FREE ESSAY ON PEARL HARBOR

PEARL HARBOR

Pearl Harbor - Brief Look
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 who dropped the bomb on Japan 
because F. D. Roosevelt died shortly before that happened. Before he 
died he gave a speech about what happened at Pearl Harbor. In this 
speech he said, Yesterday December 7,1941-a date witch we live in 
infamy [total disgrace]-the United States of America was deliberately 
attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan... That was 
only part of the speech ,however. The U.S.S.. Arizona which was one 
of the most badly damaged ships because of the attack had a memorial 
made for it. After the bombing American soldiers use the phrase 
Remember Pearl Harbor to raise thier spirits during the remainder of 
the war.
This concludes my term paper on the Bombing of Pearl 
Harbor. This paper covered a brief description of World War II and 
the dictators during it, a summary of what happened before, during, 
and after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.