dec 7, 1941 - Japan attacks Pearl Harbor; U.S. Joines allies in war against axis

Description:

A naval base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, that was attacked by Japanese bombers on December 7, 1941; more than 2,400 Americans were killed. The following day, President Roosevelt asked Congress for a declaration of war against Japan.


The inevitable provocation came not from Germany but from Japan. After Japan invaded China in 1937, Roosevelt had denounced “the present reign of terror and international lawlessness” and suggested that aggressors be “quarantined” by peaceful nations. Despite such rhetoric, the United States did not intervene, even after Japanese troops sacked the city of Nanjing, massacring an estimated 300,000 Chinese soldiers and civilians, and sexually assaulting thousands of women. Japanese territorial ambitions soon expanded, much like Italy in Ethiopia and Germany in Eastern Europe. In 1940, General Hideki Tojo became war minister and concluded a formal military alliance with both Italy and Germany.

Tojo, supported by Emperor Hirohito, sought to create a “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere,” under Japanese control, stretching from the Korean Peninsula south to Indonesia. The next step was the 1940 invasion of the northern part of the French colony of Indochina (present-day Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos). When Tojo directed a full-scale invasion of Indochina in July 1941, Roosevelt froze Japanese assets in the United States and stopped all trade with Japan. This included vital oil shipments that accounted for almost 80 percent of Japanese consumption. In October 1941, General Tojo rose to prime minister and accelerated secret preparations for war against the United States. By November, American military intelligence knew that Japan was planning an attack but did not know where it would occur.

Early on Sunday morning, December 7, 1941, Japanese warplanes attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, the headquarters of the American Navy’s Pacific Fleet. The raid killed nearly 2,400 Americans and destroyed or heavily damaged eight battleships, three cruisers, three destroyers, and almost two hundred airplanes. Although the assault was devastating, it had the unintended consequence of uniting the American people. Calling December 7th “a date which will live in infamy,” President Roosevelt asked Congress for a declaration of war against Japan. The Senate voted unanimously for war, and the House concurred by a vote of 388 to 1. The lone dissenter was Jeannette Rankin of Montana, the first female member of Congress and a committed pacifist who had also voted against entry into World War I. Three days later, Germany and Italy declared war on the United States, which in turn declared war on those two Axis powers. The storm clouds of two wars, one in Asia and one in Europe, finally converged over the United States.


On the morning of December 7, 1941, a surprise Japanese attack on the U.S. naval fleet in Pearl Harbor (Hawaii Territory) produced destruction and chaos. Having significantly damaged American forces in the Pacific, Japan quickly overtook virtually all of Southeast Asia. But within sixteen months, the United States had turned the tide and begun to drive the Japanese back toward their home islands.

Added to timeline:

Date: