Impacts of Pearl Harbor on the World War II

First I feel we should address how and why World War II started in the first place. After World War I, Europe was greatly unstable, and many people will come out and say that is part of the reason World War II happened. Mainly though, the political and economic instability that was in Germany at the time, as well as some lingering resentment over the harsh terms that were imposed by the Versailles Treaty. All of these fueled the rise of Adolf Hitler and his Nationalist Socialist or “Nazi” Party.

After becoming the Reichskanzler in 1933, Hitler wanted more, appointing himself the Führer, or Supreme Leader, in 1934. He was obsessed with the idea of the superiority, or what he thought was a “pure” German race, in which he called “Aryan,” Hitler believed that war was the only way to gain the necessary space for that race to expand. So in the mid-1930s, Hitler began the rearmament of Germany, this was done secretly and in violation of the Versailles Treaty.

In late August of 1939, Hitler and the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin signed the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact, which incited a frenzy of worry in both London and Paris. Hitler though, had long planned an invasion of Poland, a nation that both Great Britain and France had guaranteed military support to if it was attacked by Germany. Also, the pact with Stalin meant Germany would not have to face a war on two fronts once they invaded Poland. So on September 1, 1939, Hilter invaded Poland from the west, and two days later, France and Britain declared war on Germany, thus beginning what we now know as World War II.

I guess now would be a good time to talk about how the United States became apart of World War II. On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked the United States naval fleet that was stationed in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, therefore thrusting the United States into a war with Japan, leading to their part in World War II. During this time, life in the United States was drastically changed. Food, gas, and clothing are a few examples of things that we take for granted that were rationed out.

Communities conducted scrap metal drives to help build the armaments necessary to win the war. Women were finding jobs as electricians, welders, and even riveters in defense plants. The Japanese Americans had their rights as citizens stripped from them. People grew increasingly dependent on radio reports for the information of the fighting overseas. Also, popular entertainment was used to spread propaganda throughout the United States, fueling men to join the military, and women to take over jobs in their communities.

This brings us to the nuclear bomb, the nuclear bomb uses power from combined fission and fusion reactions. After scientific breakthroughs that were made during the 1930s, the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada, all collaborated during World War II, on what they called the Manhattan Project. The Manhattan Project was made to counter the suspected Nazi German atomic bomb project that was feared at the time. After years of research and development, in August 1945, two fusion bombs were dropped on Japan, one at Nagasaki, and the other at Hiroshima. To this date, they are the only used nuclear weapons in combat. Shortly after, the Soviet Union started development of their own atomic bomb program, and not long after, both countries developed even more powerful fusion weapons that are known as hydrogen bombs.

In 1931, Japan had begun a war of aggression when they launched the invasion of China. Imperial Japan had waged the Great East Asia War that was supposedly meant to “liberate” the Asian people from the control of Western Imperialism. This was a “selfless goal” to bring the enlightened modernization of Meiji Japan to the hopelessly backward Asians who at the time were under the heel of the West. The United States was dismayed at the barbarous invasion of a huge but largely helpless country, and began to apply some diplomatic pressure in order to end the invasion, but were not successful. In 1941, the United States banned oil and steel, achieving an economic blockade to compel Japan to stop.

At this point, Japan had two options, either withdraw peacefully; or continue waging war.. Ultimately, on December 7, 1941, they chose to continue waging war. Four years later, however, Japan was on the edge of defeat, but the dogmatic military regime of Japan would not surrender. At this point, Truman had three options: bomb them, invade them, or issue multiple blockades. And in June of 1945, after Germany had surrendered, the Reich Minister of Armaments and War Production, Albert Speer, was debriefed and found out that the massive bombing campaign that had gone against Germany did not do nearly as much damage as it was thought to have done.

Due to this, they supposed that the campaign in Japan went the same way and did not do as much damage as was hoped. So it was proposed that they drop a bomb on uninhabited islands for demonstration purposes. It was considered but was rejected and for several reasons. First, the Japanese had countlessly demonstrated on multiple occasions, that no matter the odds, they were not going to surrender. At the same time, dropping a big noisy flashbulb was not going to impress an army with that mentality. And not to mention it was one of the most expensive weapons that ever developed, second only to the B-29.

By August of 1945, the supposedly defeated Japanese Empire was costing the United States more than 900 casualties each day. The United States had firebombed over 60 of their cities and had destroyed the majority of their factories, but the Japanese would not back down. They now had researched and developed radar-guided anti-aircraft guns and were taking a heavy toll on our B-29’s, as the anti-aircraft guns would shoot them, the Japanese fighter planes would come through and finish them off, some even by ramming them. Records show that the 20th Army Air Force Division had lost one hundred-eleven B-29’s by ramming, and only 38 were recorded as shot down.

At this point, the Allies had won the war in Europe and now focused their attention on the Japanese Empire. At the time, it was anticipated that the invasion of Japan also known as “Operation Downfall” would include up to one million U.S. casualties and remotely wipe out the entire Japanese population.

In conclusion, Pearl Harbor had a major impact on World War II, if Japan had never attacked the United States, they would have kept their neutrality, or they would have joined the war much later. The United States had affected the war greatly after entering and potentially swayed the outcome of the war. Japan has since been converted to a democratic government heavily structured based U.S. styles. Pearl Harbor was the stepping stone to bring the United States into an already extremely tense war among many European and Asian countries.