Role of Roosevelt During Attack on Pearl Harbor

Roosevelt and Pearl Harbor

On December 7, 1941, The Empire of Japan attacked the United States navy base at pearl harbor. The attack was a surprise to Americans because most people thought that Germany would be the first to strike. The causes of this attack by Japan leave a paper trail back many years to United States president, T. Roosevelt. It was Roosevelt’s policies -over the years leading up to 1941- for helping Britain against Germany in the European Theater that provoked Japan’s attack. The attack itself crippled the U.S. Navy in the pacific and was a strategically planned attack that aided Japan in conquering the Pacific.

In November 1938, Roosevelt advocated the production of 10,000 military aircraft by 1940, and the ability to produce 10,000 planes every year after. This was done to show to Hitler that we are serious, and have to ability to fight back if needed. In July 1939, Roosevelt issued a military order which required agencies related to the defense of our nation to report directly to the president. But Japan also saw this happening and kept it in the back of their mind.

There were many more policies that led to Japan’s attack. One of these was the Neutrality Act of 1939, where Roosevelt said they would remain neutral in the war two days after France and England declared war on Germany. But despite of this, Roosevelt did as much as he could to aid England/France with there fight against the Nazis. Roosevelt requested congress to remove the ban of weapons to nations at war and the country as a whole supported this idea. So congress passed a new law stating that we can now sell weapons to nations at war only if they paid cash and transported the weapons themselves. In the following years Roosevelt was clearing leaning towards the Allied Powers and did as much as he could to aid them. This is what really made Japan angry and provoked the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Japan was in need of resources, which is why they invaded China in 1937, but they didn’t just want China. By 1941 they controlled most of Chinese coastlines and they wanted more still. They depended on the U.S. for materials including steel, iron, and oil and they needed these supplies to continue their efforts. Eighty percent of Japan’s oil supply came from the United States and they could not afford to lose that. In 1940, the Export Control Act was passed, which gave the president the power to restrict the sale of any strategic materials (materials used/needed to fight a war) to other nations. This created much tension between Japan and the U.S. because the United states wanted japan to retreat from China, while japan wanted to continue to conquer. Roosevelt decided to block airplane fuel and iron to japan which made japan very angry and because of this they signed an alliance with Germany and officially created the Axis Powers. It was Japan’s need of resources that caused the tension between the two countries. But it was in the strategic interest of the United States not to let Japan become any larger of an empire.

In the spring of 1940, Winston Churchill asked America for its old and unused destroyers because Germany had destroyed ½ of theirs. They needed these ships to protect there cargo ships from German submarines and to block a Naval attempt to invade Britain. But because of the Neutrality Act, Roosevelt could not simply sell the destroyers to Britain because the neutrality act required cash for purchase and Britain had already used up its money. Roosevelt, instead, asked for permission from Britain to build America military bases in Newfoundland, Bermuda, and many Caribbean Islands and in return, Britain would receive 50 old and outdated American destroyers. Because there was no money transfer between the two nations, it did not go against the Neutrality Act.

By this time, Japan became taking notice of Roosevelt’s actions in aid of the Allies and it was at this time, that Roosevelt decided to run for a 3rd term at office. This was very surprising because all presidents before him had stopped after their second term. With a nation in the midst of conflict and the need for a strong leader crucial, he decided to rerun again. Roosevelt believed the U.S. should dig deeper into the war and help fight for democracy. Roosevelt won the election by a long shot, which in return, gave Japan more and more reasons to hate the United States.

By now, Britain was economically deprived. They had used up all funding available on the war. But it was in America’s strategic interest to continue to be diplomatic. They needed to keep Britain in the war so they didn’t have to. Roosevelt had said, “If we want to stay out of the war, we need to keep Britain in the war or else they will fall and Italy Germany and Japan will continue to conquer the world.” American then adopted the Lend-Lease Act. Roosevelt, again, found a loophole and came up with a way to remove cash requirements from Neutrality Act. The act said that the U.S. could lend or lease weapons to nations vital to nations defense. Britain was into this category, because without them, they would have to enter the war themselves. The U.S. sent Britain weapons for a promise that one day they would return them or for a payment after the war. By the end of WWII, the U.S. had lent out 40 billion dollars worth of supplies. This policy also applied to the Soviet Union and China. They began sending China weapons in order to defend themselves and to force Japan to focus their efforts on China, freeing he surrounding countries from Japanese power. These efforts by the U.S. failed, and in July of 1941, Japan was sending troops to Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, Korea, the Philippines and Vietnam, Roosevelt believe that because Japan had so much land controlled, they were now in striking distance of British shipping routes and Singapore. So Roosevelt not only limited Japan’s iron and airplane fuel, but now froze all Japanese assets. This was a big blow to the Japanese Empire because the depended on oil from the U.S. Once again, Roosevelt’s actions were noticed by Japan, and the tension increased.

Roosevelt sent Douglas MacArthur into the pacific to build up American defenses. He told Japan that if they wanted the Embargo lifted, they would have to withdraw from China and make peace with these nations. Now with japan in jeopardy because of the lack of oil, began a plan to attack oil-rich colonies in Southeast Asia which were controlled by Britain. They also decided to conquer all of the Philippines and attack Pearl Harbor. If they wanted to conquer the pacific, they could risk the United States interfering, and the only way to prevent this was to cripple their pacific navy which was stationed at Pearl Harbor. Japan appeared to be continuing negotiations with America, but in reality, it was just a mask being used to cover up their real intentions. They were becoming ever more militaristic and relied on this to continue there dominance.

Now that America was aiding the allies, German Submarines were patrolling the Atlantic attacking and sinking many of the cargo ships carrying supplies to Europe. So Roosevelt declared the entire western half of the Atlantic Ocean parto f the Western Hemisphere, which at the time was a neutral region. This led to the U.S. patrolling the western Atlantic and revealing the location of German submarines to the British cargo ships and destroyers. By now, in the end of 1941, Germany and the United states were in the midst of a standoff. Roosevelt adopted the “shoot-on-sight” policy, which said to attack any German Subs in the area. This was because many German U-Boats were attacking american ships , sinking the American Destroyed Greer. The Greer was one of the ships giving away German positions to Britain, but Germany did not stop here, they targeted more shipsone of which was the U.S.S. Reuben James. This ship sunk killing 115 Americans. But despite of this, America and Germany did not declare war, but the tension was rising.

On November 26, 1941, Japan sent six aircraft carriers, two battleships, and several other warships on course for Hawaii. The approached from the North so that it would look as through American ships/planes were coming, they would not expect them to be Japanese. And because of limited technology they had no way of telling who was who on the radars. In fact during the time leading up the Pearl Harbor, Americans had decoded Japanese communications that told them they were preparing for war against the United States. But they did not expect an attack on Pearl Harbor. The assertion that Hawaii was too far away is backed up by Jerry Bruckheimer’s quote, “Our military thought that they couldn’t get to Pearl Harbor, that it was too long a journey from Japan to get there, and they proved us wrong.” So in the war warning sent to military bases, Hawaii was not mentioned as a target.

On December 7, 1941, at 6:45 A.M. the American ship Ward, sank a japanese midget submarine near the entrance of Pearl Harbor. Between 7:02 and 7:39 A.M. an army radar picked up a cloud of aircraft approaching from the north. They thought it was a a flight of B-17’s coming from California so they ignored it as a threat. At 7:49AM the first wave of Japanese planes hit. It consisted of 183 planes including 40 torpedo bombers, 49 high altitude bombers, and many “zero” fighters. The first wave targeted Battleship row and surrounding airfields. At 8:55 A.M. the second wave of 167 planes revamped the attack. Targeting more airfields, ships. This wave ignored oil tanks and most ship repairing facilities which the Japanese would regret because the U.S. pacific navy rebuilt there power. The surprise attack sank or damaged twenty one ships of the United States pearl harbor based fleet. These numbers include eight battleships, 3 cruisers, 4 destroyers and six other ships. The attacks also destroyed 188 aircraft and killed 2403 americans. Another 1178 were injured. Pearl Harbor was so shocked by this event and were unprepared. Because the Japanese targeted not only the ships but also the air bases, it was hard for aircraft to get into the air and counter the attack.

The following day, Roosevelt said, “Yesterday, December 7, 1941 - A day which will live in infamy [...] No matter how long it may take us...the american people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory.” Roosevelt used the attacks on Pearl Harbor for reason of waging war of Japan and because of their alliance with Germany, they were now at war with them as well. His speech created great pride for Americans and he ensured victory. Because we had that sense of pride, we were not going to let Japan get away with attacking us, and we now had an excuse to get involved in the Nazis conquering of Europe. It was Roosevelt’s diplomatic approach to aid the allies militaristic position, Japan’s need for resources and America’s refusal to give the Japanese these materials, Japanese superheated nationalism and strong militaristic policies that set off the attacks on Pearl Harbor. There was no one event that caused the attacks on Pearl Harbor, it was a series of intertwined events. Without Roosevelt’s actions, or Japan’s decisions, the attacks would have never happened and the history of our country and the world would be significantly different if it were not for those events.