Why did the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor in the United States?

Why did the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor in the United States? At that time, Japan was broken by the pressure of German and domestic troops, which can be said to be the result of two extremes.

Today is the 76th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

Many people have heard of Pearl Harbor, but they don't take it seriously. After all, four battleships, two destroyers, 188 aircraft and 2,400 Americans were lost ... These figures are somewhat naive in the face of China who suffered more than 35 million casualties.

The real significance of Pearl Harbor lies not in the number of casualties, but in the fact that it opened the prelude to a real world war. After the air raid, Japan officially declared war on the United States. The next day, American President Roosevelt signed a formal declaration of war against the Japanese Empire. A few days later, Nazi Germany and Italy declared war on the United States, and the United States responded by declaring war.

When I first learned about Pearl Harbor, many people thought it was incredible. Don't the Japanese know that they can't beat the powerful American army? Originally Americans probably didn't want to fight Japan. Why should Japan take the initiative to provoke the United States in a cheap way? Dragging America into the water alive, and then being beaten by America, even the emperor was almost forced to abdicate. ...

Let's analyze from the Japanese point of view why Japan attacked Pearl Harbor at that time. Behind such seemingly unreasonable behavior lies the helplessness of a military genius.

19411On February 7, the American battleship Arizona sank after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, the US Pacific naval base.

Expansive Japan: I always feel bullied.

The "black ship" of the United States has opened the door to Japan, but the Japanese have always had a bad feeling towards the United States.

After World War I, the Washington system was established, and a new international political pattern was established in the Far East. But this system made Japan dissatisfied from the beginning, because its main purpose was to contain Japan. The "Nine Nations Convention" broke up the "anglo-japanese alliance" and dealt a heavy blow to the Japanese dream of monopolizing China. The Five-Nation Naval Treaty limited the Japanese navy to a second-rate naval "power" status lower than that of Britain and the United States. How can Japan, which is bent on fighting for world hegemony, especially maritime hegemony, stop here?

Therefore, Japan is extremely dissatisfied with the Washington system and is bent on breaking the shackles. In addition, after the full-scale war of aggression against China broke out in 1937, the Japanese quickly occupied a large area of China, which greatly increased their military strength and their ambitions. It wants to adopt a "southward policy" to expand Japan's maritime life circle. This will inevitably conflict with the interests of the United States, and there will be a war between the Japanese and American navies.

Just fight! Can't the proud Japanese have a vigorous naval battle with the US Navy? Why take a sneaky sneak attack?

We should know that the main confrontation mode of world naval warfare after World War I is battleship VS battleship, and the two ships meet and shell each other after they are in place. This model requires warships to be strong, fast and fast, so the Japanese navy is crazy about battleships, and even built the largest tonnage "Big Mac battleship"-Yamato, which claims to have a displacement of 69,000 tons.

It was very bold at that time to take a long-range attack by aircraft carrier formation and then concentrate on carrier-based aircraft for air strikes. This idea of naval warfare is of epoch-making significance in itself, and the person who commanded the "Pearl Harbor Air Attack" was Isoroku Yamamoto, a Japanese military freak.

Many people know that Isoroku Yamamoto launched the "Pearl Harbor Attack". In fact, Lieutenant General Nan Yunzhong was the frontline commander who commanded the joint fleet to attack Pearl Harbor, and Isoroku Yamamoto was just the mastermind behind the attack. He himself is not at the front.

Isoroku Yamamoto can be remembered by history because he dared to put all his eggs in one basket. You know, if this fleet is discovered by the US military, it may be attacked by panic and lead to the annihilation of the whole army. Your strategic intention has not been realized, which is likely to bring a devastating blow.

Isoroku Yamamoto's plan is not bold.

Strange to say, Isoroku Yamamoto was originally a representative of the anti-war faction within the Japanese army, and was called the anti-war "Troika" together with Mina Gwangju, Minister of the Navy, and Inoue, Military Director of the Naval Province. In principle, how can Isoroku Yamamoto, an anti-war faction, plan an air strike against the US Navy?

In fact, Isoroku Yamamoto's unwillingness to go to war with the United States is only based on realistic rational judgment.

Isoroku Yamamoto participated in the Russo-Japanese War, entered the Japanese Naval University in19/4, and then visited the United States for many times for inspection and exchange, and served as the military attache in the United States. He pays special attention to the development of American naval forces and is one of the few Japanese military leaders with international military vision.

1939 In August, Yamamoto was promoted to commander of the joint fleet, and 1940 was awarded the rank of general. As a senior member of the Japanese navy, he knows the naval forces of Japan and the United States like the back of his hand. He knows both the strength of the United States and the strength of the Japanese navy. Although 10 thousand people don't want to go to war in their hearts, if war is inevitable, as a professional soldier, he can still give full play to his expertise and find out the weakness of the US military to attack.

In the western Pacific at that time, the Japanese navy was more dominant than the United States. In the 1930s, Germany was the main enemy of the United States, so the main military forces were transferred to the Atlantic, and the naval forces in the Pacific, especially in the west, were relatively weak. Japan can still form a local advantage here.

Secondly, Yamamoto thinks that since war is inevitable, he should try his best to destroy America's combat power with one blow. He abandoned the battleship-based "cannon giant ship" strategy. The Japanese navy can't afford this trick of hurting the enemy 1000 and damaging the enemy by 800. He wants to strike as hard as possible at the United States, while protecting Japan's naval assets (the people of the whole country tighten their belts to live). The brain is wide open, and Yamamoto's attack on Pearl Harbor was inspired by a novel. 1926, when Yamamoto was a military attache in the United States, he read a book "The Pacific Ocean", which contained the plot of a carrier-based aircraft attacking Pearl Harbor.

In fact, this is not a fantasy. Later, someone really turned this combat mode into reality. 1940165438+1October, when the British navy raided the Italian military port of taranto, it really used carrier-based aircraft to carry out the raid. This textbook case gave Isoroku Yamamoto great confidence, and he dared to plan the "attack on Pearl Harbor".

So, why did Japan sneak attack with an aircraft carrier formation? You know, Japan is actually the birthplace of modern aircraft carriers. At the end of 1922, Japan built the world's first modern aircraft carrier, Fengxiang, with a displacement of more than 7,000 tons, which can carry 2 1 aircraft. Later, Japanese aircraft carriers such as Chicheng, Kaga, Black Dragon and Dragonfly were built one after another, establishing a world-leading aircraft carrier fleet. On the other hand, in the United States, they don't know enough about the importance of the aircraft carrier and always regard it as an auxiliary surface ship. In terms of aircraft carriers, Japan also has an advantage.

In this way, after comparing the advantages of the enemy and ourselves, Isoroku Yamamoto put all his eggs in one basket and let the main Japanese aircraft carrier make a long-distance attack of more than 3,000 nautical miles to sneak attack the main military port of the US Navy.

I have to say that sometimes there is an element of luck in fighting.

Japan knows that the American aircraft carrier is not in the port.

The sneak attack was almost perfect. Six aircraft carriers, including Chicheng (flagship), Kaga, black dragon, Longfei, Xianghe and Ruihe, as well as a fighter, torpedo bomber, dive bomber and horizontal bomber participated in the attack, which smashed Pearl Harbor, leaving the US Navy unprepared and helpless.

Fighter group on the deck of Japanese aircraft carrier

The news of the victory of Pearl Harbor sneak attack reached Japan, and the whole country was boiling. Just as the chief planner, Isoroku Yamamoto has a little regret, which indicates the final failure of the Japanese navy.

The Japanese navy itself attaches so much importance to the combat capability of the aircraft carrier that it certainly hopes to destroy the American aircraft carrier. The US Pacific Fleet's "Enterprise" and "Lexington" aircraft carriers became key targets. The day before the sneak attack, the Japanese navy suddenly received news that the "Enterprise" and "Lexington" were not in the port. Two aircraft carriers were used as transport ships by the US Navy to send planes to various islands and did not return to Hong Kong on June 7, 65438.

We are all here, so we must fight! On February 7, 65438, fleet commander Nan Yunzhong still decided to carry out the attack as planned. Finally, although the sneak attack achieved brilliant results, Isoroku Yamamoto still deeply regrets that it failed to sink the American aircraft carrier at Pearl Harbor. Because this is tantamount to "returning the tiger to the mountain", the US Pacific Fleet can still quickly form a counterattack force around the two aircraft carriers.

Did the United States know it was going to attack Pearl Harbor?

The Pearl Harbor incident left a big mystery, and many people suspected that the US government already knew the news that Japan was going to attack Pearl Harbor. With the powerful military intelligence system of the United States at that time, Japan was unaware of such a large-scale military operation. Who believes it?

In fact, the US military has already mastered the password of the Japanese army. 1940 In September, American scientists successfully developed a cipher machine-"Magic" that can decipher Japanese passwords. Using "magic" to closely monitor the Japanese embassy in the United States, the US intelligence department knows Japan's actions like the back of his hand.

1941July1-65438+On February 7th, as many as 2 17 telegrams were deciphered between the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the American Embassy. 19411February 2, just before the attack on pearl harbor, the American intelligence department cracked it, and Tokyo ordered ambassador Nomura to destroy the cipher machine and cipher book in the embassy. On February 5, 65438, the ambassador was ordered to let most of the embassy staff leave Washington by plane within two days. Obviously, Japan is determined to go to war with the United States.

Secondly, the target of the US attack on Japan is Pearl Harbor. 194 1 year later, all kinds of information arrived at the U.S. government, indicating that the target of Japan's attack on the United States was Pearl Harbor. The us government has not paid enough attention to this. Some people think that President Roosevelt deliberately ignored Japan's battle plan for Pearl Harbor, leaving Japan with a chance to attack successfully, thus finding a plot to break the domestic trend of "neutrality" and let the United States participate in World War II.

Did Roosevelt really have the courage to complete the air raid by the Japanese navy at the risk of sacrificing the Pearl Harbor base of the US Pacific Fleet and killing more than 3,000 American soldiers?

A more reasonable explanation is that the United States did judge that Japan was very likely to launch a sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. However, the United States believes that attacking with large warships is easy to be discovered, and Japan will attack with submarines. The aircraft carrier is a living target on the water. It is impossible for a Japanese aircraft carrier to attack Pearl Harbor for more than 3,000 nautical miles. If anything goes wrong, the Japanese carrier battle group will be discovered and it is impossible to return to Japan alive. Do the Japanese have the courage to take such bold actions?

Americans believe that if the Japanese navy wants to launch an attack, it can only be a submarine attack. However, the United States has a strict anti-submarine network, and it is difficult for the Japanese to break through. Even if it can be broken through by luck, the threat that submarines can pose to the Pacific fleet is limited, which will also give the United States a very good excuse to go to war.

However, the results of the attack on Pearl Harbor greatly exceeded the expectations of Americans.

Influence on the military thought of the world navy

Many people don't realize that the attack on Pearl Harbor caused a revolution in the battlefield at sea, and its influence was no less than that of Germany's "Blitzkrieg". Before the Pearl Harbor incident, the global navy was still shrouded in the operational mode of "cannon giant ship", and its understanding of air superiority was not sufficient.

The success of the attack on Pearl Harbor made American and Japanese naval generals aware of the importance of air superiority for maritime operations. The naval vessels in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, USA are already very strong. However, in the face of hundreds of aircraft flying from the Japanese aircraft carrier battle group, the United States has no air power to compete with them, and can only make the vessels a living target for Japanese aircraft.

What is the most effective force of the navy? The traditional navy thinks that the battleship is a representative battleship with large caliber and large tonnage, but in the late World War II, Admiral Nimitz, commander of the US Pacific Fleet, thought that the fast carrier assault force was the most effective naval force.

Aircraft carrier is the most powerful weapon in modern naval warfare. The aircraft carrier has greatly expanded its operational radius through carrier-based aircraft. At this point, the United States reacted faster than Japan. As the beaten party, Americans immediately discovered the importance of aircraft carriers for modern naval operations and realized the terrible power of aircraft carriers.

1942 At the end of May, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, the American aircraft carrier Enterprise was ready to set out for the midway war.

In the Midway naval battle, the Americans "answered blows with blows, an eye for an eye", wiped out the main carrier of the Japanese navy by means of carrier raid, thus turning the tide.

Fully aware of the important role of aircraft carriers in modern naval operations, the U.S. military has vigorously developed aircraft carriers and converted some already built battleships into aircraft carriers. America's industrial strength shows amazing potential. The disaster at the beginning of the war left the United States with only three first-line aircraft carriers, and two years after Pearl Harbor, the number of American aircraft carriers suddenly increased to 50. By the end of World War II, the United States had built more than 100 aircraft carriers, while Japan only built five after the middle of the war.

Once the "super factory" in the United States began military production, no country could compete with it at that time, let alone Japan, which lacked resources. Such a huge carrier battle group has laid a solid foundation for the United States to dominate the ocean. To this day, the aircraft carrier is still the most remarkable symbol of the comprehensive military strength of a country's navy.

Unfortunately, Isoroku Yamamoto can't see it. 1943 April 18, 59-year-old Isoroku Yamamoto was killed when his plane was shot down by a US military plane on the way to inspect the troops.

What would history be like if we didn't attack Pearl Harbor?