Consequently the US, the Netherlands and Great Britain increasingly refused to allow Japan free access to resources.
The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was not an isolated military operation, nor merely a lashing out by an out-of-control military but a key component of a much larger plan, at the heart of which was the capture of (mainly) European colonial possessions in South-East Asia.
Pearl Harbor came about because Japan needed to protect the seaward flank of its invasion of South-East Asia from
interference by the US Pacific Fleet, based in Hawaii.
The country’s military planners had two choices: allow the fleet to sally out in response to the Japanese invasion and engage it in open battle on the high seas or, preferably, prevent it from sailing at all.
Japan’s political ambition was not to go to war with the US – merely to restrict America’s military options at a time when Japan was attempting to maximise hers.
Could it have done things differently and thus prevented, as Admiral Yamamoto – the architect of the attack – feared it might, awaken the sleeping American giant?
Japanese planners led by Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, who masterminded the raid, thought a robust and bloody first strike might persuade an inherently isolationist US not to engage in war at all, especially when ships and military effort generally was at that very moment being concentrated on the Atlantic and the threat to American interests there by German U-boats.
But military necessity dictated that Japan would have to take the risk of war with the US if it wished to achieve its political ambitions in China. There was no other option.
So, the attack on Pearl Harbor can be seen as an attempt by Japan to prevent war with America – not provoke it. But this entailed crazy risk.
So, on Sunday December 7, 1941, at 7.48am the calm of the early morning above Hawaii was shattered by the
unexpected roar of hundreds of incoming aircraft engines.
For residents readying themselves for breakfast, it seemed like an unexpected aerial display to celebrate the weekend.
Then, suddenly, many of the aircraft – there were 182 in total – began falling in unison from the sky, engines screaming as they dived. Slowly, shocked awareness dawned on those watching far below. This was no peaceful display.
