My Filipino great-grandfather signed up as a soldier at 14, which was actually not allowed; He fought the Japanese in our province. I remember my mom telling me that the only thing he shot that day was coconuts so he could eat and drink during the fight. While he did this, he met a young Japanese kid, who might have been the same age, looking at him while eating. They both looked at each other but they didn't shoot each other instead, they ate coconuts together while all the fighting was going on lol...
That's awesome... I could have done the same in hunger... these courage and determination worked well when you have filled stomach. After all when fighting for someone's fight ... it's cool to be friends.
My dad was at Pearl Harbor on the USS Nevada. My Aunt often told me if a Japanese bomber had zigged instead of zagged I wouldn't be here. Dad had extreme PTSD, and I sometimes go wandering on the internet looking for explanations and answers for the pain my family and I went through. This video sums things up pretty well, I feel like I finally have a solid understanding of the "why." Rest in peace, daddy, I'm sorry you had to go through all that.
Why would your dad have PTSD from Pearl Harbor when he wasn't harmed? PTSD is falsely attributed to mental health issues that people had LONG before they entered the military.
Jane, I hope that at time your father appreciated that however badly he was affected by his experiences, (1) he was still better off than those who died or were horribly disfigured in the experience; and (2) it had to be done for the salvation of the country and there are still many people around who salute people like your father. I have always thought of it as "the last good war" meaning a war which had to be fought and which we fought not out of choice or malicious intent but to resist a country that brought savagery to war in many nations other than us. His life was meaningful - never forget that. At one time in a medical unit in the Army, I saw the result of war - and if you see enough of it, it brings out the pacifist feelings that lurk within us all.
@@stevenwolfe7101 Whether or not he was better off than others is debatable. I wasn't kidding when I said "extreme" PTSD. It filtered all the way down through all of us, his kids and grandkids. There are 14 people who exist because of dad, 3 of us have extreme mental disorders, and all but 2 have a very difficult time functioning. One committed suicide. Only dad was at Pearl Harbor, but he brought the war home with him, and spread it to the rest of us. I have forgiven him ... but it took a very, very long time.
@@janeaustin3479 That is terrible to hear. But hearing the story, my own reaction is that your father may have also suffered from something else and his wartime experiences just set him off. I think in any event, you are best served by turning the page. Many people have problems with one or both parents covering a wide variety of disorders, some of which have a genetic effect upon children. Nothing is guaranteed to us in life. I have always thought about my own family and concluded that I must play the hand I am dealt. By and large they wee good parents but there were points of conflict that I had to work out - and I did. What would Elizabeth Bennett have done?
The strangest thing about WW2 is that the high commands of both Japan and Germany knew that if they didn't deal a knockout blow to their opponents, they would lose. Their inability to produce enough weapons, train enough pilots, and have enough fuel to wage war, made Pearl Harbour, The Battle Of Britain, and Operation Barbarossa the brash and audacious campaigns they were. The Axis mentality was strike first and overwhelm. It's great when it works, but when it doesn't, you get nuked, or have the Soviets run a third of your country for 55 years.
The Germans tried to assassinate Hitler, too bad that failed. Hitler's dream of "libensraum" or "living room" was to create a vast region of Germanic people in Europe, pushing out the other ethnicities. Hitler's famous/infamous "guns or butter" comment backfired. The Germans attacked with ferocity, and with high casualties. They could never be a version of The Imperial Roman Empire. Instead, if Germany just sold goods to the rest of the world, their industrial work ethic would have made them wealthy. Hitler's obsession with the Jewish people was a leftover of the Eugenics wave of thought, and the old Crusades religious persecution culture. Germany's loss in WW1, much like CSA Dixie's loss against Lincoln & The Union created the "Lost Cause" culture of vindictive grumblers. Book burning, marches, and violence followed. Osama bin Laden had his run, but with a vast religion instead of a purely racial/Ethnicity "purity" basis. The internet replaces all that, people get swept up into dangerous thinking today. Radicalization, or the mental sociopaths adopting blueprint ideas of hate & violence, launching copycat attacks. When I was on Guam, I spoke with elders who survived the 3 year Japanese Occupation, it was Hell. Many of their stories never were published. One lady told me she was 5 years old, put into a group of female Islanders, and used as a live human target for cave-clearing training by Japanese Army. Of 16 females, she was only survivor. Rosa Garrido.
@@pinetree5184 Germany lost both wars as much in the factories as on the battlefield. In World War II in particular, American industrial might made an Axis victory impossible. Artillery alone made the superior marksmanship of German soldiers a moot point.
It wasn't like they wanted to go to war, but every major Allied nation leader was dead set on getting elected/power and receiving funding from the bankers to go to war.
@@dansmith1661 I disagree. France had its head in the sand. The Dutch thought they would be spared. The British didn’t panic until the breakthrough at Sedan. The Soviets continued shipping raw materials until 21 June 1941. Roosevelt sat on the fence until Pearl Harbour. Most countries hoped that Germany would just make a lot of noise without shooting anything.
The reason admiral Yamamoto & Japan attacked Pearl Harbor is because the U.S., Britain and Netherlands launched an oil embargo on Japan in 1941 due to their actions in China. At that time Britain controlled Malaysia and the strait of Malacca, the Dutch controlled Indonesia, and the US controlled the Philippines. As a result, Japan had no way to import oil from anywhere to propel their economy and war machine. The only two options for securing oil were attacking Russia, or attacking Indonesia. Indonesia fit their broader vision of an Asia for Asians led by Japan, so they chose that option and preemptively struck out against the US to buy themselves time to conquer south east Asia (which they did).. Their hope was that the US would not commit to a total war with them over Pearl Harbor and they could secure their gains in South East Asia.
As Yamamoto reportedly said: " In the first six to twelve months of a war with the United States and Great Britain I will run wild and win victory upon victory. But then, if the war continues after that, I have no expectation of success. "
@Anglo Saxon Who are these Americans you speak of? And, how many Japanese forces could have been landed so far away from Japan? There are many mountains and rivers to cross before arriving in Chicago. Even if the Japanese could have landed a force of comparable size to the Normandy landings, I think, at best, they would made it not further than the Rocky Mountains. The US may not have been an amazing superpower back then. But much like the Soviet Union, there is a lot of land to conquer.
Excellent video. Rare to hear the reasons / motivation of Japan to take such a drastic step. In 99% of publications the attack itself is covered, not the thinking behind the assault.
I feel the same thing about the War of 1812. We hear about it in terms of impressing sailors, trade, and Britain treating the US like a colony. It was really because the USA were trading with the French under Napoleon, the British were trying to blockade Europe, and it’s a minor side-theater to the napoleônicas wars in Europe. I was 30 before I finally learned the war of 1812 was mainly about Napoleon.
Note what you have just realized is that there are two sides to a war. Both are accurate from their point of view, the British were attempting to control American trade, did impress many American sailors and board their ships with force, and they did so in part because of the wars with France and blockades.
@@faithnfire4769 - it's important to talk about both sides and world context. Similarly to talking about the Winter War in Finland or the Japanese invasion of China, they all tie into the larger global context of WW2. I just found it odd how much the USA glosses over Napolean in its curriculum when the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars are one of the most historically significant events in world history, and even our involvement in them in the war of 1812 was framed in a very narrow field of view and out of context, which is why it never quite seemed to make sense as a war.
@@robertb6889 neither the French revolution or rise of Napolean make America look heroic or good in any way, so they are not relevant for US education.
Admiral Yamamoto told the Japanese war council, " I shall run wild for 6 months, after that I have no hope for success." He nailed the timetable almost exactly.
The Japanese wanted to attack the US because they thought the US would enter the war eventually so they did a preemptive attack. I don’t think they would have attacked the Japanese until much later. I think the US would have been more focused in Europe than in the pacific. Well, at least more than how it happened
@@AnTunZee This is all idle speculation. The Japanese did not think about the US entering the war against Germany. In fact, if they had, they would have waited until after we were already at war with Germany before attacking us. In fact, they propelled us into war by bombing Pearl Harbor. Moreover, they knew it was not a pre-emptive strike and Yamamoto famously predicted that its effect would last for only six months. Let's see: Pearl Harbor was December 7, 1941 and Midway was June 4, 1942, almost six months to the day. And after Midway, the Japanese fleet could not even protect the possessions the Japanese had acquired before the war (China excepted) and soon began to face bombing close to home and then on the home islands. Hardly pre-emptive. They thought, because this is what they would have done, we would sue for peace immediately. Bad guess. The might of the strongest industrial nation on the planet was turned against them, first on their possessions and then at home.
My great grandmother was 13 during ww2, she was alone with her baby siblings while her big brother was out to look for food. A japanese soldier was around the area and saw the hut where our great grandmother was staying, and went inside. He only saw my great grandmother and her infant siblings. She told us how scared she was for all of them and thought her big brother was killed. But the japanese soldier only left food for them, she said they must have assumed she and her siblings were abandoned. When her big brother came back and learned about the food, they agreed to feed it to a dog cuz they didnt trust it. Surprisingly the dog didnt die, so the food wasnt poisoned. She's still alive today, but has a habit of hoarding canned good cuz she's afraid to starve to death. Which we understand is a trauma from her experience in ww2.
After learning what Japan did wtf…. Reading that history was like taking a glimpse into eternal hell of torture snd powerlessness against torture. I think it was right for the USA to bomb Japan. It was for the greater good because if you read the history in detailed and fully, your mind will crack into insanity. If I was in that time and the Japanese invasion was successful, would kill myself and my children so we don’t have to experience horrors that awaits us. I rather be dead than become a slave or be tortured and brutally raped
For anyone interested in the essential story on Japan and its inner circle of leadership leading up to Pearl Harbor, I'd highly recommend Eri Hotta's book 1941. It's a fascinating account of how Japan essentially stumbled its way into a war that many if not most of its leaders knew that it could not win. This video is a good start to understanding it, but the deeper story is really fascinating. Just thought I'd add this comment at a WWII history lover wanting to share the goods . . .
You can cite this and that but it doesn't change the fact that it was a false flag. Look no further than the fact we dropped two nukes on civilian locations and purposely avoided leadership and the emporer. People go to war. Nations don't exist. If so, put it in my hand. Not to mention they magically avoided all radar and detection on the initial attack on PH. I know a thing or two about ww2 but all that matters is the beginning and the end and it appears the card dealers won and got away with their plan. I'm no stranger to hated and lies
The commanding officer of the Japanese fleet that hit Pearl Harbor, Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto, did not want to undertake that mission because he knew the US very well, having spent some time here in the 1920s and 1930s. He knew what the true score was. He told the powers that were in Japan a short time before Pearl Harbor something like "We will be attacking a country that is ten times better than Japan in a large variety of ways." But that pack of idiots ignored that and told him something like "If you do not follow our orders, it'll be Sepukku for you." And when the fleet returned to Japan after the attack, he told his superiors something like "I fear all we have done is to have awakened a sleeping giant and filled him with a terrible resolve." Again, that same pack of idiots ignored him. And that terrible resolve turned out to be Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Contrary to US propaganda the Japan was pretty much completely destroyed by conventional bombing. Bomber pilots didn't even have targets anymore because nothing was left. There was virtually no threat and the idea that "invading the mainland would have been bloody" is nothing more than a myth. All the men were on the front lines anyway and Japanese leaders and the emperor were simply looking for a way out that allowed the emperor to remain the figure head. The US insisted on "unconditional surrender" and then allowed the Japanese to maintain the emperor system anyway. The point of Hiroshima And Nagasaki was sending a message to Russia. We WILL use these things if we have to so take note. The use of the nukes was a crime. Plain and simple.
@@bigdoinks8325 actually, carpet and firebombings killed more than the nukes combined, the nukes were just an experiment from physicists and chemists that were skeptical, but the Gov. still gave it a shot and that leads to an endless energy source only that environmentalists are not awake yet as to the potential of it.
@@doublestrokeroll "The use of the nukes was a crime. Plain and simple." - I don't know what planet you are living on, but the US military was predicting 1,000,000 US casualties in an an invasion of Japan!!! The Japanese were the most fanatical & devoted fighters back then & would have stopped at nothing to resist a US invasion and occupation in 1945!!!!! And the use of The Bomb affected me and my familly directly!!!! I am past 78 years of age, born August 16, 1943!!!! My father & my uncles were in the armed forces then & facing what could been the most terrible battle of all time!!!!! The Little Boy and the Fat Man prevented that!!!! Although they were not human beings, I consider them to be the greatest superheros that ever existed!!!!!
@@paulvirgo9798 america started it by enforcing embargos on Japan and wanted Pearl harbor to have an exeuse to go to war. If america did not enter ww2 it would not be a superpower
American was trying to use its economic power to influence the war without having to actually send people to die. Applying it so forcefully gave the stubborn Japanese an ultimatum: yield or go to war. It was a game of chicken on both sides that resulted in a collision when neither would budge. A good lesson for today with Countries like China and Russia and the US. If you push too hard against either side’s interest, it’s likely to go the same way, with Taiwan looking to be a likely spark.
@@sdgvscrwogs2483 no draw, the US can always build more ships. Japanese decisive victory will only prolong the war in the pacific with Japan losing in the end.
My grandfather was a mechanic in the Dutch East Indias quickly defeated army. He and all his comrades were captured by the Japanese and transported by ship as prisoners to Burma. Whilst travelling the ship was relentlessly bombed by Allied forces leaving few survivors. Once being picked up by a trailing Japanese ship along with other survivors, my grandfather worked on the Burma railroad, which too was bombed by US forces who had no idea that they were bombing their own and inflicting significant casualties. On one occasion my grandfather had a piece of shrapnel from a bomb blasted into his leg which was taken out without any pain relief. As a mechanic my grandfather would often travel with Japanese supply trucks, which he used as a way to smuggle in medicine and food for the other malaria and hunger stricken prisoners. Throughout his stay in the atrocious conditions of Burma my grandfather recalled one escape which took place. Three Americans made their way past the guards and into the jungle, never to be seen again. The guards, recruited from Korea, were cruel bullies who enjoyed torture and prisoner mistreatment for their own amusement. Upon Japanese defeat my grandfather caught a serious case of Malaria which kept him bed stricken for over a year. After his recovery he traveled to Holland where he met my grandmother.
You are spitting some facts here thank you… I hate when Korea try to blame all the atrocities on Japan only when there were many Korean soldiers in Japanese military back then who also committed atrocities…
That's was truly sad story for all who suffered in our Burma region, people still found things of WW2 in northern of burma,the world already stoped of WW2 but we still fighting in Burma between us 😢
Nobody ever said they attacked for no reason. 🙄 They attacked because their stupid. If you come to any other conclusions after watching this video you are stupid. 🙄
being japanese american and born close to 1960, i had classmates who teased me about Pearl Harbor and why my ancestors bombed it.....it still hurts til today. Abit off topic but kinda similar.....for me also as still being single, i fret alot of times when I SEE the popularity of now, japanese mixed couples (japanese woman with white man)....I often think back of how white americans would put down and criticize japanese people......YET, its alright and fine for the men to marry japanese women. I honestly feel.....by the time i am in my grave, no japanese woman would find interest in me. You may want to tell me hows about dating white women.......fyi, alot of white women are jealous of asians because their "man" is NOT interested at all about dating their own......they strickly seek and desire of asian women only. And white women also do criticize japan about the Pearl Harbor issue.
@@lonelypigeon7562 Don’t feel bad about the bombing. None of it was your fault and that goes for anyone. Its like telling a German should be blamed for the Holocaust, even if they were not even born
It isn't racist to point out that Japan is entirely responsible for what happened. I say that as someone who loves Japan. No country is free of sin. America is guilty, and I admit it. Japan should remember and admit its sins as well.
My grandfather and his brother both volunteered for the war from Canada, my grandfather fought the Germans through Italy and his brother fought Japan. he was captured and spent a couple years in a Japanese prison camp. They tried starving the prisoners to death, they survived off of mice, urine, and birds. My Grandfather rose through the ranks in Italy but was eventually demoted because he met a beautiful Italian women and failed to report for duty a couple of times lol. he was demoted to private after spending one too many nights with her. His Commander asked him if it was worth it. and he responded "absolutely" lol
No! Don't sanction Russian Oil! "But they invaded a neighboring country and are killing people there. We need to sanction their oil to starve their war machine and save innocent lives!" Wait a minute, are you talking about Russia in Ukraine 2022, or Japan in China and Korea in the 1930s/40s?
This helps me to better understand what happened to my grandparents and great grandparents in the Philippines. My grandfather witnessed his baby brother get bayoneted to death by the Japanese. When the Japanese invaded their village, my great grandfather knew how to strategically grow food and keep it hidden from the Japanese, and that's how our family survived. They moved to the US successfully approximately 25-30 years later.
Do you know what their thought process was behind killing a child? The terror aspect? BTW Philippines is a great place and I have worked with and have a lot of respect for the people. The women also respect femininity and it's very hard to not admire them. Good Day.
The Filipinos, like the Chinese, were constantly victimized by the Japanese during the war. The atrocities committed by the Japanese against these people were brutal. so much for the so-called "Great East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere".
Well done, you cover most of the topic, but one slight detail; the Japanese hadn't developed a brand new torpedo, they modified their existing air-dropped torpedoes by attaching a wooden fin, braking the dive, and making it stay shallow when dropped.
@@YT97898 Yes this is true. Not surprising that it was the president who also decided to start selling weapons (as he mentions in the early part of the video) to other nations found a way to go to war which lead to all of our tax money going to these same weapons manufacturers.
You missed the main reason why Yamamoto opted to attack Pearl Harbour in the first place. Yes, Japan decided to risk war with the U.S. in pursuit of the natural resources it desperately needed. No question about that. And the original military campaign involved a move south - ONLY. But when Roosevelt moved the Pacific fleet to Pearl Harbour from its original base in San Francisco, Yamamoto knew full well that such a move put the U.S. fleet within closer striking distance to the attacking Japanese forces in the south. Hence he devised the plan to cripple the fleet at its berthings.
@@Zayb3lll Outside of USA there isn't really all that much emphasis of pearl harbor when going through WW2 history. The only reason it gets mentioned at all is because it's a reason for USA joining the war.
In our school, we were taught that Japan shouldered its noble duty of freeing long suffering mother Asia from Western Colonialism.. [For more, pls read the informative multi-pages comment by 'Lonely Alaskan' at, "Complete History Of Indigenous America Before Colonialism/Chronicle", on RUclips (which by the way, got pushed down below 150 other comments lately)]. Like I said, Japan shouldered its noble duty of freeing long suffering mother Asia from centuries-long Western Colonialism.
Most schools don't teach a lot of the 20th Century, especially World War One, World War Two and the Korean War. They also don't teach why communism is wrong and dangerous.
This video is an excellent "nutshell" lesson and a fine summation. Kudos to the researchers, writers, military film experts and the host's presentation. Most well done!
This information is often overlooked. Inspiration for the plan to attack Pearl Harbor may have been books published in 1921 and 1925 written by Hector C. Bywater a British journalist and military writer who was the naval correspondent for the London Daily Telegraph. The title of the first book was “Sea Power in the Pacific.” Part of the book was later expanded into another novel, “The Great Pacific War.” In that book, Bywater describes a surprise attack on the U.S. Asiatic Fleet at Pearl Harbor, with simultaneous attacks at Guam and the Philippines. The Japanese Navy General Staff had “Sea Power in the Pacific’ translated and distributed to their top naval officers. They also adopted “The Great Pacific War” for the curriculum at the Japanese Naval War College. The U.S. Navy started using Pearl Harbor as a mid-Pacific resupply and refueling point in 1899. The Naval Shipyard at Pearl Harbor was established in 1908. From 1899 onward there were always Navy ships at Pearl Harbor.
Can you imagine if the US found out about this too and distributed the book too? The Japanese fleet was vulnerable to detection as it travelled through half the Pacific Ocean in open water. All it would take is for US officials to be fully aware of the possibility of a simultaneous strike and give Hawaii's bases the order to do to reconaissane to the west, not just a 'sabotage' war warning that they actually got. If the news got out this Bywater guy could have accidentally designed and dismantled the Pacific war before he realised what happened.
The Japanese took a lot of inspiration from the British airstrike against the Italian fleet at the naval base of Taranto en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Taranto
I'm in the year 2024, 80 years after the end of the war. I am very grateful for the state of U.S.-Japan relations in 2024. I would like to express my gratitude to all the Americans and Japanese who have worked toward peace since the end of the war. I'm Japanese. Sorry if my English is wrong.
The British Navy's attack on the Italian fleet, at Taranto Itally, one year before Pearl Harbour, provided the Japanese with the idea on how to attack the US fleet, when Swordfish Planes, took off from HMS Carrier, 'Illustrious'' , in the MED, with special shallow water Torpedos, and sank 3 Battle ships and put out of action 5 other major ships. The Americans studied the British attack, and talked of installing anti-Torpedo nets, to protect their ships, at Pearl ; but did nothing about it. But the Japanese, it is said, learned a lot from the Taranto raid.
While this is often repeated, I have to note that there is evidence that it's not the case. First and foremost, Japan had been working on how to stabilise air-dropped torpedoes for years prior to either Taranto or Pearl. The Kyoban modifications (breakaway wooden stabilisers) make their first appearance around 1936/37 and are different to the British solution to the problem (a wire running between the torpedo's nose and the aircraft, essentially forcing it to bellyflop into the water). The implication is that the Japanese had been working on the technical side of such an attack long before Taranto and thus it had at least been vaguely contemplated. It might not have been Pearl and it probably wasn't - plenty of other potential adversaries in the area had shallow anchorages as well and Pearl wasn't the Pacific Fleet's main base but just its forward anchorage until summer 1940 - but the basic scenario was presumably under consideration. The other elephant in the room is Fleet Problem 13. This was a US Navy exercise held in 1932, simulating a "militaristic, Asian, island nation" (sound familiar?) attacking Pearl Harbour. The definitely-not-Japanese commander, Rear Admiral Yarnell, pointed out that the positively-not-the-Japanese had a preference for surprise attacks. He therefore left his battleships behind and sprinted the carriers Saratoga and Lexington to a position NNE of Pearl. And on the morning of Sunday, February 7, 1932 (a date that did not live in infamy...although perhaps it should have done, at least in the USN), 152 planes roared into the attack. The immediate result? White flour. White flour everywhere along Battleship Row and pretty liberally spread everywhere else, since the planes had been dropping sacks of the stuff to simulate bomb hits. Quite how much of a cleanup job the enlisted had afterwards is not recorded. The umpires declared Yarnell the winner and the USN learned a valuable lesson...no, of course they didn't. The exercise was barely over before the top brass were complaining to the umpires. Yarnell had attacked on a Sunday (the sacrilegous cheek of it!). He'd come in from the NNE, mimicking planes arriving from the mainland (and if you're wondering about that, since Pearl is to the west of the contiguous states - Alaska) which was distinctly unsporting. And most importantly of all, apparently everyone knew - just knew - that Asians didn't have the hand-eye coordination to accurately drop bombs at low level. The fact that the IJN had been operating carriers for 5 years at this point and the Japanese naval aviation service - which you'd think would have been an interesting collection of lawndarts were that the case - remained distinctly un-crashed seems to have passed them by. The entire episode, however, did not pass by the Japanese who had a consulate on Oahu. If there was foreign inspiration behind December 7, 1941 then it is to be found here. Taranto might have served up a few fine details for the IJN but the core idea had been around long before 1940.
@@Yuzral that’s an excellent analysis, and completely new to me, having grown up with the Taranto theory it’s interesting to get some facts into the conversation, thank you.
@@tancreddehauteville764 What does the size of the body of water have to do with anything? You launch a torpedo from a few thousand yards, not a few thousand miles...
My great-grandfather was a vet of WWII he didn't fight the Japanese he ended up fighting the Germans he stormed the beach in Normandy there and I heard a couple of stories of things that happened and I'll put it this way we couldn't even wake that man up from a nap without risking Our Lives is PTSD was so bad
Excellent. Even for a history buff who has done a lot of reading, this piece offered detailed analysis of factors not usually covered in histories intended for general audiences. Congratulations!
Detailed, concise and comprehensive. It's analysis of this kind that allows a person to understand why an event occurred, instead of simply demonizing it for emotional payoff. Not to mention, the Japanese were concerned about getting colonized the way the Chinese were by the British. Holland was claiming Indonesia and Taiwan. The French took Indochina. They didn't want to go down that road. But technology is a force that is hard to defy
You and everyone else who believes the absurd propaganda that the people in charge of the US government and military did not know the Japanese were going to attack Pearl harbor are flat out ignorant.... They ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY knew & allowed it to happen so as to have the perceived moral High ground of defending themselves against Japan's aggression.... The attack on Pearl harbor was provoked and WANTED to obtain the support of the citizenry of the United States for the war they wanted but needed an event like that so that people like you would foolishly believe and write history as it's been written.
My Paternal Grandfather served in the US Army 1931 to 1941, Honorably discharged as Staff Sargent Aug 1941 from Hickman Air Field. Married my Grandmother while in Hawaii (1939) They both went back to the main land. (My Dad born May 1940} Next day along with 3 other family members were on line at the recruiters office. He was told to go home and he will be called for soon. Spent February 1942 through out 1944 working for OSS in Europe. We found many letters to Grandma that were officially blackened out/cut out from him. Sorry for the drawn out typing. Looking at his Pre Attack old photos of Pearl Harbor. Amazing I am holding in my hands real 80 year old photos. God bless that Greatest Generation. They were children of the depression, and as Adults fough the greatest fight.
A tragedy that the values, love of country, God and fellow Americans of that generation has evaporated into what will soon face a much greater threat. For some time our current leaders have grown unacquainted with the meaning of resolve. The brave young men of today's military are as likely to be shot from behind by political correctness as to be shot by the enemy they are facing.
My paternal grandparents and my Dad(2months)his brother and sister was there in hawaii.my Dad later on joined the USA Air force and manned the communication Tower s.my Aunty died Dec 7 2019.. RIFP
But with their sneak attack they’d stirred up a national anger where the USA wasn’t going to back down. They thought that they’d balk at the brutal meat grinders of those assaults, but were wrong.
@michael boultinghouse the noble cause of conquering everyone else because they thought themselves as superior? The “noble” treatment they gave to chinese, korean, philippine etc civilians was horrific.
@michael boultinghouse They were inside China and other nations shooting up their soldiers resisting invasion by their 'rescuers', and murdering their civilians.
Its hard to accept that Americans, even some over 50 yrs old, are clueless as to why Japan struck the USA. Most warfare since the dawn of civilization has been over natural resources, with oil at the top of that list, in modern times. No surprise today, that Japan builds many of the most efficient engine-driven machines. Availability of natural resources combined with a culture that's driven to excel.
Having worked with the Japanese for many years I found a couple of consistencies. They are more reactionary then proactive. Their plans tend to lose strength over time. Look at how Fukushima has been handled. They are very loyal to the team, company and/or government. They tend to fight amongst themselves but not show it to an outsider. Again these are one persons observations.
One of the big problems the Japanese military had in WW2 was that their Army and Navy disliked each other. This led to and lack of cooperation between the two in the Pacific War.
It's so ironic that the USA adopted Japan's isolationist policy after destroying Japan's isolationism by forcing Japan to open its national security using threat of Gunships.
Different sort of isolation. The US still traded with anybody for the most part. Japan prevented foreigners from even talking to it's citizens. And wouldn't even take back their own if they were contaminated by being overseas.
@@joseph1150 That seems even worse. It's not like any American trade was affected since Japan didn't trade with anyone. I guess gunboat diplomacy came full circle bc Japanese Imperialism didn't emerge from a vacuum
the usa was only isolationist to keep Europeans and Japanese away. FDR knew what was about to happen, but he had to play to the peaceful sentiments of the USA. He played everyone like a fiddle in ww2 my bro.
Personally, I think that Japanese fears of an attack on their flank from American forces in the Philippines and Pearl Harbor were unwarranted. If the Japanese had attacked the European colonies which contained the resources that they wanted without attacking US bases, I think that it would have been very hard to get the American public to support a war to save other peoples colonies. Unless FDR and his pals in the UK had a false flag operation or two tucked into their war plans, the response would have been limited to harsh diplomatic language and additional sanctions...
You might be right but Japan's decisionmaking had been signifignatly compromised by that point. Something like more than a dozen serious politicians (including multiple Prime Ministers) had been assasinated in the years prior because they weren't jingoistic enough according to fanatical military cabals. The US' political condemnations were deemed as an insult to the honor/pride of Japan. Many of the civilian leadership of Japan could legitamently fear assasination by military fanatics if they didn't take a hard stance against the US, even if they weren't drinking the Kool Aid that the Yamato Spirit could overcome the odds and beat the Americans.
It's the worst and stupid decision, why not bribe US company to lobby the US government to not intervention japan, just give the US company some island in south east asia. "Know yourself and know your enemy" are the basic of art of war, maybe japanese leader too confident in their capabilities so their became idiot
A conspiracy theory has it that a certain European intelligence agency secretly nudged/tricked Japan into attacking the US so as to draw the US in to the war on their side. A war the US had tried to avoid on several occasions.
What's crazy is we trained Japan's pilots years prior to this. Even an army air corps officer predicted it. I remember seeing an old documentary in my rotc class
We didn't train Japanese pilots, dude- and the Army Air Corps general who predicted an attack on Pearl Harbor claimed that it would come from Japanese land- based bombers operating out of the Marshal Islands. Just sayin...
@BasicDefense care to provide a source for this? A quick google search doesn't say anything about the U.S. training Japanese pilots prior to Pearl Harbor. If you have a link or any info about the old documentary you mentioned that'd be good too Edit: Given that he still hasn't responded, I'm gonna have to say this is fake news
@@ThePersistentKoala yeah that compulsive need to add to "USA created it's enemies" myth making . The only such case of "train thy enemy" i know was Russia training German pilots and tanks . Those trainees would later train the entire Luftwaffe and Wermacht that invaded Russia.
Thank you for this excellent video. You do a fine job of succinctly describing Japan's motivation for attacking Pearl Harbor, as well as its overall objectives in Asia. This was very helpful.
i think ur not quite right about japans long term thinking. there WAS a 3rd strike planned for oil storage and dry docks but the commander was nervous, cancelled the planned strike and withdrew.
Nagumo was willing to sacrifice half of his carriers to carry out the attack. Once the first two waves were so successful with minimal losses he decided not to press his luck. If he had carried out those 3rd and 4th wave he would have significantly delayed the US getting back into the fight. Imagine if the Yorktown was not able to put into to Pearl Harbor after Coral Sea. She would not have been at Midway. Her planes sank a carrier, and she absorbed all the blows from the Japanese air strikes.
No, a third wave was not planned. Nagumo's oilers were not in position to support a 3rd wave. Genda (and others) did indeed urge Nagumo to strike again; Yamamoto later admitted that a third strike probably should have taken place, but that he could not have ordered Nagumo to do so without a serious loss of face. Nagumo had succeeded in doing what the original plan envisaged, and his orders were to inflict as much damage as possible on major warships (on which naval thinking at the time was centered, to the exclusion of much else) then get the hell outta Dodge and preserve his strike force for upcoming operations in the south. Since most admirals (worldwide) still believed in the primacy of the battleship, the PH attack was viewed as a sort of high-stakes commando raid, not the opening salvo in a brand-new form of naval warfare. Over the next 12-18 months, of course, a brand-new naval paradigm asserted itself quite vigorously.
@michael boultinghouse .... from the (very flawed) perspective of the Japanese leadership at the time, it was a gamble but by no means a suicidal one. Most did not think that US industrial power could be brought to bear as quickly and energetically as in fact it was. (Many in the US might have agreed.) The thinking was that by the time the US got its act together, Japan would have seized everything it needed to resist US retaliation.
No, any further strikes would not have targeted the oil storage or the dry docks. Oil storage and dry docks were not on the target list AT ALL. The target list was: 1) sink 1 or more battleships, for propaganda and strategic purposes. (7 available, 4 sunk, 2 badly damaged, 1 lightly damaged) 2) sink the carriers in port, if possible. This was because they are expensive capital ships and the fleet scouts of US doctrine (which they partially knew, as we published it in country). None were in port. 3) sink any cruisers you find (8 were in dock during the attack, 3 were damaged) Destroyers, submarines, auxiliaries and infrastructure were never on the target list, but auxiliaries ate a sizable percentage of the ordinance deployed, as did a few destroyers.
Japan also harbored a grudge against the West for their encroaching in what Japan felt was their area of economic control. They also felt that while they had fought on the side of the Allies in WW 1, they were short changed in receiving territories that were surrendered by the losing side.
WW1 and the aftermath were a cluster****, but that doesn't excuse Japan starting a new, and bloodier world war than the first one. It doesn't justify Japan butchering tens of millions of civilians of the surrounding countries to steal their land and wealth. Japan emerged as a monster that had to be put down with the power of the sun, because only after that could their economic and government be replaced with one that actually made prosperity in Japan possible while allowing them to live peacefully with their neighbors. Keep in mind, when Japan started WW2 with their invasion of Manchuria, the Western countries were shedding territories like their lives depended on it. The age of colonialism was already ending.
Isn't that what the Israel - Palastinian conflict is about...territories won in war? You think Japan should have been given surrendered territories after WW1? That was mostly the genesis of WW2, Hitler wanting "German" territory given back.
It's not a grudge per se, it's survival of the fittest. If you did not acquire iron, coal and oil, you'd end up as a colony sooner or later. Japan did not want to end up as another European colony.
This video is worth watching as it points out Japan's resource problem after Second Sino-Japanese War, which is way more convincing than some views based on conspiracy theory. As a Chinese, I also glad to see the video admits the war efforts during WWII by China. Besides, another worth mentioned factor was the Two-Ocean Navy Act, passed after the defeat of France in 1940, which aimed to increase the size of the U.S. navy by 70%. This meant that Japan's power advantage over the U.S. Pacific Fleet during the naval holiday would cease to exist within two years.
The Japanese were mad about being cut off from scrap metal and petroleum sales when we ruled some of those markets. It was said we were penalizing them for the Chinese invasion. This led to hostility, but Pearl Harbor was attacked for two reasons: 1-the British had effectively attacked a somewhat similar anchorage at Taranto(Italy); 2-the Japanese thought we were not made of stern stuff, so if they sank most of our Pacific fleet's capital ships, we'd be out of the war for months...or years. Had they sunk some of our carriers and made that additional attack on Pearl Harbor facilities, that might've been the case. Instead, we made a remarkable recovery and in only 6 months, we basically won the Pacific war at Midway...
so you admit that usa provoked the war with japan leading to increase in brutalities among the Chinese citizens. Also japan went to war with china in the first place cause of the spread of co**unism within it's lands and isn't some random event that happened as your history books teach you. So what you think this was a good thing that usa did or should they have tried an alternate route?
@@MGrey-qb5xz These are complex issues that defy one-sentence answers. Japan had a disdain, and fear, of China for ages; note the symbol of 'the rising Sun'. This moment in history, Japan had the technology perhaps to finally strike back at the giant off their shores. Your comments somehow invert the events so we(US) are to blame for Japanese actions in China. The truth in the event was they attacked Pearl Harbor and we recovered and fought back. We didn't even make it our top-level concern; we agreed with the UK that Hitler was the no. 1 threat...
This is a fantastic video that sums up (pretty much) everything you need to know in less than 15 minutes, without any extra fluff and jibber jabber. Well done! I can see where Japan thought that they were at a crossroads to either just remain as a puny little island nation or "go for it" and try to create an empire. I think their strategy was about the best they could do, to meet their goals, but they severely underestimated the resolve of the US military and people!
Thank you. That’s the first time I’ve understood this. It’s quite a complex story, but you’ve managed to drill down to its essence. Great video. Thanks again!
My grandfather in-law was a Soviet non commissioned officer with Zhukov at Khalkin Gol. They kicked the tar out of the Japanese forces there and were still stationed there a couple of years later when Stalin desperately needed troops of the calibre of these victorious Siberian troops to head west to Moscow to bring their fighting elan/esprit d'cour with them to alter the mindset of the demoralized Soviet Red Army and to stop the Germans outside the gates of Moscow in early 1941, and that is exactly what they did. The Germans were suddenly on the defensive and now found themselves pushed back about 200 miles further west from the initial contact they had with the Red Army in the area around Moscow!
Shame Putin/Russia is not on the side of an allied world this time...he is the aggressor. No idea how this all ends other than demolishing a peaceful Ukraine and killing so many of the innocent. Putin needs to be removed by his own people for these crimes of war. He needs a war trial. Conviction and death.
1. The battle at khalkin ghol was practically a draw . The Japanese high command just decided to concentrate thier attention towards the south (and eventually towards pearl harbor) 2. The Germans didnt make "initial contact" with red army at Moscow. Just a few weeks before that they encircled and destroyed over 650,0000 red army troops,(largest encirclement in military history)delaying thier drive on Moscow, which is why the Siberian divisions had enough time to get there before the exhausted and now frozen German army could regroup and take the city
And as I said elsewhere, many Europeans did not know of this battle and its result which led them to underestimate the Russian Army. Zhukov was unquestionably a great general.
My Japanese grandfather fought against the Russians in Manchuria… his squad was captured and became POWs. Many of his colleagues were sent to Siberia never to be seen again. My grandfather never spoke about the war again…
It would only have bought them mere weeks or months. Had they occupied the islands they would have had years as trans-pacific missions were incredibly hard and Hawaii as a base of operations and refueling extended the arm of the USA.
My dad and uncles on both sides of my family, numbering about eight persons, joined up and fought the battles. My paternal grandmother worked in a munitions factory, my maternal grandmother volunteered for the Red Cross.
Your story is remarkably similar to mine except all my Aunts joined my Dad and the Uncles to serve in some capacity--so there were 12 of them. One Uncle actually witnessed the mob that mauled Mussolini and his mistress and has the pictures to prove it. My mom served as well. Thematic to this discussion, she was stationed in Hawaii in the Coast Guard, although after Pearl Harbor.
My grandpa fought on Oki in WWII and was in the Army. Iwo is more famous but Oki was more brutal. Ironically, my dad, an Army officer, spent several weeks on Oki, for processing, before heading to Vietnam. My daughter's first duty station in the Marines was Camp Kinser on Okinawa.
Both of my uncles on my Mom's side, my late Father, and my next-youngest Uncle on that side were too young for WW II. ALL of the remaining 8 Uncles and Aunts served (One uncle in the Merchant Marine, rest in various Military/aux branches). My paternal Grandfather died during the war, *apparently* as a Merchant Marine sailor likely on a North Atlantic convoy, but that's supposition from what little I've ever been able to dig up about Grandpa from my uncles. My maternal Grandpa was both a farmer, *AND* worked at the Indianapolis Uniroyal plant both during and for decades after the war (retired around 1974) - essential occupations so did not serve in the Military. Of my "too young" uncles, 2 of the 3 served during Korea - as did my late Father.
Brilliant explanation! Now I understand! I have been asking my ex-military friends why Japan attacked Pearl Harbour, with no good response. Now I can show them this video. 🇨🇦
@@bighands69 What are you talking about? France folded rather quickly. Hitler posed for photos in front of the Eiffel Tower while his soldiers goose-stepped to their heart's delight up & down the Champs-Elysees 😂 Where Germany was delusional was in their belief that they could sustain an all-out war with the Soviet Union (forget about invading it) while AT THE SAME TIME fending off the expected attack from the Americans & the allies from the west. Basically, they were delusional they could win a war fighting on two separate fronts against multiple, not to mention formidable, opponents.
Minor error: Wake island , with 500 Marines and 400 civilian volenteers, recieved air raids on that day, repelled an invasion attempt on the 11 th, using 5 inch and 3 inch guns, and held out until the 23 RD. of December.
The problem here is, Japan started their plans and training to go to war with the US in early Spring 1941. Months before the embargo. And they could not go to war with the UK and Dutch and leave a strong US astride their supply lines. Once they committed to the Southern Strategy, they were locked in and war was coming. With or without the embargo.
There were many other things that drove Japan into a frenzy way back before 1931. One of which was their Racial Equality proposal at the Treaty of Versailles. Guess which country rejected their proposal? US.
@@JinKazama92 wrong. It was not the US that rejected it but the UK and France. That was because both had colonies in the region and elsewhere. But the issue goes beyond that, to at least 1900 and what Japan did after that.
A fairly good essay here, about much of the goings-on that led up to Pearl Harbor. However, you have glossed over some very important points. ("glossed over" means you mentioned them, but very slightly) The US had war machinery in the Philippines much earlier than Pearl Harbor. They were blockading Japan's oil shipments. The US, England, and France tried to 'paper' this problem in 1912 with a treaty that required Japan to limit their ocean-going ships to mid-sized and smaller. This meant no oil tankers. Washington wanted that oil, and were prepared to do anything to get it. Washington goaded Japan into war when they saw that Japan was not going to stop buying a lot of oil.
Not many people realize this and don't understand how America perfectly pivoted herself to get into the war for its economy. It wasn't to "help the global community" it was to pull the country out of the depression. Japan simply tried to kick put colonial powers in Asia already raping the East for the previous 100 years.
Growing up in the shadow of the second world war, I remember the attitude toward the Japanese and Germans. My grandparents portrayed them as monsters. Looking back at history, I understand why.
*My Filipino great-grandfather signed up as a soldier at 14, which was actually not allowed; He fought the Japanese in our province. I remember my mom telling me that the only thing he shot that day was coconuts so he could eat and drink during the fight. While he did this, he met a young Japanese kid, who might have been the same age, looking at him while eating. They both looked at each other but they didn't shoot each other instead, they ate coconuts together while all the fighting was going on lol...* 😍😍
The embargo that lead to the Pearl Harbor attack was brutal, but multiple US newspapers stated that an attack was expected; the US was negligent and that lead to the deaths of many soldiers (including my grandmother's brother.) One interesting note, you hear about the internment of the Japanese; but rarely ever about Italian and German internment. While Joe DiMaggio was serving his country (USA) his parents fishing boat was burned by the government and they were interned.
You don't hear about German internment because it was much smaller scale and much more selective only targeting nationals. They were shipping off entire families into camps with the Japanese and even just normal citizens and American born Japanese Americans
@Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus It was terrible. But on the other side of the coin, thousands of "Americans" went back to their ancestral homes to fight for Japan and Germany. We have so many examples of this when these "Americans" were used to translate propaganda on the radio, or help interrogate allied POWs. Who's to know how many more were spying on the country or attempting to start pro-axis movements from inside the nation. That's war in a diverse Nation of immigrants. Hell, my own great grandmother donated thousands to her German homeland, causing her to forever be disowned. You never knew what any of them back home could also be up to. War is terrible for all involved, especially if you are an immigrant from a current enemy.
This is such an intellectually dishonest statement and it's absolute bullsh*t. The "embargo" didn't lead to the Pearl Harbor attack, Japan's imperialistic behavior led to the attack. We don't have to sell to anyone, let alone murderers & war criminals. They were sociopathic imperialist warmongers and they got EVERYTHING that came to them in the end.
@Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus Where did you get this information? I have spoken to a number of German Americans who served in the war and none of them ever said something like that. In fact, Chester Nimitz was a German American from Fredericksburg and he was put in charge of the entire US Navy in the Pacific.
Really interesting and well done! In Germany we don't learn that much about this side of WW2 (well, I mean there also is a good reason why we focus more about our own role, so no complaint here), so I really learned a lot by this well made video. Thanks IWM
I worked with a number of WW2 vets from America, and know and did business with a few German veterans of WW2. I find that this sentiment is often felt: m.ruclips.net/video/1PJkNZ30WV0/видео.html
I admire Germany for telling the truth to its people about wwII and Hitler’s crimes unlike the United States for hiding our misdeeds for 246 years and continues to cover it up. This will all end badly I’m afraid. We seem bent on creating Hitler’s world.
A subject that merits a good investigation. However this clip seem to underplay certain facets of Imperial Japan's policies, while not really lay out the progression of sanctions pursued by the US and allies as non-military measures. For instance, 1931 wasn't Imperial Japan's "first step at empire building." There were wars against Qing era China and Tsarist Russia. And then diplomatic moves, like the 21 Demands of 1915 sent to China, the effort to acquire German concessions in China after WWI, etc. As for the progression of sanctions, first: The US had engaged in economic sanctions in relations with Japan prior to 1940, but the Fall of France greatly alarmed the country. The "Moral Embargo" on aircraft and aircraft parts took place in July 1938; the US announced intent to abrogate the 1911 Treaty of Commerce and Navigation in July 1939; and then as mentioned in the clip, the embargo of industrial equipment in June 1940. That progression continued after the fall of France, like in July/August 1940 with exports to Japan of metals, aviation, gasoline and lubricating placed under Federal control. Then actual occupation of Tonkin by the Japanese took place in September 1940, which was followed by a riposte by the US, with increased financial aid to the KMT that month, as well as embargoes of sale of steel and scrap iron to Japan (that went into effect in October 16). A day after that embargo was announce, Japan sighed the Tripartite Pact with Germany and Italy. Of course Japanese occupation of key facilities in Southern Indochina in July 1941 escalated the crisis, leading to the full oil embargo and freezing of Japanese assets. Now at that time what gets overlooked was FDR's proposal to have Indochina regarded as "a neutralized country in the same way in which Switzerland had up to now been regarded by the powers as a neutralized country." (source. page 145 of "Japan 1941" by Eri Hotta). Other piece of context missing is that in the first half of 1941 the US really wanted to avoid conflict in the Pacific as things intensified in the Atlantic (the establishment of the Support Force, Atlantic Fleet in March 1941, more extensive US patrolling of shipping lanes, planning around taking over the occupation of Iceland): "The US preoccupation with the western Atlantic accounted for Washington's initial willingness in the spring of 1941 to reach some kind of peace with Tokyo that would ensure that Japan stayed out of the imminent war with the Nazi." (page 181 of "Japan 1941" by Eri Hotta) Seems this could have been a good opportunity to provide a more comprehensive account of the series of actions / reactions of the antagonists with more context.
Thank you. This video reeks of neo-Marxist wokester dogmatism. The effete nasal hipster accent and the assertion at the one-minute mark that the US had an empire like Britain tell you most of what you need to know. He (or whatever the pronoun is) probably has a sham PhD from Brown.
Wasn't there Advanced warning of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour by 'novice' radar operators who were not convinced of what they saw on the radar screens and even denied an interpretation? Conspiracy theories abound of course.
@@MaverickSeventySeven A radar unit picked up signs of incoming aircraft at around 7am on Dec. 7th supposedly, so about 55-57 minutes before the first wave of Japanese aircraft began hitting their targets. Couple of things though, the technology was immature, believe the crews were still ramping up on a mobile unit, and aircraft from the West Coast were expected to be arriving soon. Otherwise, a Japanese sub was spotted and sunk hours before.
My father's 21 year old cousin from Victoria, B.C,was a Fighter Pilot,sadly he was shot down in the first few hours of Pearl Harbour. RIP. K.White. 🇨🇦 🍁
@Melissa H The U.S. attacked Japan with bat bombs- small incendiary bombs attached to live bats. They weren’t very effective, but it’s a really interesting story of unconventional warfare. Apparently, Eleanor Roosevelt was a booster of the bat bomb tactic.
What is a submarine aircraft carrier? No such ship ever existed. The "bombing" in Oregon was balloons the Japanese released into the stratosphere loaded with ammunition. A few exploded and caused virtually no damage - but news was censored during the war so the there would not be a panic.
somewhat incorrect, so, yes Japan had an oil problem but also rubber and a steel problem. How to solve it for them was to take control of Malaysia, Dutch East Indies, Burma, India, and Indochina to secure all of these items for the short term. They could not do this if the US pacific fleet was in existence. This is why they planned and then attacked Pearl Harbor-to take out the US pacific fleet, its air arm (carriers, and land-based AC) and hopefully secure their position in the Pacific.
They could have taken control of all of those territories with the US Pacific Fleet still in existence. If they had simply avoided American possessions, it's quite possible that the American public would not have supported going to war with Japan.
@@christophermurphy7113 America, Britshit, French and Dutch "possessions" Japan was the last place in the entire Pacific to be grabbed by Imperialists and rest assured they were well aware of that fact
I've read many books on our war with Japan. My favorite (I've read it twice) is "Japan's War" by Edwin P. Hoyt. I don't know if it's still in print but it tells the war from the Japanese perspective. Not to justify their actions, but to better understand them. One point he makes is that our conflict with Japan didn't begin in December, 1941; it began July 8, 1853 - the day Commodore Perry sailed his black ships into Tokyo bay. Hoyt paints a picture of how that one act lead inexorably, like dominoes falling, to the attack on Pearl Harbor, and on through to the end of the war and its aftermath; how the army and navy hated each other and even were known to work against each other; how poor officer discipline was. JIA Officers commonly decided for themselves if their orders were aggressive enough and if they felt they weren't they often ignored them. This in fact, helped us to win. A GREAT read.
I feel like suggesting a link between Perry sailing his ships into Tokyo Bay in 1853 and Pearl Harbor is a massive stretch. The two events were in no way connected. In fact, Japan gained from opening up to the world so I fail to see how they would be pissed off about that nearly 100 years later.
@@AsymmetricalCrimes There might be a case to be made in Japanese national pride being hurt because they had to bend a knee to the Western powers at the time. Though they gained a lot, it took a while before their power was acknowledged, in the form of their defeat of the Russian Empire, an old bear in decline. Even then, they were forced to give up much of their territorial gains by Western powers, mostly because Japan couldn’t afford to hold them. This however caused outrage at home as the public thought the government was being weak and had bent the knee to foreign influence again. It caused a period of violent unrest where the Army and Navy fought each other for control of the government by assassinating the other’s politicians. It stopped finally when the Emperor stepped in, but it left the main issues unresolved, those issues which helped cause partially Japan’s willingness to go on a conquest war in South East Asia and join World War 2.
@@Kaebuki I wouldn't say Japan lost alot of territory. They still gained a bunch of islands from Germany after World War I and still controlled Taiwan and Korea by the time WWI ended. To me, the their origins of their resentment of the west came from how they were treated at the Treaty of Versailles and how European powers refused to see them as equals. Also President Woodrow Wilson being a massive racist and being super condescending with Japan.
@@AsymmetricalCrimes Forced to open at gunpoint because they could not keep the foreigners out through force of arms..Americans love to downplay that fact. Also, Japan was driven by a fear of being beaten and then colonized as was happening to to several of its neighbors during that time. So, I think that a line can be drawn directly from Perry's uninvited and unwanted intrusion to the Pacific war. Japan was attempting to defend itself by copying the behaviors of the westerners which including conquest and colonialism, which in spite of a lot revisionist history to the contrary were nasty, destructive, and quite wasteful of non western lives.
@@AsymmetricalCrimes America and the west as a whole were massively racist. Woodrow Wilson was not an aberration of some kind his mentality was mainstream. The League of Nations was doomed to fail because it was premised on a global racial hierarchy which would never have been sustainable.
this was a great video. I am Indian and my grandfather fought in Burma & Kohima against Japan, along with his brother. He spoke little of it. I just returned from a 12 day trip to Japan & wanted to challenge my views on WW2. I visited Hiroshima & the Yushukan Museum/Yasasuni Shrine which significantly covers the war. I understand Japan's perspective, though I have now become more a centrist than agreeing unilaterally with the Allied view
Maybe if you'd study other historical outlets of knowledge other than those of the Japanese you might learn a little more. My father was a US Marine in the Pacific. He took two Jap bullets and was a POW. The torture inflicted upon him was unspeakable. I don't know how he survived. Learn about what the Japs did to the Chinese before the war. If you truly understand "Japan's perspective" perhaps you can help explain the mass murder of Chinese civilians, the Bataan Death March and the other atrocities they perpetuated. And don't forget the warnings they were given by the Truman administration before the atomic bombs were dropped, which they chose to ignore.
I believe that, in truth, good and evil are just words shaped to mean different things by different people in different times with different intentions. What really moves the world is power, and the pretty much universal desire to secure it, to subdue others. There's really no innocents in history, no one without blood in their hands, which is why we should learn with our past mistakes and their consequences.
It's ironic that the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor to make sure they could secure oil supplies, yet failed to attack the fuel storage. Had they destroyed that the US would have been seriously hampered, as the fleet would have been forced to operate from the West coast. Having to operate from there would have given Japan more time to realize their plans to take territories in the South Pacific, and fortify those holdings. Even with the outrage the US felt, this would have made the Pacific Campaign much more costly.
It was on their target list, but not as first priority. As their losses were rising with the base alert, Nagumo decided a third wave would be risky. A few factors might have been that excessive loss of pilots here might have crippled their future capabilities and also tarnish his near perfect victory.
@@bluerationality That's the point. They knew how critical the oil supplies were, but failed to connect that with a primary goal. Destroying the fuel oil first would mean that any surviving US ships would almost certainly have been pulled back to the West Coast, eliminating them as a severe threat. I don't think thos would have drawn off that many planes out of the first wave, and would have had a bigger impact for Japan but in the near and medium term. Long term, they were doomed from the start.
Yeah. First take out planes, whoops where are the three carriers? where is even one damn carrier? fuel depots should have been next target, dry docks, FDR knew it was coming, had to have it to declare war all over. It was about moniitary systems. He sure did back the Communists financially.
I have to wonder? The Americans probably could have rebuilt the fuel storage facilities pretty quickly. And maybe, they could refuel directly from tankers like they did aircraft carriers, etc., at sea?
Well the easy answer is that Japan knew that war with the United States would be devastating for their war effort, so they intended to deal a “decisive blow” to our naval capabilities, making us less of a threat. Their mistake was not attacking everything necessary to deal the blow they wanted. Our shipyards and oil fields were mostly still intact, which meant that our navy would recover very quickly.
They could not reach our production. The Oil storage at Pearl though was something they PLANNED to attack in a "later wave" - then decided to ignore it, which proved DECISIVE to Midway (we don't have the fuel to defend Midway had that oil storage been hammered and a large percentage of it made to burn).
It was reported that they were aware of the attack but took it for granted. Also the Japanese ambassador thought it was nuts and tried to talk them against it. But mistakes were made...
You may be right about the motive; but bringing the US into the war was likely the largest military blunder in history. Maybe had they invaded the Hawaiian islands they'd have crippled in the Pacific fleet. When the Soviets realized the Japanese would be busy fighting the US; they were able to transfer Zhukov and thousands of troops from the far east and save Leningrad and Moscow, had they fallen it certainly would have been of great aid to the Axis.
When Germany was about to declare War on the Russians,Henry ford had an assembly line in Germany selling small trucks. At the same time Henry Ford had just sent some of his employees to fix the problem on the "New" (T-34) getting the turret centered was the main problem.
Yes, Stalin's master spy, Richard Sorge advised Stalin that the Japanese would not be fighting with Russia which allowed Stalin to ferry troop for the Far East to the battle zones. Interestingly, Sorge had advised Stalin that the Germans would invade Russia on June 22, 1941 but Stalin ignored the warning. He thought when the fighting began that it was just a German "provocation" to force his hand in attacking Germany. That's why in the first weeks of the war, Russia lost enormous numbers of planes on the ground, troops, land and so on. Caught napping notwithstanding a mass of warning. Conclusion: even paranoids have real enemies.
"but bringing the US into the war was likely the largest military blunder in history."...no it wasnt once germany finished in europe america would have been the next target, and they had all the nuclear scientists,those bombs wouldnt have dropped on japan but on american territory,america had no choice but to join up
@@Blobby192 not even close dude.. first of all Germany’s navy was not on par with the with British let alone the Americans.. he could never reach the usa even if he wanted to.. u just can’t invade the usa especially back then, just imagine what it would have taken to get there forces on us soil
@@lonemaus562 sure you are right in what you say however that is as the war was going in europe at that time, once the germans and its allies had full control of europe that includes africa, russia the middle east etc it would have secured more than enough resources, oil, tec and men to mount an attack on americas mainland,(the japanese attack on pearl harbour comes to mind) and beyond. .im not saying germany would win the war on american soil what i am saying is germany would have had america in its sights next and a lot more powerful too.
Fantastic video, thank you! How Japan thought the US would bow down is beyond me. But the US has made similar tactical blunders (albeit much less costly) in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan underestimating the fights that were to come after US attacks.
The blunders that are ww2 are just not used to new technology advances *ie radar system What happened with Vietnam was political just like afganistan was political that's why we lost both of those conflicts
I think it is often missed that the purchase of weapons by the UK from the USA gave the US the ability to switch production of products developed for the British and gave them a head start as by the end of 1941 this production was well under way
The US gave the Russians over 20,000 tanks, over 20,000 aircraft, over 400,000 vehicles, machines for the factories, industrial components, food, specialized materials and so on. That was the reason why the Russian military that was defeated was able to them gather them self up and start a counter offensive. There is a lot of mythology about the war that the US culture has helped to become prominent such as Russia winning the war and so on.
@@bighands69 and UK supplied tanks which were used in frontal assaults due to heavier front armour, in fact UK built more tanks in WW2 than the Germans, supplied aeroplanes and even operational squadrons too.
The Japanese were not targeting the battleships at pearl harbor my friends. They were targeting the carriers, Yamamoto wrote that the worst case scenario would be to destroy the battleships and leave the carriers intact. That would force the US to use the carriers, which would end up being way superior to any battleships. Great video
Japan knew there were no carriers at Pearl Harbour, but they attacked regardless. The targets were battleships, which even Japan considered the most important ships in any navy.
@michael boultinghouse Don't think Stalin like being messed with in the late 1930s, nor like the uncertainty around a border like in the June-Sept 1941 timeframe. And, he wanted back former Tsarist territories/privileges and then some (like economic penetration of Xinjiang). To say Stalin had no ambitions about North Asia is probably not accurate. The division of Korea came well after Yalta, in the last days of WWII in Asia, and permanent division wasn't a given until after a train of events in the fall / winter of 1945. The Yalta agreement called for an attack on Japanese territories/forces three months after the end of conflict in Europe.
@michael boultinghouse Stalin wasn't forced by anything. He had built up an enormous force and wanted both payback, as well as to pursue various aims in Asia dating from the 1930s. The Soviet Union didn't lose a third of its population either. The population was almost 200 million just prior to the German invasion. The US landed in South Korea well after the Soviets had entered North Korea. And North Korea had considerable assets at the time due to Japanese investment, like one of the largest ammo factories up by Hungnam.
@michael boultinghouse o think South Korea is unwilling to be communist slaves to get unification. NK isn't offering to give up communist control. And after long enough, the reasons for such unification becomes less important. Family on the other side of the 38th has died off and become more distant relations. Their primary motivation will be the suffering of their fellow Koreans. And that won't change with unification under Kim.
@michael boultinghouse The bases are there to help repel, a N. Korean invasion, just like they did last time. We could debate whether there was a whole lot of difference between the two regimes at that time, but the fact is S. Korea is a thriving free democratic society today, while the North is not. And I'd be willing to bet a weeks pay that the S. Koreans aren't going to give that up for Uncle Fatty's tyrannical dystopia. The upshot of the whole thing is the bases will be there as long as N. Korea is a dictatorship with a penchant for attacking it's neighbor.
The three US aircraft carriers assigned to the Pacific Fleet were Enterprise, Lexington and Saratoga. None were in Pearl on December7th. Big E and Lady Lex were returning from missions to deliver Marine air groups to Wake and Midway Islands. Sarah was in Washington State undergoing repair and refit.
They knew it was coming. The Americans forced Japan to attack with all their sanctions. Result. Many Japanese now consider Japan to be another American state. They have competition of course with Germany, Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria ... and coming soon to a country near you.
One of the surprising things about the attack on Pearl Harbor is the fact the general MacArthur in the Philippians saw that and did absolutely nothing. So when the Japanese attacked they were just as unprepared as Hawaii.
That was something I'd never heard until the WW2 in real time channel covered it. Pearl Harbor was less defended because the US was building up its air force in the Philippines: an air force that was destroyed ON THE GROUND AFTER Pearl Harbor was attacked. This seems to me the biggest refutation of the Pearl Harbor advance knowledge conspiracy theory.
When it came to the air assets, there is considerable controversy. Otherwise, the US forces aside from those of the Philippine Commonwealth were pretty modest in size and means. The Philippine Military on paper was achieving some size, but was pretty new and green: "The Philippine Army totalled 120,000 and the Army of the United States 31,000."
@@michaeldunne338 It's more a case that MacArthur knew of the attack on Pearl Harbor and did nothing. So these aircraft in the Philippines were destroyed on the ground just like those in Hawaii. You would think Pearl Harbor had not happened. And none of the defenses were manned either.
That is not true. As soon as the alert came the American fighters took off to provide cover. There was supposed to be a simultaneous strike at these bases by the Japanese. However early morning cloud cover prevented them from taking off from Formosa. When they finally arrived over Clark Field the American fighters were low on fuel and bombers returned from scouting runs. This allowed the Japanese to deal a devastating blow to the US Far East Air Force.
Great video… it just occurred to me that the statement “Japan’s desire for an empire” really was a small band of Japanese leaders with absolute power and an unsuspecting public. But everybody suffered for it.
Pretty much the same as America's 0.1% richest steer the direction of the entire country into bankruptcy (the national economy on the verge of defaulting on it's debts and the eventual fall into skyrocketing inflation), while getting richer and richer, themselves.
Europeans can have Empires, enslaving Natives, why not the Japanese?? They are fierce fighters but their land is very small, that is another reason they lost the war. If they have had land like the current China or Russia, it would be impossible to defeat. Anyway, time & again some countries become powerful to challenge the West which will create future conflicts and the subsequent shifting of power.
Thank you, thank you, thank you. I finally "get" why Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and why it ultimately lost the war. I've watched other videos on RUclips and none of them explained the events and situation as clearly and succinctly as you did. Basically, Japan was successful in the early part of the war because its army and industry were modernized rapidly, thereby outpacing the progress of other East Asian countries (such as China). Japan sought wider influence by increasing trade routes and increasing economic output, but in order to do this needed physical resources such as iron or oil, which are of short supply in Japan. The Imperial Japanese Army therefore invaded Manchuria and Northeastern China, but soon after were met with strong resistance from both China and Russia, crippling their plans to extract more resources from the Mainland. The Japanese then mobilized their navy in order to secure additional resources in the Southern Pacific, but overestimated the amount of time it would take for the US Navy to recuperate. The fact that the US Army/ Navy were somewhat late participants in World War 2 (supplying Allied troops but not actively fighting with them) meant that when Pearl Harbor got bombed, the US was ready and willing to go to war with a nation on the other side of the planet. Had the Japanese waited a bit longer before attacking Pearl Harbor, and the Axis powers crippled Great Britain, Japanese territory could possibly be greater than it is now. Responses welcome, and once again, thank you Imperial War Museums!
Well, it's worth noting that regardless of American intervention, Britain wasn't going to be crippled. They were evenly matched with German/Italian forces in North Africa and the Regia Marina in the Mediterranean, as well as slowly winning the Battle of the Atlantic, while Britain itself was relatively comfortable. The Royal Navy was about the same size as the US Navy at this point, with similar numbers of carriers and battleships, albeit the British had more modern battleships operational in late 1941. All of that meant that even if the Japanese didn't attack, and the Americans joined the Allies, the US Navy would've retained the bulk of its strength in the Pacific, particularly the carriers. The US Navy was rapidly expanding even before the Japanese attacked; the longer they waited, the stronger the US would get. The British were also a factor, as while they were thoroughly distracted for the moment and could station two capital ships to Singapore, the Japanese couldn't count on that lasting forever. All of which meant that December 1941 was the best time for the Japanese to strike when their enemies were most vulnerable.
The key factor was that the Americans had an ace in the whole so we’re relatively confident in joining the war. Otherwise japans plans would have succeeded
Interesting. Only what planet? Huh? It's 2023. We know better. Adolf Hitler was confident he had the EDGE because he studied Gleason's Standard Map of the World and knew the earth was FLAT.
in those days america is the only country with a knockout genocidal punch. this time with china's rise, japan and germany will make sure it's going to be a knockout punch. and u missed the centry-long opium holocaust in china from 1850 to1950, turning china into a nation of opium zambis. the little brother japan had to do something for its knockout big brother china. u also missed the fact that the whole asia was a huge western colony for hundreds of years. the pearl harbor clean out mission by japan was loooong overdue. finally, the earliest christians 1650 in japan was acting like such savages that japan had to kill them all. and the all-xtian crew on the enola gay abomber kill same number of japanese 40,000, in the buddhist vs xtian war that u guys misnomed it as wwii. apan was liberating asia. what u guys heard was the forgery by russia, the tanaka memorial, that japan was going to conquer korea, then china, then america, finally the world. but in fact, japan just put the confucian way into it's constitution and tried to block some young turk of the militay so hard that its own prime minister and minister of education was assassinated by those young officers. also, iris chan of rape of naking book fame got a free mental hospital stay after exposing the tanaka memorial forgery and finally took he own life for not being able to live with the lie that "CIA used" her to propagate. in order to split japan and china, for the sake of using japan as a proxy to fight china this time.
Germany had no reason to declare war on the US. Japan attacked America which is not a defensive act, duh. Germany just shot themselves in the foot by attacking Russia AND declaring war on the US As for Japan, well, GG.
Well germany had reasons, since the us wasnt in the war as military power but by supporting their enemies with weapon, so they clearly decieded tomtake part and not to stay neutral. But it was a stupid descision anyways.
You should write not "the reason", but "the unreason" . All this attack was absurd and Yamamoto knew It well. Ironically, he was in charge of the strategy.
My grandfather fought the Japanese in the Philippines for the US. That’s how most of my family was able to come to the states. I even saw the grave of one of his friend in Cebu. I think located in Carmen cebu.
Thanks, that makes things a lot clearer. I didn’t get why they chose to piss off an opponent they had no way of beating, but if they thought American intervention was inevitable anyway, that makes a lot more sense (well, from their point of view). It was still a suicidal plan though. And I had no idea that Vichy France had collaborated with _Japan_ on top of Germany.
Strategy Against Japan In World War II 第二次世界大戦における対日戦略 Senator Hickenlooper. ヒッケンルーパー上院議員 Question No. 5: Isn't your proposal for sea and air blockade of Red China the same strategy by which Americans achieved victory over the Japanese in the Pacific? 5番目の質問です。赤色中国に関する海と空からの封鎖という貴官の提案は、太平洋において米国が日本に勝利を収めた際の戦略と同じではありませんか。 General MacArthur. マッカーサー将軍 Yes, sir. そうです。 In the Pacific we bypassed them. 太平洋では、米国は日本を迂回しました。 We closed in. そして閉じ込めたのです。 You must understand that Japan had an enormous population of nearly 80 million people, crowded into 4 islands. 日本が抱える八千万人に近い膨大な人口は、四つの島に詰め込まれていたということをご理解いただく必要があります。 It was about half a farm population. The other half was engaged in industry. そのおよそ半分は農業人口であり、残りの半分は工業に従事していました。 Potentially the labor pool in Japan, both in quantity and quality, is as good as anything that I have ever known. 潜在的に、日本における予備労働力は、量的にも質的にも、私が知る限りどこにも劣らぬ優れたものです。 Some place down the line they have discovered what you might call the dignity of labor, that men are happier when they are working and constructing than when they are idling. いつの頃からか、彼らは、労働の尊厳と称すべきものを発見しました。つまり、人間は、何もしないでいるときよりも、働いて何かを作っているときの方が幸せだということを発見したのです。 This enormous capacity for work meant that they had to have something to work on. このように膨大な労働能力が存在するということは、彼らには、何か働くための対象が必要なことを意味しました。 They built the factories, they had the labor, but they didn't have the basic materials. 彼らは、工場を建設し、労働力を抱えていましたが、基本資材を保有していませんでした。 There is practically nothing indigenous to Japan except the silkworm. 日本には、蚕を除いては、国産の資源はほとんど何もありません。 They lack cotton, they lack wool, they lack petroleum products, they lack tin, they lack rubber, they lack a great many other things, all of which was in the Asiatic basin. 彼らには、綿が無く、羊毛が無く、石油製品が無く、スズが無く、ゴムが無く、その他にも多くの資源が欠乏しています。それらすべてのものは、アジア海域に存在していたのです。 They feared that if those supplies were cut off, there would be 10 to 12 million people unoccupied in Japan. これらの供給が断たれた場合には、日本では、一千万人から一千二百万人の失業者が生まれるという恐怖感がありました。 Their purpose, therefore, in going to war was largely dictated by security. したがって、彼らが戦争を始めた目的は、主として安全保障上の必要に迫られてのことだったのです。 The above MacArthur testimony is part of a question-and-answer session held at the Joint Committee on Military Diplomacy of the U.S. Senate on May 3, 1951.
This is not to say that war is justified in advance. ABCD Powers Before the start of World War II, the United States, the United Kingdom, Britain, China, the Netherlands (Dutch India) Dutch East Indies cooperated to counter Japan's expansion policy, and the four countries I took the initials and was called like this. It is also called the ABCD siege. The United States discarded the Japan-U.S. Convention on Trade and Navigation (1939.7.26.) In addition to the notice, especially since the Japanese army's occupation of southern France and India in July 1941, Japan has strengthened countermeasures against Japan such as freezing Japanese assets and oil embargo against Japan, and on the other hand, Japan has taken more and more forceful measures to break through this siege, and has led to the Pacific War. Guided. The Hull note, officially the Outline of Proposed Basis for Agreement Between the United States and Japan, was the final proposal delivered to the Empire of Japan by the United States of America before the attack on Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1941) and the Japanese declaration of war (seven and a half hours after the attack began). The note, delivered on November 26, 1941, is named for Secretary of State Cordell Hull (in office: 1933-1944). It was the diplomatic culmination of a series of events leading to the attack on Pearl Harbor. Notably, its text repeats previous American demands for Japan to withdraw from China and from French Indochina. No further American proposals were made before the attack on Pearl Harbor, as the US government had received intelligence that Japan was preparing an invasion of Thailand. thank you for reading
Well Vichy France is just a puttet state after all. And the Japs were seen by many locals to be liberators cause they drove out the Dutch and French colonialists. A group of Jap soldiers stayed behind after the war and made their own city in Burma or Laos. The biggest point tho, JAPAN THOUGHT THEY WERE GONNA WIN. They thought the USA would negotiate, instead of fight. Every military doctrine of Japan ... knock them so hard, so fast, THAT they negotiate to surrender. Interesting that it didn't work on a single country, except Russia. Also, after ww1, the Japs were given sweveral German Islands in the Pacific. They had years and years to build defenses on them. That whole war is very complicated.
Another aspect. The Japanese Army and Navy high commands had a lot of debates in 1940-1941 about strategy. The Army wanted to expand operations in China and possibly prepare to go into Soviet Siberia (for the resources there). It's the Navy that had the 'Southern Strategy' in mind to invade both the Dutch East Indies (for oil) and British-held Malaya and Burma (for rubber and other minerals).
@michael boultinghouse Well, yes and no. He had ultimate responsibility and wasn't punished after the war due to MacArthur's intervention (and political types in Washington).
My Filipino great-grandfather signed up as a soldier at 14, which was actually not allowed; He fought the Japanese in our province. I remember my mom telling me that the only thing he shot that day was coconuts so he could eat and drink during the fight. While he did this, he met a young Japanese kid, who might have been the same age, looking at him while eating. They both looked at each other but they didn't shoot each other instead, they ate coconuts together while all the fighting was going on lol...
Maybe the real enemies were coconuts all along
@@-LTUIiiin those damned imperial coconuts i tell u
That's awesome... I could have done the same in hunger... these courage and determination worked well when you have filled stomach. After all when fighting for someone's fight ... it's cool to be friends.
@@-LTUIiiin falling coconuts do kill a substantial number of people.
So he literally did nothing good job why even sign up 😆 🤣
My dad was at Pearl Harbor on the USS Nevada. My Aunt often told me if a Japanese bomber had zigged instead of zagged I wouldn't be here. Dad had extreme PTSD, and I sometimes go wandering on the internet looking for explanations and answers for the pain my family and I went through. This video sums things up pretty well, I feel like I finally have a solid understanding of the "why." Rest in peace, daddy, I'm sorry you had to go through all that.
Why would your dad have PTSD from Pearl Harbor when he wasn't harmed? PTSD is falsely attributed to mental health issues that people had LONG before they entered the military.
Jane, I hope that at time your father appreciated that however badly he was affected by his experiences, (1) he was still better off than those who died or were horribly disfigured in the experience; and (2) it had to be done for the salvation of the country and there are still many people around who salute people like your father. I have always thought of it as "the last good war" meaning a war which had to be fought and which we fought not out of choice or malicious intent but to resist a country that brought savagery to war in many nations other than us. His life was meaningful - never forget that. At one time in a medical unit in the Army, I saw the result of war - and if you see enough of it, it brings out the pacifist feelings that lurk within us all.
@@stevenwolfe7101 Whether or not he was better off than others is debatable. I wasn't kidding when I said "extreme" PTSD. It filtered all the way down through all of us, his kids and grandkids. There are 14 people who exist because of dad, 3 of us have extreme mental disorders, and all but 2 have a very difficult time functioning. One committed suicide. Only dad was at Pearl Harbor, but he brought the war home with him, and spread it to the rest of us. I have forgiven him ... but it took a very, very long time.
@@janeaustin3479 That is terrible to hear. But hearing the story, my own reaction is that your father may have also suffered from something else and his wartime experiences just set him off. I think in any event, you are best served by turning the page. Many people have problems with one or both parents covering a wide variety of disorders, some of which have a genetic effect upon children. Nothing is guaranteed to us in life. I have always thought about my own family and concluded that I must play the hand I am dealt. By and large they wee good parents but there were points of conflict that I had to work out - and I did. What would Elizabeth Bennett have done?
America stole a lot of Japanese resources. Japan had no choice but to go to war
The strangest thing about WW2 is that the high commands of both Japan and Germany knew that if they didn't deal a knockout blow to their opponents, they would lose. Their inability to produce enough weapons, train enough pilots, and have enough fuel to wage war, made Pearl Harbour, The Battle Of Britain, and Operation Barbarossa the brash and audacious campaigns they were. The Axis mentality was strike first and overwhelm. It's great when it works, but when it doesn't, you get nuked, or have the Soviets run a third of your country for 55 years.
The Germans tried to assassinate Hitler, too bad that failed.
Hitler's dream of "libensraum" or "living room" was to create a vast region of Germanic people in Europe, pushing out the other ethnicities.
Hitler's famous/infamous "guns or butter" comment backfired. The Germans attacked with ferocity, and with high casualties. They could never be a version of The Imperial Roman Empire.
Instead, if Germany just sold goods to the rest of the world, their industrial work ethic would have made them wealthy. Hitler's obsession with the Jewish people was a leftover of the Eugenics wave of thought, and the old Crusades religious persecution culture.
Germany's loss in WW1, much like CSA Dixie's loss against Lincoln & The Union created the "Lost Cause" culture of vindictive grumblers. Book burning, marches, and violence followed.
Osama bin Laden had his run, but with a vast religion instead of a purely racial/Ethnicity "purity" basis.
The internet replaces all that, people get swept up into dangerous thinking today. Radicalization, or the mental sociopaths adopting blueprint ideas of hate & violence, launching copycat attacks.
When I was on Guam, I spoke with elders who survived the 3 year Japanese Occupation, it was Hell. Many of their stories never were published. One lady told me she was 5 years old, put into a group of female Islanders, and used as a live human target for cave-clearing training by Japanese Army. Of 16 females, she was only survivor. Rosa Garrido.
The Axis mentality was strike first and overwhelm. But they forgot that the _overwhelm_ part works for both side
@@pinetree5184 Germany lost both wars as much in the factories as on the battlefield. In World War II in particular, American industrial might made an Axis victory impossible. Artillery alone made the superior marksmanship of German soldiers a moot point.
It wasn't like they wanted to go to war, but every major Allied nation leader was dead set on getting elected/power and receiving funding from the bankers to go to war.
@@dansmith1661 I disagree. France had its head in the sand. The Dutch thought they would be spared. The British didn’t panic until the breakthrough at Sedan. The Soviets continued shipping raw materials until 21 June 1941. Roosevelt sat on the fence until Pearl Harbour. Most countries hoped that Germany would just make a lot of noise without shooting anything.
Admiral Yamamoto: "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve."
He never actually said that
@@JessicaAbbott-k8cThat's interesting. Do you have a source that we can access?
@@JessicaAbbott-k8c prove it weeb
@@JessicaAbbott-k8c he mumbled it though, in ancient Hebrew
The reason admiral Yamamoto & Japan attacked Pearl Harbor is because the U.S., Britain and Netherlands launched an oil embargo on Japan in 1941 due to their actions in China. At that time Britain controlled Malaysia and the strait of Malacca, the Dutch controlled Indonesia, and the US controlled the Philippines. As a result, Japan had no way to import oil from anywhere to propel their economy and war machine. The only two options for securing oil were attacking Russia, or attacking Indonesia.
Indonesia fit their broader vision of an Asia for Asians led by Japan, so they chose that option and preemptively struck out against the US to buy themselves time to conquer south east Asia (which they did).. Their hope was that the US would not commit to a total war with them over Pearl Harbor and they could secure their gains in South East Asia.
As Yamamoto reportedly said:
" In the first six to twelve months of a war with the United States and Great Britain I will run wild and win victory upon victory. But then, if the war continues after that, I have no expectation of success. "
Yeah he was a smart guy and advised the emperor not to attack the US
Yamamoto knew the US and was well aware of the immense industrial capacity of the country.
yamamoto is a brilliant tactician and visionary but war mongers in japan prevailed with their hot heads and ambitions..
Lesson to be learned ... Don't start wars you can't finish.
@Anglo Saxon Who are these Americans you speak of? And, how many Japanese forces could have been landed so far away from Japan? There are many mountains and rivers to cross before arriving in Chicago. Even if the Japanese could have landed a force of comparable size to the Normandy landings, I think, at best, they would made it not further than the Rocky Mountains. The US may not have been an amazing superpower back then. But much like the Soviet Union, there is a lot of land to conquer.
Excellent video. Rare to hear the reasons / motivation of Japan to take such a drastic step. In 99% of publications the attack itself is covered, not the thinking behind the assault.
I feel the same thing about the War of 1812. We hear about it in terms of impressing sailors, trade, and Britain treating the US like a colony.
It was really because the USA were trading with the French under Napoleon, the British were trying to blockade Europe, and it’s a minor side-theater to the napoleônicas wars in Europe. I was 30 before I finally learned the war of 1812 was mainly about Napoleon.
Note what you have just realized is that there are two sides to a war.
Both are accurate from their point of view, the British were attempting to control American trade, did impress many American sailors and board their ships with force, and they did so in part because of the wars with France and blockades.
Oil. It's always about the oil.
@@faithnfire4769 - it's important to talk about both sides and world context. Similarly to talking about the Winter War in Finland or the Japanese invasion of China, they all tie into the larger global context of WW2.
I just found it odd how much the USA glosses over Napolean in its curriculum when the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars are one of the most historically significant events in world history, and even our involvement in them in the war of 1812 was framed in a very narrow field of view and out of context, which is why it never quite seemed to make sense as a war.
@@robertb6889 neither the French revolution or rise of Napolean make America look heroic or good in any way, so they are not relevant for US education.
Admiral Yamamoto told the Japanese war council, " I shall run wild for 6 months, after that I have no hope for success." He nailed the timetable almost exactly.
Well, Midway was on June 4th which was almost 6 months to the day.
The Japanese wanted to attack the US because they thought the US would enter the war eventually so they did a preemptive attack. I don’t think they would have attacked the Japanese until much later. I think the US would have been more focused in Europe than in the pacific. Well, at least more than how it happened
@@AnTunZee This is all idle speculation. The Japanese did not think about the US entering the war against Germany. In fact, if they had, they would have waited until after we were already at war with Germany before attacking us. In fact, they propelled us into war by bombing Pearl Harbor. Moreover, they knew it was not a pre-emptive strike and Yamamoto famously predicted that its effect would last for only six months. Let's see: Pearl Harbor was December 7, 1941 and Midway was June 4, 1942, almost six months to the day. And after Midway, the Japanese fleet could not even protect the possessions the Japanese had acquired before the war (China excepted) and soon began to face bombing close to home and then on the home islands. Hardly pre-emptive. They thought, because this is what they would have done, we would sue for peace immediately. Bad guess. The might of the strongest industrial nation on the planet was turned against them, first on their possessions and then at home.
StarCraft noob after a failed zergling rush
@@nachonachoman I am not certain to whom this was directed. Cam I be enlightened?
Arguably Japan’s biggest mistake to date. Turn them into anime loving folks
Lmao what😭🤣🤣🤣
My great grandmother was 13 during ww2, she was alone with her baby siblings while her big brother was out to look for food. A japanese soldier was around the area and saw the hut where our great grandmother was staying, and went inside.
He only saw my great grandmother and her infant siblings. She told us how scared she was for all of them and thought her big brother was killed. But the japanese soldier only left food for them, she said they must have assumed she and her siblings were abandoned.
When her big brother came back and learned about the food, they agreed to feed it to a dog cuz they didnt trust it. Surprisingly the dog didnt die, so the food wasnt poisoned.
She's still alive today, but has a habit of hoarding canned good cuz she's afraid to starve to death. Which we understand is a trauma from her experience in ww2.
After learning what Japan did wtf…. Reading that history was like taking a glimpse into eternal hell of torture snd powerlessness against torture. I think it was right for the USA to bomb Japan. It was for the greater good because if you read the history in detailed and fully, your mind will crack into insanity. If I was in that time and the Japanese invasion was successful, would kill myself and my children so we don’t have to experience horrors that awaits us. I rather be dead than become a slave or be tortured and brutally raped
How old was your great grandmother?
You are a lair, shame on you.
Sorry but I couldn't help but notice. They thought the food was poisoned so they fed it to the dog? Thank goodness that Japanese had kindness.
@@dbronx347 Another self-proclaimed animal right activist. Had u been in their place, you would have done the same. Don't assume moral high ground.
For anyone interested in the essential story on Japan and its inner circle of leadership leading up to Pearl Harbor, I'd highly recommend Eri Hotta's book 1941. It's a fascinating account of how Japan essentially stumbled its way into a war that many if not most of its leaders knew that it could not win. This video is a good start to understanding it, but the deeper story is really fascinating. Just thought I'd add this comment at a WWII history lover wanting to share the goods . . .
Thanks!
@@Jack-id4qm Yep there's an audiobook version too
You could say the entire Japanese empire 'kamikazed' itself into America
You can cite this and that but it doesn't change the fact that it was a false flag. Look no further than the fact we dropped two nukes on civilian locations and purposely avoided leadership and the emporer.
People go to war. Nations don't exist. If so, put it in my hand.
Not to mention they magically avoided all radar and detection on the initial attack on PH.
I know a thing or two about ww2 but all that matters is the beginning and the end and it appears the card dealers won and got away with their plan.
I'm no stranger to hated and lies
Thanks, Tom.❤
The commanding officer of the Japanese fleet that hit Pearl Harbor, Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto, did not want to undertake that mission because he knew the US very well, having spent some time here in the 1920s and 1930s. He knew what the true score was. He told the powers that were in Japan a short time before Pearl Harbor something like "We will be attacking a country that is ten times better than Japan in a large variety of ways." But that pack of idiots ignored that and told him something like "If you do not follow our orders, it'll be Sepukku for you." And when the fleet returned to Japan after the attack, he told his superiors something like "I fear all we have done is to have awakened a sleeping giant and filled him with a terrible resolve." Again, that same pack of idiots ignored him. And that terrible resolve turned out to be Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Ten times better boy was he wrong only reason we won was because we were getting fked up and had to use nukes
Contrary to US propaganda the Japan was pretty much completely destroyed by conventional bombing. Bomber pilots didn't even have targets anymore because nothing was left. There was virtually no threat and the idea that "invading the mainland would have been bloody" is nothing more than a myth. All the men were on the front lines anyway and Japanese leaders and the emperor were simply looking for a way out that allowed the emperor to remain the figure head. The US insisted on "unconditional surrender" and then allowed the Japanese to maintain the emperor system anyway.
The point of Hiroshima And Nagasaki was sending a message to Russia. We WILL use these things if we have to so take note.
The use of the nukes was a crime. Plain and simple.
@@bigdoinks8325
actually, carpet and firebombings killed more than the nukes combined, the nukes were just an experiment from physicists and chemists that were skeptical, but the Gov. still gave it a shot and that leads to an endless energy source only that environmentalists are not awake yet as to the potential of it.
@@doublestrokeroll "The use of the nukes was a crime. Plain and simple." - I don't know what planet you are living on, but the US military was predicting 1,000,000 US casualties in an an invasion of Japan!!! The Japanese were the most fanatical & devoted fighters back then & would have stopped at nothing to resist a US invasion and occupation in 1945!!!!! And the use of The Bomb affected me and my familly directly!!!! I am past 78 years of age, born August 16, 1943!!!! My father & my uncles were in the armed forces then & facing what could been the most terrible battle of all time!!!!! The Little Boy and the Fat Man prevented that!!!! Although they were not human beings, I consider them to be the greatest superheros that ever existed!!!!!
Japan attacked Pearl Harbor because the US was financing China
My grandmother is a 1940's World War 2 survivor. She's 96, and still alive, no cane, no walker, no wheelchair.
I hope your grandmother is doing well. God Bless you and your family.
That's incredible
Ok
Incredible.
@@gamewizardks she's doing good.
The more you learn, the more you understand Japan had little chance.
Japan lost the war when it attacked Pearl Harbour ie they lost the war by starting it
Actually if they sunk the aircraft carriers at Pearl Harbour and managed to win the Battle of Midway, Japan might have achieved a draw.
@@paulvirgo9798 america started it by enforcing embargos on Japan and wanted Pearl harbor to have an exeuse to go to war. If america did not enter ww2 it would not be a superpower
American was trying to use its economic power to influence the war without having to actually send people to die. Applying it so forcefully gave the stubborn Japanese an ultimatum: yield or go to war. It was a game of chicken on both sides that resulted in a collision when neither would budge. A good lesson for today with Countries like China and Russia and the US. If you push too hard against either side’s interest, it’s likely to go the same way, with Taiwan looking to be a likely spark.
@@sdgvscrwogs2483 no draw, the US can always build more ships. Japanese decisive victory will only prolong the war in the pacific with Japan losing in the end.
My grandfather was a mechanic in the Dutch East Indias quickly defeated army. He and all his comrades were captured by the Japanese and transported by ship as prisoners to Burma. Whilst travelling the ship was relentlessly bombed by Allied forces leaving few survivors. Once being picked up by a trailing Japanese ship along with other survivors, my grandfather worked on the Burma railroad, which too was bombed by US forces who had no idea that they were bombing their own and inflicting significant casualties. On one occasion my grandfather had a piece of shrapnel from a bomb blasted into his leg which was taken out without any pain relief. As a mechanic my grandfather would often travel with Japanese supply trucks, which he used as a way to smuggle in medicine and food for the other malaria and hunger stricken prisoners. Throughout his stay in the atrocious conditions of Burma my grandfather recalled one escape which took place. Three Americans made their way past the guards and into the jungle, never to be seen again. The guards, recruited from Korea, were cruel bullies who enjoyed torture and prisoner mistreatment for their own amusement. Upon Japanese defeat my grandfather caught a serious case of Malaria which kept him bed stricken for over a year. After his recovery he traveled to Holland where he met my grandmother.
You are spitting some facts here thank you… I hate when Korea try to blame all the atrocities on Japan only when there were many Korean soldiers in Japanese military back then who also committed atrocities…
@@jinwlee14 sure they force to be in Japan army, but human nature can turn,soon they becoming one like Japanese.thats what he talking about
That's was truly sad story for all who suffered in our Burma region, people still found things of WW2 in northern of burma,the world already stoped of WW2 but we still fighting in Burma between us 😢
@@YUTAB-ck9rp are you attempting to justify the worst atrocities committed by humanity?
I always was just told that Japan attacked for basically no reason... This really cleared up the real reason. Thanks for the insight 👍
Nobody ever said they attacked for no reason. 🙄
They attacked because their stupid. If you come to any other conclusions after watching this video you are stupid. 🙄
They are no winners in war.
Only a loser and a dictator who just got the world's guns pointed at them.
being japanese american and born close to 1960, i had classmates who teased me about Pearl Harbor and why my ancestors bombed it.....it still hurts til today. Abit off topic but kinda similar.....for me also as still being single, i fret alot of times when I SEE the popularity of now, japanese mixed couples (japanese woman with white man)....I often think back of how white americans would put down and criticize japanese people......YET, its alright and fine for the men to marry japanese women. I honestly feel.....by the time i am in my grave, no japanese woman would find interest in me. You may want to tell me hows about dating white women.......fyi, alot of white women are jealous of asians because their "man" is NOT interested at all about dating their own......they strickly seek and desire of asian women only. And white women also do criticize japan about the Pearl Harbor issue.
@@lonelypigeon7562 Don’t feel bad about the bombing. None of it was your fault and that goes for anyone. Its like telling a German should be blamed for the Holocaust, even if they were not even born
As far as I know....this was a setup by the American government, to get into the war....! The president knew this was going to happen....and let it.
I am Japanese. Thank you for such a thoughtful, neutral, and non-racist video. because it's so rare and good
What do the majority of japanese people think about this? I'm just curious 🤔
I love Japan btw. Can't wait to visit someday.
I have seen 20 WW2 Documentaries about Japan... nothing racist in any of them. No more than each race was racist against each other at the time.
I hope one day I get to visit Japan. I only wish it wasn't so hard to live there.
In my almost 50 years living in the United States I've never once heard anyone have a bad thing to say about the Japanese, or asians in general.
It isn't racist to point out that Japan is entirely responsible for what happened. I say that as someone who loves Japan. No country is free of sin. America is guilty, and I admit it. Japan should remember and admit its sins as well.
My grandfather and his brother both volunteered for the war from Canada, my grandfather fought the Germans through Italy and his brother fought Japan. he was captured and spent a couple years in a Japanese prison camp. They tried starving the prisoners to death, they survived off of mice, urine, and birds. My Grandfather rose through the ranks in Italy but was eventually demoted because he met a beautiful Italian women and failed to report for duty a couple of times lol. he was demoted to private after spending one too many nights with her. His Commander asked him if it was worth it. and he responded "absolutely" lol
chad energy right there
@@youthawe123 nah he died for nyash he fumbled the bag for some hoe
Yup he must’ve been infantry
so was she your grandmother?
@@slam5 Nah, when he returned from war he met and married my grandmother and had a bunch of kids.
"Never get involved in a land war in Asia."
"Never go up against a Sicilian when death is on the line."
"Never pick a fight with the US over oil."
You forgot to put.. " -Sun Tzu the fart of war" at the bottom.
Never call a Sicilian a German Lebanese man.
Lesson #6.
No! Don't sanction Russian Oil! "But they invaded a neighboring country and are killing people there. We need to sanction their oil to starve their war machine and save innocent lives!" Wait a minute, are you talking about Russia in Ukraine 2022, or Japan in China and Korea in the 1930s/40s?
"A Princess Bride"
Make sure to watch out for the 2nd knife when fighting a guy from Jersey.😄
This helps me to better understand what happened to my grandparents and great grandparents in the Philippines. My grandfather witnessed his baby brother get bayoneted to death by the Japanese. When the Japanese invaded their village, my great grandfather knew how to strategically grow food and keep it hidden from the Japanese, and that's how our family survived. They moved to the US successfully approximately 25-30 years later.
Do you know what their thought process was behind killing a child? The terror aspect?
BTW Philippines is a great place and I have worked with and have a lot of respect for the people. The women also respect femininity and it's very hard to not admire them.
Good Day.
@@jamesandrews568 ok......
@@jamesandrews568 nobody mattered if they were not Japanese. Their idea if "master race" made the Germans look like children.
@@jamesandrews568 Yes It was a Initiation for toughening up young soldiers an new recruits. I am named after one such victim.
The Filipinos, like the Chinese, were constantly victimized by the Japanese during the war. The atrocities committed by the Japanese against these people were brutal. so much for the so-called "Great East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere".
Amazing video! Learned a lot of new information I wasn’t aware of. Dope find
Well done, you cover most of the topic, but one slight detail; the Japanese hadn't developed a brand new torpedo, they modified their existing air-dropped torpedoes by attaching a wooden fin, braking the dive, and making it stay shallow when dropped.
@@YT97898 what’s your source? candy wrapper perhaps.
@@davidestillore5942 doesnt sound unrealistic to me
@@YT97898 Yes this is true. Not surprising that it was the president who also decided to start selling weapons (as he mentions in the early part of the video) to other nations found a way to go to war which lead to all of our tax money going to these same weapons manufacturers.
@@hc3657 Obviously, English is not your first language because your comment is grammatically incorrect. 🤭🤭🤭
@@davidestillore5942 Lol poking fun at someone's grammar just because you can't refute their statement. Grow up, manchild.
You missed the main reason why Yamamoto opted to attack Pearl Harbour in the first place. Yes, Japan decided to risk war with the U.S. in pursuit of the natural resources it desperately needed. No question about that. And the original military campaign involved a move south - ONLY. But when Roosevelt moved the Pacific fleet to Pearl Harbour from its original base in San Francisco, Yamamoto knew full well that such a move put the U.S. fleet within closer striking distance to the attacking Japanese forces in the south. Hence he devised the plan to cripple the fleet at its berthings.
failamoto
@@arcadeslum5882 Yamamoto was a pawn played by Roosevelt to wake the sleeping giant.
That is what I deduced. A pre-emptive strike before U.S. hit them first.
They should have went after the aircraft carriers.
@@DANTHETUBEMAN They did not know where they were.
This is a good example of what can happen when the military governs a country rather than the people.
Yessssssss.
I never learned about this in school. Completely facsinating. Thankyou! Great video!
I thought every middle/highschool taught this in social studies and us and world history class
@@Zayb3lll Outside of USA there isn't really all that much emphasis of pearl harbor when going through WW2 history. The only reason it gets mentioned at all is because it's a reason for USA joining the war.
In our school, we were taught that Japan shouldered its noble duty of freeing long suffering mother Asia from Western Colonialism.. [For more, pls read the informative multi-pages comment by 'Lonely Alaskan' at, "Complete History Of Indigenous America Before Colonialism/Chronicle", on RUclips (which by the way, got pushed down below 150 other comments lately)]. Like I said, Japan shouldered its noble duty of freeing long suffering mother Asia from centuries-long Western Colonialism.
"Complete History Of Indigenous America Before Colonialism": ruclips.net/video/z9SMN59vsGY/видео.htmlsi=QZ4aX9jmUdrbRoYL
Most schools don't teach a lot of the 20th Century, especially World War One, World War Two and the Korean War. They also don't teach why communism is wrong and dangerous.
This video is an excellent "nutshell" lesson and a fine summation. Kudos to the researchers, writers, military film experts and the host's presentation. Most well done!
but with the usual NERVING, DISTURBING MUZAK, making me close after 2 minutes. Can't TAKE it.
Great content & an even greater museum!
Thank you very much!
@@matpk soon it might be to late
This information is often overlooked. Inspiration for the plan to attack Pearl Harbor may have been books published in 1921 and 1925 written by Hector C. Bywater a British journalist and military writer who was the naval correspondent for the London Daily Telegraph. The title of the first book was “Sea Power in the Pacific.” Part of the book was later expanded into another novel, “The Great Pacific War.” In that book, Bywater describes a surprise attack on the U.S. Asiatic Fleet at Pearl Harbor, with simultaneous attacks at Guam and the Philippines. The Japanese Navy General Staff had “Sea Power in the Pacific’ translated and distributed to their top naval officers. They also adopted “The Great Pacific War” for the curriculum at the Japanese Naval War College. The U.S. Navy started using Pearl Harbor as a mid-Pacific resupply and refueling point in 1899. The Naval Shipyard at Pearl Harbor was established in 1908. From 1899 onward there were always Navy ships at Pearl Harbor.
Can you imagine if the US found out about this too and distributed the book too?
The Japanese fleet was vulnerable to detection as it travelled through half the Pacific Ocean in open water. All it would take is for US officials to be fully aware of the possibility of a simultaneous strike and give Hawaii's bases the order to do to reconaissane to the west, not just a 'sabotage' war warning that they actually got.
If the news got out this Bywater guy could have accidentally designed and dismantled the Pacific war before he realised what happened.
But, it was only in 1940 that the Pacific fleet moved to the naval base at Pearl Harbor.
I know the Battle Force(part of the Pacific fleet) moved to Pearl Harbour in 1931 so that doesn't seem to be true.
The Japanese took a lot of inspiration from the British airstrike against the Italian fleet at the naval base of Taranto
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Taranto
What i have read the generals knew about the attack and some people in the industrial complex wanted it to happen so that they could stay in the war.
I'm in the year 2024, 80 years after the end of the war.
I am very grateful for the state of U.S.-Japan relations in 2024.
I would like to express my gratitude to all the Americans and Japanese who have worked toward peace since the end of the war.
I'm Japanese.
Sorry if my English is wrong.
At least Japan was on the right side, unlike the US.
Your English is fine.
Outstanding video. I learn more here that the 4 years in college.
The British Navy's attack on the Italian fleet, at Taranto Itally, one year before Pearl Harbour, provided the Japanese with the idea on how to attack the US fleet, when Swordfish Planes, took off from HMS Carrier, 'Illustrious'' , in the MED, with special shallow water Torpedos, and sank 3 Battle ships and put out of action 5 other major ships. The Americans studied the British attack, and talked of installing anti-Torpedo nets, to protect their ships, at Pearl ; but did nothing about it. But the Japanese, it is said, learned a lot from the Taranto raid.
The success at Taranto would have been even greater if the second carrier had been available.
While this is often repeated, I have to note that there is evidence that it's not the case.
First and foremost, Japan had been working on how to stabilise air-dropped torpedoes for years prior to either Taranto or Pearl. The Kyoban modifications (breakaway wooden stabilisers) make their first appearance around 1936/37 and are different to the British solution to the problem (a wire running between the torpedo's nose and the aircraft, essentially forcing it to bellyflop into the water). The implication is that the Japanese had been working on the technical side of such an attack long before Taranto and thus it had at least been vaguely contemplated. It might not have been Pearl and it probably wasn't - plenty of other potential adversaries in the area had shallow anchorages as well and Pearl wasn't the Pacific Fleet's main base but just its forward anchorage until summer 1940 - but the basic scenario was presumably under consideration.
The other elephant in the room is Fleet Problem 13. This was a US Navy exercise held in 1932, simulating a "militaristic, Asian, island nation" (sound familiar?) attacking Pearl Harbour. The definitely-not-Japanese commander, Rear Admiral Yarnell, pointed out that the positively-not-the-Japanese had a preference for surprise attacks. He therefore left his battleships behind and sprinted the carriers Saratoga and Lexington to a position NNE of Pearl. And on the morning of Sunday, February 7, 1932 (a date that did not live in infamy...although perhaps it should have done, at least in the USN), 152 planes roared into the attack.
The immediate result? White flour. White flour everywhere along Battleship Row and pretty liberally spread everywhere else, since the planes had been dropping sacks of the stuff to simulate bomb hits. Quite how much of a cleanup job the enlisted had afterwards is not recorded. The umpires declared Yarnell the winner and the USN learned a valuable lesson...no, of course they didn't. The exercise was barely over before the top brass were complaining to the umpires. Yarnell had attacked on a Sunday (the sacrilegous cheek of it!). He'd come in from the NNE, mimicking planes arriving from the mainland (and if you're wondering about that, since Pearl is to the west of the contiguous states - Alaska) which was distinctly unsporting. And most importantly of all, apparently everyone knew - just knew - that Asians didn't have the hand-eye coordination to accurately drop bombs at low level. The fact that the IJN had been operating carriers for 5 years at this point and the Japanese naval aviation service - which you'd think would have been an interesting collection of lawndarts were that the case - remained distinctly un-crashed seems to have passed them by.
The entire episode, however, did not pass by the Japanese who had a consulate on Oahu. If there was foreign inspiration behind December 7, 1941 then it is to be found here. Taranto might have served up a few fine details for the IJN but the core idea had been around long before 1940.
Sounds like BS to me. The attack on Pearl Harbour was totally different and across a vast ocean, not an inland sea.
@@Yuzral that’s an excellent analysis, and completely new to me, having grown up with the Taranto theory it’s interesting to get some facts into the conversation, thank you.
@@tancreddehauteville764 What does the size of the body of water have to do with anything? You launch a torpedo from a few thousand yards, not a few thousand miles...
My great-grandfather was a vet of WWII he didn't fight the Japanese he ended up fighting the Germans he stormed the beach in Normandy there and I heard a couple of stories of things that happened and I'll put it this way we couldn't even wake that man up from a nap without risking Our Lives is PTSD was so bad
Sad he had to fight his brother’s. Same with my great grandfathers
this was really easy to understand. thank you :)
Thank you for the upload
Excellent. Even for a history buff who has done a lot of reading, this piece offered detailed analysis of factors not usually covered in histories intended for general audiences. Congratulations!
Are your flags correct??
Detailed, concise and comprehensive. It's analysis of this kind that allows a person to understand why an event occurred, instead of simply demonizing it for emotional payoff. Not to mention, the Japanese were concerned about getting colonized the way the Chinese were by the British. Holland was claiming Indonesia and Taiwan. The French took Indochina. They didn't want to go down that road. But technology is a force that is hard to defy
You and everyone else who believes the absurd propaganda that the people in charge of the US government and military did not know the Japanese were going to attack Pearl harbor are flat out ignorant.... They ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY knew & allowed it to happen so as to have the perceived moral High ground of defending themselves against Japan's aggression.... The attack on Pearl harbor was provoked and WANTED to obtain the support of the citizenry of the United States for the war they wanted but needed an event like that so that people like you would foolishly believe and write history as it's been written.
@@cullenreynolds745 Thank you for your insights. What you say is true.
@@cullenreynolds745 nice to hear from someone who knows what really happened
How many schools teach history any more? What a shame 😔
Japanese was strong during the war
ruclips.net/video/frlMo69x6yc/видео.html
This is a great video. I learned a lot more from this video than I had in high school and college. Thank you for sharing this video.
Kids at college now don't learn much about anything worth knowing.
My Paternal Grandfather served in the US Army 1931 to 1941, Honorably discharged as Staff Sargent Aug 1941 from Hickman Air Field. Married my Grandmother while in Hawaii (1939) They both went back to the main land. (My Dad born May 1940}
Next day along with 3 other family members were on line at the recruiters office. He was told to go home and he will be called for soon. Spent February 1942 through out 1944 working for OSS in Europe. We found many letters to Grandma that were officially blackened out/cut out from him.
Sorry for the drawn out typing. Looking at his Pre Attack old photos of Pearl Harbor. Amazing I am holding in my hands real 80 year old photos.
God bless that Greatest Generation. They were children of the depression, and as Adults fough the greatest fight.
A tragedy that the values, love of country, God and fellow Americans of that generation has evaporated into what will soon face a much greater threat. For some time our current leaders have grown unacquainted with the meaning of resolve. The brave young men of today's military are as likely to be shot from behind by political correctness as to be shot by the enemy they are facing.
I would say the greatest fight was the great war.
My paternal grandparents and my Dad(2months)his brother and sister was there in hawaii.my Dad later on joined the USA Air force and manned the communication Tower s.my Aunty died Dec 7 2019.. RIFP
It was Hickam not Hickman. Just trivia.
One's comment section is invalid, until blessed by: Steve Wolfe.
Those Amphibian assaults retaking those islands were about as brutal as it gets.
But with their sneak attack they’d stirred up a national anger where the USA wasn’t going to back down. They thought that they’d balk at the brutal meat grinders of those assaults, but were wrong.
@michael boultinghouse and they treated their fellow Asians very nobly as well
@michael boultinghouse the noble cause of conquering everyone else because they thought themselves as superior? The “noble” treatment they gave to chinese, korean, philippine etc civilians was horrific.
@michael boultinghouse
BS, their goal was Asia for Japan. We didn't owe them the resources to butcher everyone else.
@michael boultinghouse
They were inside China and other nations shooting up their soldiers resisting invasion by their 'rescuers', and murdering their civilians.
Its hard to accept that Americans, even some over 50 yrs old, are clueless as to why Japan struck the USA. Most warfare since the dawn of civilization has been over natural resources, with oil at the top of that list, in modern times. No surprise today, that Japan builds many of the most efficient engine-driven machines. Availability of natural resources combined with a culture that's driven to excel.
mileswmathis.com/pearl1.pdf
ABCD line was the fundamental factor. Hull note was the direct cause.
Having worked with the Japanese for many years I found a couple of consistencies. They are more reactionary then proactive. Their plans tend to lose strength over time. Look at how Fukushima has been handled. They are very loyal to the team, company and/or government. They tend to fight amongst themselves but not show it to an outsider. Again these are one persons observations.
Did you mean
They are more reactionary than proactive.
?
It's called 'showing two faces'.
That's Asian countries in general.
One of the big problems the Japanese military had in WW2 was that their Army and Navy disliked each other. This led to and lack of cooperation between the two in the Pacific War.
@@ziggy2shus624 They still fight over everything.
It's so ironic that the USA adopted Japan's isolationist policy after destroying Japan's isolationism by forcing Japan to open its national security using threat of Gunships.
Different sort of isolation. The US still traded with anybody for the most part. Japan prevented foreigners from even talking to it's citizens. And wouldn't even take back their own if they were contaminated by being overseas.
@@joseph1150 That seems even worse. It's not like any American trade was affected since Japan didn't trade with anyone. I guess gunboat diplomacy came full circle bc Japanese Imperialism didn't emerge from a vacuum
the usa was only isolationist to keep Europeans and Japanese away. FDR knew what was about to happen, but he had to play to the peaceful sentiments of the USA. He played everyone like a fiddle in ww2 my bro.
@@joseph1150 If the U.S. wants to trade with you, you don't get to say no.
@@nicholaslee5473 Oh wow, you found out what hegemony means.
No country is an island, even when they are an island lol.
Personally, I think that Japanese fears of an attack on their flank from American forces in the Philippines and Pearl Harbor were unwarranted. If the Japanese had attacked the European colonies which contained the resources that they wanted without attacking US bases, I think that it would have been very hard to get the American public to support a war to save other peoples colonies. Unless FDR and his pals in the UK had a false flag operation or two tucked into their war plans, the response would have been limited to harsh diplomatic language and additional sanctions...
You might be right but Japan's decisionmaking had been signifignatly compromised by that point. Something like more than a dozen serious politicians (including multiple Prime Ministers) had been assasinated in the years prior because they weren't jingoistic enough according to fanatical military cabals. The US' political condemnations were deemed as an insult to the honor/pride of Japan. Many of the civilian leadership of Japan could legitamently fear assasination by military fanatics if they didn't take a hard stance against the US, even if they weren't drinking the Kool Aid that the Yamato Spirit could overcome the odds and beat the Americans.
It's the worst and stupid decision, why not bribe US company to lobby the US government to not intervention japan, just give the US company some island in south east asia. "Know yourself and know your enemy" are the basic of art of war, maybe japanese leader too confident in their capabilities so their became idiot
The public opinion can be easily manipulated.
Japan can’t put it’s whole fate in something can be easily changed at anytime
A conspiracy theory has it that a certain European intelligence agency secretly nudged/tricked Japan into attacking the US so as to draw the US in to the war on their side. A war the US had tried to avoid on several occasions.
What's crazy is we trained Japan's pilots years prior to this. Even an army air corps officer predicted it. I remember seeing an old documentary in my rotc class
We didn't train Japanese pilots, dude- and the Army Air Corps general who predicted an attack on Pearl Harbor claimed that it would come from Japanese land- based bombers operating out of the Marshal Islands. Just sayin...
crazier still USA sold arms to iran iraq and isreal and many more.
@BasicDefense care to provide a source for this? A quick google search doesn't say anything about the U.S. training Japanese pilots prior to Pearl Harbor. If you have a link or any info about the old documentary you mentioned that'd be good too
Edit: Given that he still hasn't responded, I'm gonna have to say this is fake news
What's even crazier is we never did anything like that. The closest thing we did to that was training Filipino military but those were our allies.
@@ThePersistentKoala yeah that compulsive need to add to "USA created it's enemies" myth making . The only such case of "train thy enemy" i know was Russia training German pilots and tanks . Those trainees would later train the entire Luftwaffe and Wermacht that invaded Russia.
Thank you for this excellent video. You do a fine job of succinctly describing Japan's motivation for attacking Pearl Harbor, as well as its overall objectives in Asia. This was very helpful.
LIES THE US GOVERNMENT BOMBED PEARL HARBOR TO GET THE PUBLIC INTO THE WAR
3 DAYS BEFORE THE "BOMBING" JAPAN HAD FORFEITED THE WAR
@@jacobnazarian1147 again... they lied to the public to trick them into joining the war
America stole a lot of Japanese resources. Japan had no choice but to go to war
@@usersrt46 are you smoking crack?
or just buying the lies they told you
@@jacobnazarian1147 japan was brutal raping any woman no matter the age and killing and torturing babies and making experiments on. Them
i think ur not quite right about japans long term thinking. there WAS a 3rd strike planned for oil storage and dry docks but the commander was nervous, cancelled the planned strike and withdrew.
Nagumo was willing to sacrifice half of his carriers to carry out the attack. Once the first two waves were so successful with minimal losses he decided not to press his luck. If he had carried out those 3rd and 4th wave he would have significantly delayed the US getting back into the fight. Imagine if the Yorktown was not able to put into to Pearl Harbor after Coral Sea. She would not have been at Midway. Her planes sank a carrier, and she absorbed all the blows from the Japanese air strikes.
No, a third wave was not planned. Nagumo's oilers were not in position to support a 3rd wave. Genda (and others) did indeed urge Nagumo to strike again; Yamamoto later admitted that a third strike probably should have taken place, but that he could not have ordered Nagumo to do so without a serious loss of face. Nagumo had succeeded in doing what the original plan envisaged, and his orders were to inflict as much damage as possible on major warships (on which naval thinking at the time was centered, to the exclusion of much else) then get the hell outta Dodge and preserve his strike force for upcoming operations in the south. Since most admirals (worldwide) still believed in the primacy of the battleship, the PH attack was viewed as a sort of high-stakes commando raid, not the opening salvo in a brand-new form of naval warfare. Over the next 12-18 months, of course, a brand-new naval paradigm asserted itself quite vigorously.
@michael boultinghouse .... from the (very flawed) perspective of the Japanese leadership at the time, it was a gamble but by no means a suicidal one. Most did not think that US industrial power could be brought to bear as quickly and energetically as in fact it was. (Many in the US might have agreed.) The thinking was that by the time the US got its act together, Japan would have seized everything it needed to resist US retaliation.
No, any further strikes would not have targeted the oil storage or the dry docks. Oil storage and dry docks were not on the target list AT ALL. The target list was:
1) sink 1 or more battleships, for propaganda and strategic purposes. (7 available, 4 sunk, 2 badly damaged, 1 lightly damaged)
2) sink the carriers in port, if possible. This was because they are expensive capital ships and the fleet scouts of US doctrine (which they partially knew, as we published it in country). None were in port.
3) sink any cruisers you find (8 were in dock during the attack, 3 were damaged)
Destroyers, submarines, auxiliaries and infrastructure were never on the target list, but auxiliaries ate a sizable percentage of the ordinance deployed, as did a few destroyers.
Japan also harbored a grudge against the West for their encroaching in what Japan felt was their area of economic control. They also felt that while they had fought on the side of the Allies in WW 1, they were short changed in receiving territories that were surrendered by the losing side.
WW1 and the aftermath were a cluster****, but that doesn't excuse Japan starting a new, and bloodier world war than the first one. It doesn't justify Japan butchering tens of millions of civilians of the surrounding countries to steal their land and wealth. Japan emerged as a monster that had to be put down with the power of the sun, because only after that could their economic and government be replaced with one that actually made prosperity in Japan possible while allowing them to live peacefully with their neighbors.
Keep in mind, when Japan started WW2 with their invasion of Manchuria, the Western countries were shedding territories like their lives depended on it. The age of colonialism was already ending.
Isn't that what the Israel - Palastinian conflict is about...territories won in war?
You think Japan should have been given surrendered territories after WW1?
That was mostly the genesis of WW2, Hitler wanting "German" territory given back.
It's not a grudge per se, it's survival of the fittest. If you did not acquire iron, coal and oil, you'd end up as a colony sooner or later. Japan did not want to end up as another European colony.
This video is worth watching as it points out Japan's resource problem after Second Sino-Japanese War, which is way more convincing than some views based on conspiracy theory. As a Chinese, I also glad to see the video admits the war efforts during WWII by China.
Besides, another worth mentioned factor was the Two-Ocean Navy Act, passed after the defeat of France in 1940, which aimed to increase the size of the U.S. navy by 70%. This meant that Japan's power advantage over the U.S. Pacific Fleet during the naval holiday would cease to exist within two years.
As a side note, the Japanese Navy and the Japanese Army pretty much despised each other and co-operation between the two was difficult.
The Japanese were mad about being cut off from scrap metal and petroleum sales when we ruled some of those markets. It was said we were penalizing them for the Chinese invasion. This led to hostility, but Pearl Harbor was attacked for two reasons: 1-the British had effectively attacked a somewhat similar anchorage at Taranto(Italy); 2-the Japanese thought we were not made of stern stuff, so if they sank most of our Pacific fleet's capital ships, we'd be out of the war for months...or years. Had they sunk some of our carriers and made that additional attack on Pearl Harbor facilities, that might've been the case. Instead, we made a remarkable recovery and in only 6 months, we basically won the Pacific war at Midway...
That's makes sense
I know why Pearl Harbor was attacked as I have just watched the video.
so you admit that usa provoked the war with japan leading to increase in brutalities among the Chinese citizens. Also japan went to war with china in the first place cause of the spread of co**unism within it's lands and isn't some random event that happened as your history books teach you. So what you think this was a good thing that usa did or should they have tried an alternate route?
Isnt it ironic that China funded the Vietcongs on their campaign against US military invasion in Vietnam years later
@@MGrey-qb5xz These are complex issues that defy one-sentence answers. Japan had a disdain, and fear, of China for ages; note the symbol of 'the rising Sun'. This moment in history, Japan had the technology perhaps to finally strike back at the giant off their shores. Your comments somehow invert the events so we(US) are to blame for Japanese actions in China. The truth in the event was they attacked Pearl Harbor and we recovered and fought back. We didn't even make it our top-level concern; we agreed with the UK that Hitler was the no. 1 threat...
this was nicely broken down. easy to understand.
This is a fantastic video that sums up (pretty much) everything you need to know in less than 15 minutes, without any extra fluff and jibber jabber. Well done!
I can see where Japan thought that they were at a crossroads to either just remain as a puny little island nation or "go for it" and try to create an empire. I think their strategy was about the best they could do, to meet their goals, but they severely underestimated the resolve of the US military and people!
Thank you. That’s the first time I’ve understood this. It’s quite a complex story, but you’ve managed to drill down to its essence. Great video. Thanks again!
My grandfather in-law was a Soviet non commissioned officer with Zhukov at Khalkin Gol.
They kicked the tar out of the Japanese forces there and were still stationed there a couple of years later when Stalin desperately needed troops of the calibre of these victorious Siberian troops to head west to Moscow to bring their fighting elan/esprit d'cour with them to alter the mindset of the demoralized Soviet Red Army and to stop the Germans outside the gates of Moscow in early 1941, and that is exactly what they did. The Germans were suddenly on the defensive and now found themselves pushed back about 200 miles further west from the initial contact they had with the Red Army in the area around Moscow!
Given Russia's worldview and especially its current state, maybe the Germans were on to something
Shame Putin/Russia is not on the side of an allied world this time...he is the aggressor. No idea how this all ends other than demolishing a peaceful Ukraine and killing so many of the innocent. Putin needs to be removed by his own people for these crimes of war. He needs a war trial. Conviction and death.
1. The battle at khalkin ghol was practically a draw . The Japanese high command just decided to concentrate thier attention towards the south (and eventually towards pearl harbor)
2. The Germans didnt make "initial contact" with red army at Moscow. Just a few weeks before that they encircled and destroyed over 650,0000 red army troops,(largest encirclement in military history)delaying thier drive on Moscow, which is why the Siberian divisions had enough time to get there before the exhausted and now frozen German army could regroup and take the city
Stalin got word from a spy in Japan that the Japanese were not going to attack Russia and then switched the forces to the West.
And as I said elsewhere, many Europeans did not know of this battle and its result which led them to underestimate the Russian Army. Zhukov was unquestionably a great general.
My Japanese grandfather fought against the Russians in Manchuria… his squad was captured and became POWs. Many of his colleagues were sent to Siberia never to be seen again. My grandfather never spoke about the war again…
😂😂🎉
Common for POW's to not speak about their experience.
My uncle didn't speak about it.
All men are created equal. My uncle was American.
Too bad and he got off easy
How many innocent civilians your grandfather had killed? Don't play victim, Japanese chose this.
HOW MANY BABIES DID HE KILL?
Finally, someone else is saying this. It was obvious to me who is not a history major when I was a kid.
They did not get the dry docks. And the fuel tanks. This was a major mistake.
It would only have bought them mere weeks or months. Had they occupied the islands they would have had years as trans-pacific missions were incredibly hard and Hawaii as a base of operations and refueling extended the arm of the USA.
US at the time was a big deal having the British on there side if it wasn’t for that maybe they would’ve had a chance
My dad and uncles on both sides of my family, numbering about eight persons, joined up and fought the battles. My paternal grandmother worked in a munitions factory, my maternal grandmother volunteered for the Red Cross.
Your story is remarkably similar to mine except all my Aunts joined my Dad and the Uncles to serve in some capacity--so there were 12 of them. One Uncle actually witnessed the mob that mauled Mussolini and his mistress and has the pictures to prove it. My mom served as well. Thematic to this discussion, she was stationed in Hawaii in the Coast Guard, although after Pearl Harbor.
@@boxsterman77 That's quite a story! Thanks for sharing it with me.
My grandpa fought on Oki in WWII and was in the Army. Iwo is more famous but Oki was more brutal. Ironically, my dad, an Army officer, spent several weeks on Oki, for processing, before heading to Vietnam. My daughter's first duty station in the Marines was Camp Kinser on Okinawa.
Both of my uncles on my Mom's side, my late Father, and my next-youngest Uncle on that side were too young for WW II.
ALL of the remaining 8 Uncles and Aunts served (One uncle in the Merchant Marine, rest in various Military/aux branches).
My paternal Grandfather died during the war, *apparently* as a Merchant Marine sailor likely on a North Atlantic convoy, but that's supposition from what little I've ever been able to dig up about Grandpa from my uncles.
My maternal Grandpa was both a farmer, *AND* worked at the Indianapolis Uniroyal plant both during and for decades after the war (retired around 1974) - essential occupations so did not serve in the Military.
Of my "too young" uncles, 2 of the 3 served during Korea - as did my late Father.
Brilliant explanation! Now I understand! I have been asking my ex-military friends why Japan attacked Pearl Harbour, with no good response. Now I can show them this video. 🇨🇦
Japan attacked because it was delusional in its thinking just as the Nazis were delusional in their invasion of France.
Just because someone served in the armed forces doesn't mean they know nor understand history.
@@bighands69
What are you talking about? France folded rather quickly. Hitler posed for photos in front of the Eiffel Tower while his soldiers goose-stepped to their heart's delight up & down the Champs-Elysees 😂
Where Germany was delusional was in their belief that they could sustain an all-out war with the Soviet Union (forget about invading it) while AT THE SAME TIME fending off the expected attack from the Americans & the allies from the west. Basically, they were delusional they could win a war fighting on two separate fronts against multiple, not to mention formidable, opponents.
Minor error: Wake island , with 500 Marines and 400 civilian volenteers, recieved air raids on that day, repelled an invasion attempt on the 11 th, using 5 inch and 3 inch guns, and held out until the 23 RD. of December.
The problem here is, Japan started their plans and training to go to war with the US in early Spring 1941. Months before the embargo. And they could not go to war with the UK and Dutch and leave a strong US astride their supply lines.
Once they committed to the Southern Strategy, they were locked in and war was coming. With or without the embargo.
You have to understand that many of these academics have modern political agendas. Many are trying to blame the US for the war and so on.
@@bighands69 and have little to no understanding of early Showa Era Japan.
There were many other things that drove Japan into a frenzy way back before 1931. One of which was their Racial Equality proposal at the Treaty of Versailles. Guess which country rejected their proposal? US.
@@JinKazama92 wrong. It was not the US that rejected it but the UK and France. That was because both had colonies in the region and elsewhere.
But the issue goes beyond that, to at least 1900 and what Japan did after that.
@@0311Mushroom US did reject it. This infuriated Japan.
A fairly good essay here, about much of the goings-on that led up to Pearl Harbor. However, you have glossed over some very important points. ("glossed over" means you mentioned them, but very slightly) The US had war machinery in the Philippines much earlier than Pearl Harbor. They were blockading Japan's oil shipments. The US, England, and France tried to 'paper' this problem in 1912 with a treaty that required Japan to limit their ocean-going ships to mid-sized and smaller. This meant no oil tankers. Washington wanted that oil, and were prepared to do anything to get it. Washington goaded Japan into war when they saw that Japan was not going to stop buying a lot of oil.
Not many people realize this and don't understand how America perfectly pivoted herself to get into the war for its economy. It wasn't to "help the global community" it was to pull the country out of the depression. Japan simply tried to kick put colonial powers in Asia already raping the East for the previous 100 years.
Growing up in the shadow of the second world war, I remember the attitude toward the Japanese and Germans. My grandparents portrayed them as monsters. Looking back at history, I understand why.
Watch the same demonization of China and Iran coming to your media outlet soon.
The fire bombed an entire city. Not japan.
@@aaronmcconkey1062 Japan was horrific during WW2.
Lol the wrong enemy was fought boomer
@@juliaj7939 I'd rather be instantly eviscerated than tortured for days, weeks, months and then put on a pike.
*My Filipino great-grandfather signed up as a soldier at 14, which was actually not allowed; He fought the Japanese in our province. I remember my mom telling me that the only thing he shot that day was coconuts so he could eat and drink during the fight. While he did this, he met a young Japanese kid, who might have been the same age, looking at him while eating. They both looked at each other but they didn't shoot each other instead, they ate coconuts together while all the fighting was going on lol...* 😍😍
The embargo that lead to the Pearl Harbor attack was brutal, but multiple US newspapers stated that an attack was expected; the US was negligent and that lead to the deaths of many soldiers (including my grandmother's brother.) One interesting note, you hear about the internment of the Japanese; but rarely ever about Italian and German internment. While Joe DiMaggio was serving his country (USA) his parents fishing boat was burned by the government and they were interned.
You don't hear about German internment because it was much smaller scale and much more selective only targeting nationals. They were shipping off entire families into camps with the Japanese and even just normal citizens and American born Japanese Americans
@Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus It was terrible. But on the other side of the coin, thousands of "Americans" went back to their ancestral homes to fight for Japan and Germany.
We have so many examples of this when these "Americans" were used to translate propaganda on the radio, or help interrogate allied POWs. Who's to know how many more were spying on the country or attempting to start pro-axis movements from inside the nation. That's war in a diverse Nation of immigrants.
Hell, my own great grandmother donated thousands to her German homeland, causing her to forever be disowned. You never knew what any of them back home could also be up to. War is terrible for all involved, especially if you are an immigrant from a current enemy.
@Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus Man, the crazy thing people just make up, lol.
This is such an intellectually dishonest statement and it's absolute bullsh*t. The "embargo" didn't lead to the Pearl Harbor attack, Japan's imperialistic behavior led to the attack. We don't have to sell to anyone, let alone murderers & war criminals. They were sociopathic imperialist warmongers and they got EVERYTHING that came to them in the end.
@Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus Where did you get this information? I have spoken to a number of German Americans who served in the war and none of them ever said something like that. In fact, Chester Nimitz was a German American from Fredericksburg and he was put in charge of the entire US Navy in the Pacific.
Really interesting and well done! In Germany we don't learn that much about this side of WW2 (well, I mean there also is a good reason why we focus more about our own role, so no complaint here), so I really learned a lot by this well made video. Thanks IWM
I worked with a number of WW2 vets from America, and know and did business with a few German veterans of WW2. I find that this sentiment is often felt:
m.ruclips.net/video/1PJkNZ30WV0/видео.html
Have you ever heard of the greatest story never told- Adolf Hitler in Germany?
I admire Germany for telling the truth to its people about wwII
and Hitler’s crimes unlike the United States for hiding our misdeeds for 246 years and continues to cover it up. This will all end badly I’m afraid. We seem bent on creating Hitler’s world.
@@dianemitchell1717 They didn’t exactly have a choice, It’s illegal to deny the holocaust.
@@emimtz3040 Who are you? It is well known Germany is open about its past. What are you talking about?
A subject that merits a good investigation. However this clip seem to underplay certain facets of Imperial Japan's policies, while not really lay out the progression of sanctions pursued by the US and allies as non-military measures.
For instance, 1931 wasn't Imperial Japan's "first step at empire building." There were wars against Qing era China and Tsarist Russia. And then diplomatic moves, like the 21 Demands of 1915 sent to China, the effort to acquire German concessions in China after WWI, etc.
As for the progression of sanctions, first: The US had engaged in economic sanctions in relations with Japan prior to 1940, but the Fall of France greatly alarmed the country. The "Moral Embargo" on aircraft and aircraft parts took place in July 1938; the US announced intent to abrogate the 1911 Treaty of Commerce and Navigation in July 1939; and then as mentioned in the clip, the embargo of industrial equipment in June 1940. That progression continued after the fall of France, like in July/August 1940 with exports to Japan of metals, aviation, gasoline and lubricating placed under Federal control.
Then actual occupation of Tonkin by the Japanese took place in September 1940, which was followed by a riposte by the US, with increased financial aid to the KMT that month, as well as embargoes of sale of steel and scrap iron to Japan (that went into effect in October 16). A day after that embargo was announce, Japan sighed the Tripartite Pact with Germany and Italy.
Of course Japanese occupation of key facilities in Southern Indochina in July 1941 escalated the crisis, leading to the full oil embargo and freezing of Japanese assets. Now at that time what gets overlooked was FDR's proposal to have Indochina regarded as "a neutralized country in the same way in which Switzerland had up to now been regarded by the powers as a neutralized country." (source. page 145 of "Japan 1941" by Eri Hotta).
Other piece of context missing is that in the first half of 1941 the US really wanted to avoid conflict in the Pacific as things intensified in the Atlantic (the establishment of the Support Force, Atlantic Fleet in March 1941, more extensive US patrolling of shipping lanes, planning around taking over the occupation of Iceland): "The US preoccupation with the western Atlantic accounted for Washington's initial willingness in the spring of 1941 to reach some kind of peace with Tokyo that would ensure that Japan stayed out of the imminent war with the Nazi." (page 181 of "Japan 1941" by Eri Hotta)
Seems this could have been a good opportunity to provide a more comprehensive account of the series of actions / reactions of the antagonists with more context.
Thank you for your post. I am a history nerd. Thanks again. Appreciate all the effort to make this post. God Bless.
Excellent, Michael. Absolutely excellent. Thank-you.
Thank you. This video reeks of neo-Marxist wokester dogmatism. The effete nasal hipster accent and the assertion at the one-minute mark that the US had an empire like Britain tell you most of what you need to know. He (or whatever the pronoun is) probably has a sham PhD from Brown.
Wasn't there Advanced warning of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour by 'novice' radar operators who were not convinced of what they saw on the radar screens and even denied an interpretation? Conspiracy theories abound of course.
@@MaverickSeventySeven A radar unit picked up signs of incoming aircraft at around 7am on Dec. 7th supposedly, so about 55-57 minutes before the first wave of Japanese aircraft began hitting their targets. Couple of things though, the technology was immature, believe the crews were still ramping up on a mobile unit, and aircraft from the West Coast were expected to be arriving soon.
Otherwise, a Japanese sub was spotted and sunk hours before.
My father's 21 year old cousin from Victoria, B.C,was a Fighter Pilot,sadly he was shot down in the first few hours of Pearl Harbour. RIP. K.White. 🇨🇦 🍁
clearly he wasn't a very good pilot
Little known fact-
Japan actually bombed a Santa Barbara beach with a submarine aircraft carrier. They also managed to hit the Oregon coast as well
They sent incendiary balloons to the West Coast that actually killed a few Americans. The Germans shelled Cape Cod once, too.
I’ve seen the place in Oregon the Japanese shelled. It didn’t do any serious damage, but it certainly alarmed the Americans.
@Melissa H The U.S. attacked Japan with bat bombs- small incendiary bombs attached to live bats. They weren’t very effective, but it’s a really interesting story of unconventional warfare. Apparently, Eleanor Roosevelt was a booster of the bat bomb tactic.
What is a submarine aircraft carrier? No such ship ever existed. The "bombing" in Oregon was balloons the Japanese released into the stratosphere loaded with ammunition. A few exploded and caused virtually no damage - but news was censored during the war so the there would not be a panic.
somewhat incorrect, so, yes Japan had an oil problem but also rubber and a steel problem. How to solve it for them was to take control of Malaysia, Dutch East Indies, Burma, India, and Indochina to secure all of these items for the short term. They could not do this if the US pacific fleet was in existence. This is why they planned and then attacked Pearl Harbor-to take out the US pacific fleet, its air arm (carriers, and land-based AC) and hopefully secure their position in the Pacific.
*Malaya
They could have taken control of all of those territories with the US Pacific Fleet still in existence. If they had simply avoided American possessions, it's quite possible that the American public would not have supported going to war with Japan.
@@christophermurphy7113 America, Britshit, French and Dutch "possessions" Japan was the last place in the entire Pacific to be grabbed by Imperialists and rest assured they were well aware of that fact
Trying to fight populations as large as China and India would not make logical sense.
Wrong. The Japanese didn't think Americans had any backbone, and would just roll over if attacked. Putler is trying to sell the same BS today.
I've read many books on our war with Japan. My favorite (I've read it twice) is "Japan's War" by Edwin P. Hoyt. I don't know if it's still in print but it tells the war from the Japanese perspective. Not to justify their actions, but to better understand them. One point he makes is that our conflict with Japan didn't begin in December, 1941; it began July 8, 1853 - the day Commodore Perry sailed his black ships into Tokyo bay. Hoyt paints a picture of how that one act lead inexorably, like dominoes falling, to the attack on Pearl Harbor, and on through to the end of the war and its aftermath; how the army and navy hated each other and even were known to work against each other; how poor officer discipline was. JIA Officers commonly decided for themselves if their orders were aggressive enough and if they felt they weren't they often ignored them. This in fact, helped us to win. A GREAT read.
I feel like suggesting a link between Perry sailing his ships into Tokyo Bay in 1853 and Pearl Harbor is a massive stretch. The two events were in no way connected. In fact, Japan gained from opening up to the world so I fail to see how they would be pissed off about that nearly 100 years later.
@@AsymmetricalCrimes There might be a case to be made in Japanese national pride being hurt because they had to bend a knee to the Western powers at the time. Though they gained a lot, it took a while before their power was acknowledged, in the form of their defeat of the Russian Empire, an old bear in decline. Even then, they were forced to give up much of their territorial gains by Western powers, mostly because Japan couldn’t afford to hold them. This however caused outrage at home as the public thought the government was being weak and had bent the knee to foreign influence again. It caused a period of violent unrest where the Army and Navy fought each other for control of the government by assassinating the other’s politicians. It stopped finally when the Emperor stepped in, but it left the main issues unresolved, those issues which helped cause partially Japan’s willingness to go on a conquest war in South East Asia and join World War 2.
@@Kaebuki I wouldn't say Japan lost alot of territory. They still gained a bunch of islands from Germany after World War I and still controlled Taiwan and Korea by the time WWI ended.
To me, the their origins of their resentment of the west came from how they were treated at the Treaty of Versailles and how European powers refused to see them as equals. Also President Woodrow Wilson being a massive racist and being super condescending with Japan.
@@AsymmetricalCrimes Forced to open at gunpoint because they could not keep the foreigners out through force of arms..Americans love to downplay that fact. Also, Japan was driven by a fear of being beaten and then colonized as was happening to to several of its neighbors during that time. So, I think that a line can be drawn directly from Perry's uninvited and unwanted intrusion to the Pacific war. Japan was attempting to defend itself by copying the behaviors of the westerners which including conquest and colonialism, which in spite of a lot revisionist history to the contrary were nasty, destructive, and quite wasteful of non western lives.
@@AsymmetricalCrimes America and the west as a whole were massively racist. Woodrow Wilson was not an aberration of some kind his mentality was mainstream. The League of Nations was doomed to fail because it was premised on a global racial hierarchy which would never have been sustainable.
this was a great video. I am Indian and my grandfather fought in Burma & Kohima against Japan, along with his brother. He spoke little of it. I just returned from a 12 day trip to Japan & wanted to challenge my views on WW2. I visited Hiroshima & the Yushukan Museum/Yasasuni Shrine which significantly covers the war. I understand Japan's perspective, though I have now become more a centrist than agreeing unilaterally with the Allied view
Maybe if you'd study other historical outlets of knowledge other than those of the Japanese you might learn a little more. My father was a US Marine in the Pacific. He took two Jap bullets and was a POW. The torture inflicted upon him was unspeakable. I don't know how he survived. Learn about what the Japs did to the Chinese before the war. If you truly understand "Japan's perspective" perhaps you can help explain the mass murder of Chinese civilians, the Bataan Death March and the other atrocities they perpetuated. And don't forget the warnings they were given by the Truman administration before the atomic bombs were dropped, which they chose to ignore.
I believe that, in truth, good and evil are just words shaped to mean different things by different people in different times with different intentions. What really moves the world is power, and the pretty much universal desire to secure it, to subdue others. There's really no innocents in history, no one without blood in their hands, which is why we should learn with our past mistakes and their consequences.
So you thought it was kind of great for Japan to invade China.
you're insane
It's ironic that the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor to make sure they could secure oil supplies, yet failed to attack the fuel storage. Had they destroyed that the US would have been seriously hampered, as the fleet would have been forced to operate from the West coast. Having to operate from there would have given Japan more time to realize their plans to take territories in the South Pacific, and fortify those holdings. Even with the outrage the US felt, this would have made the Pacific Campaign much more costly.
It was on their target list, but not as first priority. As their losses were rising with the base alert, Nagumo decided a third wave would be risky. A few factors might have been that excessive loss of pilots here might have crippled their future capabilities and also tarnish his near perfect victory.
@@bluerationality That's the point. They knew how critical the oil supplies were, but failed to connect that with a primary goal. Destroying the fuel oil first would mean that any surviving US ships would almost certainly have been pulled back to the West Coast, eliminating them as a severe threat. I don't think thos would have drawn off that many planes out of the first wave, and would have had a bigger impact for Japan but in the near and medium term. Long term, they were doomed from the start.
Yeah. First take out planes, whoops where are the three carriers? where is even one damn carrier? fuel depots should have been next target, dry docks, FDR knew it was coming, had to have it to declare war all over. It was about moniitary systems. He sure did back the Communists financially.
I have to wonder? The Americans probably could have rebuilt the fuel storage facilities pretty quickly. And maybe, they could refuel directly from tankers like they did aircraft carriers, etc., at sea?
They basically threw a pebble at a hornet nest.
"We attacked three boats, they dropped the sun on us TWICE"
The best sun ever. Thanks US
Well the easy answer is that Japan knew that war with the United States would be devastating for their war effort, so they intended to deal a “decisive blow” to our naval capabilities, making us less of a threat. Their mistake was not attacking everything necessary to deal the blow they wanted. Our shipyards and oil fields were mostly still intact, which meant that our navy would recover very quickly.
They could not reach our production.
The Oil storage at Pearl though was something they PLANNED to attack in a "later wave" - then decided to ignore it, which proved DECISIVE to Midway (we don't have the fuel to defend Midway had that oil storage been hammered and a large percentage of it made to burn).
Yeah, the video said all of that.
F you whale and f you dolphin - The Japanese in South Park
And we still had carriers and submarines.
@@Crabbadabba Sneaky Japanese - The white guy with the personality of a Chinese man
The more I study about history, the more I realise there is no "right" Or "wrong"... There are desires, ambitions and most of times circumstances.
I'm not convinced that the attack on Pearl Harbor was a complete surprise.
It was reported that they were aware of the attack but took it for granted. Also the Japanese ambassador thought it was nuts and tried to talk them against it. But mistakes were made...
You may be right about the motive; but bringing the US into the war was likely the largest military blunder in history. Maybe had they invaded the Hawaiian islands they'd have crippled in the Pacific fleet. When the Soviets realized the Japanese would be busy fighting the US; they were able to transfer Zhukov and thousands of troops from the far east and save Leningrad and Moscow, had they fallen it certainly would have been of great aid to the Axis.
When
Germany was about to declare War on the Russians,Henry ford had an assembly line in Germany selling small trucks. At the same time Henry Ford had just sent some of his employees to fix the problem on the "New" (T-34) getting the turret centered was the main problem.
Yes, Stalin's master spy, Richard Sorge advised Stalin that the Japanese would not be fighting with Russia which allowed Stalin to ferry troop for the Far East to the battle zones. Interestingly, Sorge had advised Stalin that the Germans would invade Russia on June 22, 1941 but Stalin ignored the warning. He thought when the fighting began that it was just a German "provocation" to force his hand in attacking Germany. That's why in the first weeks of the war, Russia lost enormous numbers of planes on the ground, troops, land and so on. Caught napping notwithstanding a mass of warning. Conclusion: even paranoids have real enemies.
"but bringing the US into the war was likely the largest military blunder in history."...no it wasnt once germany finished in europe america would have been the next target, and they had all the nuclear scientists,those bombs wouldnt have dropped on japan but on american territory,america had no choice but to join up
@@Blobby192 not even close dude.. first of all Germany’s navy was not on par with the with British let alone the Americans.. he could never reach the usa even if he wanted to.. u just can’t invade the usa especially back then, just imagine what it would have taken to get there forces on us soil
@@lonemaus562 sure you are right in what you say however that is as the war was going in europe at that time, once the germans and its allies had full control of europe that includes africa, russia the middle east etc it would have secured more than enough resources, oil, tec and men to mount an attack on americas mainland,(the japanese attack on pearl harbour comes to mind) and beyond. .im not saying germany would win the war on american soil what i am saying is germany would have had america in its sights next and a lot more powerful too.
Fantastic video, thank you! How Japan thought the US would bow down is beyond me. But the US has made similar tactical blunders (albeit much less costly) in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan underestimating the fights that were to come after US attacks.
Comparing the US wwii and vietnam is stupid. If the U.S truly wanted vietnam would have been ashes easily
I don't know how optimistic they were, but considering the alternatives, or lack thereof, they had no choice but to count on it.
@@johnnyblaze9217 by far. it easily could have obliterated Vietnam.
The blunders that are ww2 are just not used to new technology advances *ie radar system
What happened with Vietnam was political just like afganistan was political that's why we lost both of those conflicts
@@johnnyblaze9217 true.
I like the interim summary of each main point.
I think it is often missed that the purchase of weapons by the UK from the USA gave the US the ability to switch production of products developed for the British and gave them a head start as by the end of 1941 this production was well under way
The US gave the Russians over 20,000 tanks, over 20,000 aircraft, over 400,000 vehicles, machines for the factories, industrial components, food, specialized materials and so on. That was the reason why the Russian military that was defeated was able to them gather them self up and start a counter offensive.
There is a lot of mythology about the war that the US culture has helped to become prominent such as Russia winning the war and so on.
@@bighands69 and UK supplied tanks which were used in frontal assaults due to heavier front armour, in fact UK built more tanks in WW2 than the Germans, supplied aeroplanes and even operational squadrons too.
The Japanese were not targeting the battleships at pearl harbor my friends. They were targeting the carriers, Yamamoto wrote that the worst case scenario would be to destroy the battleships and leave the carriers intact. That would force the US to use the carriers, which would end up being way superior to any battleships. Great video
Japan knew there were no carriers at Pearl Harbour, but they attacked regardless. The targets were battleships, which even Japan considered the most important ships in any navy.
@@admiralbeez8143 what ships did Usa attack in Nagasaki and hiroshima? Victory came only by killing innocent Japanese… Shame on UsA
@@Asiandramas99 bombs saved about 1,000,000 lives - that was the estimated losses for invasion of Japan - a no brainer for truman
@@Asiandramas99 Yes, you are right.
Shame on the USA... They are the ONLY ONLY ones that killed innocent during World War II.
But most of the carriers weren't in port at the time
A sneak attack on Pearl Harbor,,and then their behavior toward prisoners of war and non-combatants.What a ridiculously suicidal thing to do..
Ideology is a hell of a drug.
Essential information for history students, great job.
Imperial Japan did well to wake up two sleeping giants one after the other
@michael boultinghouse Don't think Stalin like being messed with in the late 1930s, nor like the uncertainty around a border like in the June-Sept 1941 timeframe. And, he wanted back former Tsarist territories/privileges and then some (like economic penetration of Xinjiang). To say Stalin had no ambitions about North Asia is probably not accurate.
The division of Korea came well after Yalta, in the last days of WWII in Asia, and permanent division wasn't a given until after a train of events in the fall / winter of 1945.
The Yalta agreement called for an attack on Japanese territories/forces three months after the end of conflict in Europe.
@michael boultinghouse Stalin wasn't forced by anything. He had built up an enormous force and wanted both payback, as well as to pursue various aims in Asia dating from the 1930s.
The Soviet Union didn't lose a third of its population either. The population was almost 200 million just prior to the German invasion.
The US landed in South Korea well after the Soviets had entered North Korea. And North Korea had considerable assets at the time due to Japanese investment, like one of the largest ammo factories up by Hungnam.
@michael boultinghouse
I'm betting the people of South Korea disagree with your analysis.
@michael boultinghouse o think South Korea is unwilling to be communist slaves to get unification. NK isn't offering to give up communist control. And after long enough, the reasons for such unification becomes less important. Family on the other side of the 38th has died off and become more distant relations. Their primary motivation will be the suffering of their fellow Koreans. And that won't change with unification under Kim.
@michael boultinghouse
The bases are there to help repel, a N. Korean invasion, just like they did last time. We could debate whether there was a whole lot of difference between the two regimes at that time, but the fact is S. Korea is a thriving free democratic society today, while the North is not. And I'd be willing to bet a weeks pay that the S. Koreans aren't going to give that up for Uncle Fatty's tyrannical dystopia. The upshot of the whole thing is the bases will be there as long as N. Korea is a dictatorship with a penchant for attacking it's neighbor.
The three US aircraft carriers assigned to the Pacific Fleet were Enterprise, Lexington and Saratoga. None were in Pearl on December7th. Big E and Lady Lex were returning from missions to deliver Marine air groups to Wake and Midway Islands. Sarah was in Washington State undergoing repair and refit.
I love the names of the carriers lol, imagine serving on lady lex
That's so cool
They knew it was coming. The Americans forced Japan to attack with all their sanctions. Result. Many Japanese now consider Japan to be another American state. They have competition of course with Germany, Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria ... and coming soon to a country near you.
You are good! Thank you. Really loves the names, especially the 3 that were not in Pearl Harbor that day ...
@@agbebimeritayoyinka5587 It is simple manipulating and it apparently works on you.
@@AliasSchmalias And that is great. It really is as simple as ABC, which helped boost morale for the sailors. Hats off to the US Navy!
That was one of the most amazing videos I have ever seen. Explains so much about what in chess would be labelled a ???!!! move.
I love being from America. We may be rough rn. But we I'll be back. Still the strongest military ever in all of human kind.
One of the surprising things about the attack on Pearl Harbor is the fact the general MacArthur in the Philippians saw that and did absolutely nothing. So when the Japanese attacked they were just as unprepared as Hawaii.
That was something I'd never heard until the WW2 in real time channel covered it. Pearl Harbor was less defended because the US was building up its air force in the Philippines: an air force that was destroyed ON THE GROUND AFTER Pearl Harbor was attacked. This seems to me the biggest refutation of the Pearl Harbor advance knowledge conspiracy theory.
When it came to the air assets, there is considerable controversy. Otherwise, the US forces aside from those of the Philippine Commonwealth were pretty modest in size and means. The Philippine Military on paper was achieving some size, but was pretty new and green: "The Philippine Army totalled 120,000 and the Army of the United States 31,000."
@@maemorri Those ideas only work with hindsight.
@@michaeldunne338 It's more a case that MacArthur knew of the attack on Pearl Harbor and did nothing. So these aircraft in the Philippines were destroyed on the ground just like those in Hawaii. You would think Pearl Harbor had not happened. And none of the defenses were manned either.
That is not true. As soon as the alert came the American fighters took off to provide cover. There was supposed to be a simultaneous strike at these bases by the Japanese. However early morning cloud cover prevented them from taking off from Formosa. When they finally arrived over Clark Field the American fighters were low on fuel and bombers returned from scouting runs. This allowed the Japanese to deal a devastating blow to the US Far East Air Force.
Really enjoyed watching this. Well done!
Great video… it just occurred to me that the statement “Japan’s desire for an empire” really was a small band of Japanese leaders with absolute power and an unsuspecting public. But everybody suffered for it.
Because of British pirates
And so it goes.
Pretty much the same as America's 0.1% richest steer the direction of the entire country into bankruptcy (the national economy on the verge of defaulting on it's debts and the eventual fall into skyrocketing inflation), while getting richer and richer, themselves.
I think the public may have been suspecting but indoctrinated.
Europeans can have Empires, enslaving Natives, why not the Japanese?? They are fierce fighters but their land is very small, that is another reason they lost the war. If they have had land like the current China or Russia, it would be impossible to defeat. Anyway, time & again some countries become powerful to challenge the West which will create future conflicts and the subsequent shifting of power.
'in 1931 Japan took its first steps towards empire building' Korea is like 🤔 what are we? Morning mist. Have a good one
Thank you, thank you, thank you. I finally "get" why Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and why it ultimately lost the war. I've watched other videos on RUclips and none of them explained the events and situation as clearly and succinctly as you did. Basically, Japan was successful in the early part of the war because its army and industry were modernized rapidly, thereby outpacing the progress of other East Asian countries (such as China). Japan sought wider influence by increasing trade routes and increasing economic output, but in order to do this needed physical resources such as iron or oil, which are of short supply in Japan. The Imperial Japanese Army therefore invaded Manchuria and Northeastern China, but soon after were met with strong resistance from both China and Russia, crippling their plans to extract more resources from the Mainland. The Japanese then mobilized their navy in order to secure additional resources in the Southern Pacific, but overestimated the amount of time it would take for the US Navy to recuperate. The fact that the US Army/ Navy were somewhat late participants in World War 2 (supplying Allied troops but not actively fighting with them) meant that when Pearl Harbor got bombed, the US was ready and willing to go to war with a nation on the other side of the planet. Had the Japanese waited a bit longer before attacking Pearl Harbor, and the Axis powers crippled Great Britain, Japanese territory could possibly be greater than it is now. Responses welcome, and once again, thank you Imperial War Museums!
Well, it's worth noting that regardless of American intervention, Britain wasn't going to be crippled. They were evenly matched with German/Italian forces in North Africa and the Regia Marina in the Mediterranean, as well as slowly winning the Battle of the Atlantic, while Britain itself was relatively comfortable. The Royal Navy was about the same size as the US Navy at this point, with similar numbers of carriers and battleships, albeit the British had more modern battleships operational in late 1941.
All of that meant that even if the Japanese didn't attack, and the Americans joined the Allies, the US Navy would've retained the bulk of its strength in the Pacific, particularly the carriers. The US Navy was rapidly expanding even before the Japanese attacked; the longer they waited, the stronger the US would get. The British were also a factor, as while they were thoroughly distracted for the moment and could station two capital ships to Singapore, the Japanese couldn't count on that lasting forever.
All of which meant that December 1941 was the best time for the Japanese to strike when their enemies were most vulnerable.
@@Cailus3542 The Royal Navy was the same size as the US Navy, where are your Carriers? What are their Names? and What kind of Aircrafts are on them?
The key factor was that the Americans had an ace in the whole so we’re relatively confident in joining the war. Otherwise japans plans would have succeeded
Interesting. Only what planet? Huh? It's 2023. We know better. Adolf Hitler was confident he had the EDGE because he studied Gleason's Standard Map of the World and knew the earth was FLAT.
in those days america is the only country with a knockout genocidal punch.
this time with china's rise, japan and germany will make sure it's going to be a knockout punch.
and u missed the centry-long opium holocaust in china from 1850 to1950, turning china into a nation of opium zambis. the little brother japan had to do something for its knockout big brother china.
u also missed the fact that the whole asia was a huge western colony for hundreds of years. the pearl harbor clean out mission by japan was loooong overdue.
finally, the earliest christians 1650 in japan was acting like such savages that japan had to kill them all. and the all-xtian crew on the enola gay abomber kill same number of japanese 40,000, in the buddhist vs xtian war that u guys misnomed it as wwii.
apan was liberating asia.
what u guys heard was the forgery by russia, the tanaka memorial, that japan was going to conquer korea, then china, then america, finally the world.
but in fact, japan just put the confucian way into it's constitution and tried to block some young turk of the militay so hard that its own prime minister and minister of education was assassinated by those young officers.
also, iris chan of rape of naking book fame got a free mental hospital stay after exposing the tanaka memorial forgery and finally took he own life for not being able to live with the lie that "CIA used" her to propagate. in order to split japan and china, for the sake of using japan as a proxy to fight china this time.
Germany had no reason to declare war on the US. Japan attacked America which is not a defensive act, duh. Germany just shot themselves in the foot by attacking Russia AND declaring war on the US
As for Japan, well, GG.
What about Mussolini and Italy? Would like your thoughts.
Well germany had reasons, since the us wasnt in the war as military power but by supporting their enemies with weapon, so they clearly decieded tomtake part and not to stay neutral. But it was a stupid descision anyways.
You should write not "the reason", but "the unreason" .
All this attack was absurd and Yamamoto knew It well.
Ironically, he was in charge of the strategy.
Great video...👍
My grandfather fought the Japanese in the Philippines for the US. That’s how most of my family was able to come to the states. I even saw the grave of one of his friend in Cebu. I think located in Carmen cebu.
Thanks, that makes things a lot clearer. I didn’t get why they chose to piss off an opponent they had no way of beating, but if they thought American intervention was inevitable anyway, that makes a lot more sense (well, from their point of view). It was still a suicidal plan though.
And I had no idea that Vichy France had collaborated with _Japan_ on top of Germany.
Strategy Against Japan In World War II
第二次世界大戦における対日戦略
Senator Hickenlooper.
ヒッケンルーパー上院議員
Question No. 5: Isn't your proposal for sea and air blockade of Red China the same strategy by which Americans achieved victory over the Japanese in the Pacific?
5番目の質問です。赤色中国に関する海と空からの封鎖という貴官の提案は、太平洋において米国が日本に勝利を収めた際の戦略と同じではありませんか。
General MacArthur.
マッカーサー将軍
Yes, sir.
そうです。
In the Pacific we bypassed them.
太平洋では、米国は日本を迂回しました。
We closed in.
そして閉じ込めたのです。
You must understand that Japan had an enormous population of nearly 80 million people, crowded into 4 islands.
日本が抱える八千万人に近い膨大な人口は、四つの島に詰め込まれていたということをご理解いただく必要があります。
It was about half a farm population. The other half was engaged in industry.
そのおよそ半分は農業人口であり、残りの半分は工業に従事していました。
Potentially the labor pool in Japan, both in quantity and quality, is as good as anything that I have ever known.
潜在的に、日本における予備労働力は、量的にも質的にも、私が知る限りどこにも劣らぬ優れたものです。
Some place down the line they have discovered what you might call the dignity of labor, that men are happier when they are working and constructing than when they are idling.
いつの頃からか、彼らは、労働の尊厳と称すべきものを発見しました。つまり、人間は、何もしないでいるときよりも、働いて何かを作っているときの方が幸せだということを発見したのです。
This enormous capacity for work meant that they had to have something to work on.
このように膨大な労働能力が存在するということは、彼らには、何か働くための対象が必要なことを意味しました。
They built the factories, they had the labor, but they didn't have the basic materials.
彼らは、工場を建設し、労働力を抱えていましたが、基本資材を保有していませんでした。
There is practically nothing indigenous to Japan except the silkworm.
日本には、蚕を除いては、国産の資源はほとんど何もありません。
They lack cotton, they lack wool, they lack petroleum products, they lack tin, they lack rubber, they lack a great many other things, all of which was in the Asiatic basin.
彼らには、綿が無く、羊毛が無く、石油製品が無く、スズが無く、ゴムが無く、その他にも多くの資源が欠乏しています。それらすべてのものは、アジア海域に存在していたのです。
They feared that if those supplies were cut off, there would be 10 to 12 million people unoccupied in Japan.
これらの供給が断たれた場合には、日本では、一千万人から一千二百万人の失業者が生まれるという恐怖感がありました。
Their purpose, therefore, in going to war was largely dictated by security.
したがって、彼らが戦争を始めた目的は、主として安全保障上の必要に迫られてのことだったのです。
The above MacArthur testimony is part of a question-and-answer session held at the Joint Committee on Military Diplomacy of the U.S. Senate on May 3, 1951.
This is not to say that war is justified in advance.
ABCD Powers
Before the start of World War II, the United States, the United Kingdom, Britain, China, the Netherlands (Dutch India) Dutch East Indies cooperated to counter Japan's expansion policy, and the four countries I took the initials and was called like this. It is also called the ABCD siege. The United States discarded the Japan-U.S. Convention on Trade and Navigation (1939.7.26.) In addition to the notice, especially since the Japanese army's occupation of southern France and India in July 1941, Japan has strengthened countermeasures against Japan such as freezing Japanese assets and oil embargo against Japan, and on the other hand, Japan has taken more and more forceful measures to break through this siege, and has led to the Pacific War. Guided.
The Hull note, officially the Outline of Proposed Basis for Agreement Between the United States and Japan, was the final proposal delivered to the Empire of Japan by the United States of America before the attack on Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1941) and the Japanese declaration of war (seven and a half hours after the attack began). The note, delivered on November 26, 1941, is named for Secretary of State Cordell Hull (in office: 1933-1944). It was the diplomatic culmination of a series of events leading to the attack on Pearl Harbor. Notably, its text repeats previous American demands for Japan to withdraw from China and from French Indochina. No further American proposals were made before the attack on Pearl Harbor, as the US government had received intelligence that Japan was preparing an invasion of Thailand.
thank you for reading
Well Vichy France is just a puttet state after all.
And the Japs were seen by many locals to be liberators cause they drove out the Dutch and French colonialists.
A group of Jap soldiers stayed behind after the war and made their own city in Burma or Laos.
The biggest point tho, JAPAN THOUGHT THEY WERE GONNA WIN. They thought the USA would negotiate, instead of fight. Every military doctrine of Japan ... knock them so hard, so fast, THAT they negotiate to surrender.
Interesting that it didn't work on a single country, except Russia.
Also, after ww1, the Japs were given sweveral German Islands in the Pacific. They had years and years to build defenses on them.
That whole war is very complicated.
第2次世界大戦の日本での視点は、資源(植民地)を持たざる国(日本、ドイツ、イタリア)と資源(植民地)を持っている国との奪い合いであったと認識しています。
日本の参戦のきっかけは海上封鎖された事で、黙って屈辱を味わいながら死を待つか、武士道の精神で討ち死にするか、本気で勝てると思っていた人は知識層にはいませんでした。
Another aspect. The Japanese Army and Navy high commands had a lot of debates in 1940-1941 about strategy. The Army wanted to expand operations in China and possibly prepare to go into Soviet Siberia (for the resources there). It's the Navy that had the 'Southern Strategy' in mind to invade both the Dutch East Indies (for oil) and British-held Malaya and Burma (for rubber and other minerals).
The Navy and the Army hated each other. There are several instances of them sabotaging each other during the war.
@michael boultinghouse Well, yes and no. He had ultimate responsibility and wasn't punished after the war due to MacArthur's intervention (and political types in Washington).
A great starting point about Japanese pre-war decision-making in this respect is "Fateful Choices" by Ian Kershaw
It’s not surprising that the Army wanted to fight a land war (the “Northern Strategy”), while the Navy preferred a sea war (the “Southern Strategy”).
The army had been beaten by a combined Soviet/Mongolian army on the borders of Mongolia/Manchuria. The leaders in Japan would not back the army.
Excellent explanation.