the move. Its target was Pearl Harbor, the naval base on the Hawaiian island of Oahu the served as the home of the United States Pacific fleet. Japan's leaders had gambled that they could cripple the American Fleet and then achieve their goals in Asia before the United States could rebuild its Navy and challenge Japan.

__**The Attack**__

On the day of the attack, Shortly after 7:00 on the morning of December 7, an American army radar operator on Oahu noticed a large blimp on his screen. He had called his headquarters to report that planes were headed towards the island. The only officer on duty that Sunday morning believed that the planes were American. "Don't worry about it," the officer told the radar operator, and he hung up the phone. Less than an hour later, more than 180 Japanese warplanes streaked overhead. Half of the Pacific Fleet lay at anchor in Pearl Harbor, crowed into an area less than 3 miles square. Japanese planes bombed and strafed (attacked with machine-gun fire) the fleet and the airfields nearby. By 9:45, the attack was over. In less than two hours, some 2,400 American had been killed and nearly 1,200 wounded. Nearly 200 American warplanes had been damaged or destroyed; 18 warships had been sunk or heavily damaged, including 8 of the fleet's 9 battleships. Japan had lost just 29 planes.

__**United States Declares War**__

The attack on Pearl Harbor stunned the American people. Calling December 7, 1941, "a date which will live in infamy," Roosevelt the next day asked Congress to declare war on Japan: " Hostilities exist. There is not blinking at the fact that our people, our territory, and our interests are in grave danger. with confidence in our armed forces--with the unbound determination of our people--we will gain the inevitable triumph--so help us god." --Franklin D. Roosevelt, December 8, 1941.

Within hours after Roosevelt finished speaking, Congress passed a war resolution. Only on of its member, pacifist Jeannette Rankin of Montana, voted against declaring war.. Even the America First Committee called on it members to back the war effort. On December 11, Germany and Italy declared war on United States. For the second time in the century, Americans had been drawn into a world war. Once more, their contributions would make the difference between victory and defeat for the Allies.


 * __Pictures Of Pearl Harbor:__**







[|The American View].
 * __Sites for The Attack of Pearl Harbor:__**

[|The Japanese View.]

[|The Attack.]

By: Mely Romito, Ari Fulcher, && Joe Schneider