PEARL+HARBOR+JP

=ATTACK ON PEARL HARBOR- DEC. 7, 1941= "December 7th, a date which will live in infamy... No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premediated invasion, the American people, in their righteous might, will win through to absolute victory." - Franklin D. Roosevelt. ﻿On December 7th, 1941, a peaceful and quiet Sunday, Japan attacks American naval base Pearl Harbor. Like FDR said, "a date which will live in infamy." There has been rumors of a conspiracy theory stating that FDR knew this was going to take place, but he didn't take action. Whether these are true or not, communication problems did take place. The very next day FDR mobilized the troops against Japan and soon after against Germany as well. In the morning of Dec. 7th Washington intercepted a 14-part coded Japanese message giving orders for an attack. The last part of the message said that Japan would strike America at 1pm... Hawaii time. American officials tried to contact Pearl Harbor but the message never quite got there until 4 hours after the attack. Over 3,500 Americans were killed or wounded. 350 aircraft were destroyed. 8 battleships were sunk or severely damaged, but thankfully no aircraft carriers were hit. America's plan to stay isolated from outside warfare had come to an end. Some people beleive that FDR had been planning on this attack from Japan. A memo was written by Arthur H. McCollum that enclosed an easy eight-steps that would insure an attack from Japan. This was shown to FDR and he then orded that they be carried out. James O. Richardson was furious that the whole navy force of America in the Pacific Ocean was placed in one small facility all at the same time. He went to the president and told him he was agianst it... He quickly lost his job. Richardson was only trying to prevent a target from being painted right on America's navy. When at a meeting, Secretary of Navy, Frank Knox, was told not to tell the other members where the Japanese fleet was by the president himself. Other than all this there is debate over if the message was sent to the right people telling of the attack. Previous to the attack America was at peace with Japan. This came with a huge shock that they would so coldly give us the sneak attack. We were no longer isolationist; the next day FDR declared a state of war with Japan and told the people that we would "win through to absolute victory" in his famous Day of Infamy speach. This was the wake up call for us, we mobilized the navy that we had left in the Pacific to fight Japan and with the rest of our forces we declared war on Germany. World War II would see its end due to the American troops that would become a big deciding factor. The Attack on Pearl Harbor was horrible, but if we would not have been woken up by something Hitler might have taken over all of Europe. Japan would soon wish they would have never even touched America when we dropped two atomic bombs on them. Pearl Harbor is now a national monument and thousands of people go there to show their respect and admiration for the soldiers we lost on that terrible day on December 7th, 1941