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What on earth were Japan thinking with Pearl Harbor?

I am just watching the film now and I can't understand why Japan did such a thing? Surely it's like an ant attacking an eagle lol. What did they hope to achieve? And how could they be so unrealisitic?

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Reply 1
Avatar for Mirose
Mirose
American film so americans make Japan seem like the enemy and hence are mean bastards that are in fact, very stupid yet they are the heroes.

*shrug* I don't know.. I didn't watch it.
Reply 2
Avatar for User257034
User257034
I no the answer to this :smile:

They were hoping to wipe out pretty much the entire pacific fleet in one go.

If this worked japan could go to American unopposed.

They were aiming mainly for the aircraft carriers, luckily that day they were out on military manouvers, effectivly saving the US navy.
Reply 3
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User257034
Jakko247
I am just watching the film now and I can't understand why Japan did such a thing? Surely it's like an ant attacking an eagle lol. What did they hope to achieve? And how could they be so unrealisitic?


answer above
most of the japanese officers were against the whole plan, they pretty much woke the sleeping giant
Pearl Harbour is just a thriller :dontknow:

This was a pretty daring attack, it was designed to destroy the US military machine - and it was quite desperate, given the Western trade embargoes.
Many things the Japanese Empire did were certainly monstrous, but its leaders had a rational grand strategy; they weren't morons or the two-dimensional characters that are portrayed in media - it's the same for every faction characterised as "monsters" for propaganda purposes.
Reply 6
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Liberties
AFAIK the idea was to intimidate the Americans into cooperating with them.

Lots of people did oppose it, including one of the fellows who had to plan the attack. You have to understand that their political institutions couldn't have been very evolved, not subject to anywhere near the kind of criticism ours are. So naturally the policies it came out with seem silly/obviously wrong to us.
Reply 7
Avatar for cactussed
cactussed
15
It was said above, but I'll say it again: DO NOT BELIEVE WHAT YOU SEE IN FILMS.

"The movie was also criticized for the way it "distinguished Americans from Japanese, including the wearing of black clothes, the lack of a social life, family, or friends, and the devotion to warring, juxtaposing these with the portraits of Americans"."

"Many Pearl Harbor survivors dismissed the film as grossly inaccurate and pure Hollywood."

From Wikipedia, but it still seems backed up well enough by sources.
Reply 8
Avatar for Meus
Meus
20
The Japanese wanted to bomb the West Coast with chemical and biological weapons. They later decided not to, citing "it was inhumane". Few months later, they get two nuclear bombs dropped on their cities.
You're basing this on a film? I'm pretty sure alot of the officers had serious doubts about the thing, but believed if they were to do it they would have to destroy the core of the US fleet first.

Meus
The Japanese wanted to bomb the West Coast with chemical and biological weapons. They later decided not to, citing "it was inhumane". Few months later, they get two nuclear bombs dropped on their cities.


Really? That's pretty interesting, got a source? Wouldn't mind a read.
It was a strategic gambit by the Japanese - they were attempting to gain some parity with the US in terms of fleet size by eliminating a large number of ships in one attack. This has already been stated by others.

Japan's leaders felt that a war with the US was inevitable seeing as they were already competing for resources in the Pacific before Pearl Harbour and relations were deteriorating. Better to strike first and hard. It is also possible that they thought they could bring the US to the negotiating table by crippling her fleet. I doubt this though.
Meus
The Japanese wanted to bomb the West Coast with chemical and biological weapons. They later decided not to, citing "it was inhumane". Few months later, they get two nuclear bombs dropped on their cities.

I find that very unlikely. Japan didn't have the capability to hit the US mainland - in fact the only bombs dropped on America during the war were from a single submarine-launched plane which got lost and dropped its payload into a forest.
Reply 12
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Meus
20
Sweyn Forkbeard
I find that very unlikely. Japan didn't have the capability to hit the US mainland - in fact the only bombs dropped on America during the war were from a single submarine-launched plane which got lost and dropped its payload into a forest.


No, you're right. That's why they created a...submarine/aircraft carrier hybrid that was part-transformer :woo: (and yes, it did go under water like a normal sub.
Reply 13
Avatar for Meus
Meus
20
And in case you thought I was being sarcastic..



Introducing the I-400 Class Sub. It was ready and worked. They believed causing mass terror would push the US into calling for a ceasefire and end to the war. The US confiscated it after the war. Research it.
Reply 14
Avatar for geetar
geetar
16
1)The idea in itself wasn't stupid. It was unlucky for Japan that the US carriers were away from the base at the time of the attack, but the idea was sound enough.
2)The world 60 years ago wasn't the same as the world now. No state would dare to attack America now, but things weren't the same back then. You could argue that the US became a superpower precisely because of its victory in the war.
Reply 15
Avatar for Meus
Meus
20
wilson_smith
You're basing this on a film? I'm pretty sure alot of the officers had serious doubts about the thing, but believed if they were to do it they would have to destroy the core of the US fleet first.



Really? That's pretty interesting, got a source? Wouldn't mind a read.


See my last post
Sweyn Forkbeard
I find that very unlikely. Japan didn't have the capability to hit the US mainland - in fact the only bombs dropped on America during the war were from a single submarine-launched plane which got lost and dropped its payload into a forest.


Incorrect...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_balloon
http://www.japaneseballoonbombs.com/
geetar
1)The idea in itself wasn't stupid. It was unlucky for Japan that the US carriers were away from the base at the time of the attack, but the idea was sound enough.
2)The world 60 years ago wasn't the same as the world now. No state would dare to attack America now, but things weren't the same back then. You could argue that the US became a superpower precisely because of its victory in the war.


Excellent point, I would like to make the same but you beat me to it.
It was a very intelligent attack.

The only real threat that America posed to Japan was in it's naval fleet. You can have all of the troops and aircraft in the world, but unless you have the means of deploying them you might as well try and fight with sticks. The Japanese were plotting/carrying out their own invasions in South Asia and couldn't run the risk of American naval involvement.

The Japanese aim was to destroy as much of the fleet as possible - which would have worked if a large number of ships weren't at dock. After the attack it took the US years to establish a base close enough to Japan to be able to deploy its aircraft within range.

It is clearly a big event in history, but in relation to other happenings of the war Pearl Harbour was almost a non-event.
fire2burn

I didn't know that - thanks for the info. :biggrin:

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