As the saying goes, "soldiers are not tired of deception", and the way of using soldiers can use fraudulent tactics to confuse the other party as much as possible to achieve unexpected combat results. In the history of World War II, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was a deceptive use of troops to achieve great results, but it was this operation that launched the super chariot of the United States and accelerated the demise of Japanese imperialism.
Japan created a human tragedy for the U.S. military at Pearl Harbor
The "defeat" of the invasion of the Soviet Union frustrated Japan's wishful thinking
In the early 1940s, when World War II was in full swing, Japan was in a period of anxiety in invading East and Southeast Asian countries, but it brazenly launched a sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, provoking a full-scale outbreak of the Pacific War, so Japan had to fall into a situation of being attacked on its back. So why did Japan have to provoke the United States, a powerful opponent?
This has to start from the historical background at that time. As early as 1931, Japan officially launched a war of aggression against China with burning and looting as the "general tone" by launching the 9.18 Incident. By the early 1940s, Japan was not only caught up in China's vast strategic depth, but also burned into many other countries in East and Southeast Asia. As an island nation with scarce resources, grabbing strategic resources to support the expansion of the battlefield has become an urgent choice for the Japanese military government. Based on this strategic need, the Japanese Army and Navy each proposed different development directions.
The Army advocated moving north, occupying the Siberian region of the Soviet Union, where there were Soviet heavy industry and strategic resource bases such as oil, and Japan and Russia were feuds. In the Russo-Japanese War at the beginning of the 20th century, Japan won victory. After more than 30 years, the Soviet Union began a major domestic purge, a large number of experienced officers were wiped out, and the Far East was weak and the transport lines were long. Therefore, Japan did not consider the Soviet Union terrible, and the invasion and plundering of its Far East was poised for development. In May 1939, a division of the Japanese army launched a surprise attack on the Soviet-Mongolian coalition army on the Manchu-Mongolian border, and according to the "9.18 routine", it was still the local troops who acted without authorization, and the Japanese army crossed the Manchurian-Mongolian border and pursued and killed the remnants of the enemy forward.
This time, however, Japan's criminal ambitions did not succeed. In order to solve the containment brought by Japan in the Far East at one time in the operation between the east and the west, the Soviet Union sent its ace general, General Zhukov, to the eastern front to command the battle against Japan, and equipped it with a large amount of war materials and sophisticated equipment. In the Nomonhan steppe, the Soviet army in the battle of absolute superiority, the Japanese army did not achieve the strategic objectives, and was counterattacked by the powerful firepower of the Soviet army, leaving a large number of casualties and fleeing, and from then on did not dare to easily fight the idea of the Eastern Front of the Soviet Union.
Turning from defeat to south seems to have become an inevitable choice for Japan
Although Japan did not take advantage of the invasion of the Soviet Union in the north, it has to be said that its military strength at that time was still very strong, especially in terms of naval strength, which could almost rank third in the world. Even so, the Japanese Navy remained behind the United States. After all, Japan is only a small island country, resources are scarce, and its naval power is a fly in the eyes of an elephant compared with the United States, and it is not taken seriously.
Taking advantage of the "contempt" of the United States, Japan began to set its sights on Pearl Harbor in the Pacific. Pearl Harbor was once called "the most powerful base" by MacArthur and became a problem for Japan's southward confidants. Pearl Harbor is located in the south of Oahu in the Hawaiian Islands, 2090 nautical miles east of the west coast of the United States, 3200 nautical miles west of Japan, is the main base of the U.S. Navy in the Pacific Ocean for a long time, but also the United States and the Far East, the western Pacific Ocean between the sea transportation hub, the strategic position is very important, known as the "Heart of the Pacific". The inner water area of Pearl Harbor is about 32 square kilometers, the water depth is 12-18 meters, and about 500 large and small ships can berthed at the same time. The base has complete facilities and perfect equipment, including more than 10 military facilities such as military ports, airports, air stations, oil depots, ammunition depots, and ship repair yards.
According to Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, the mastermind of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the main force of the US Navy has entered Hawaii, posing a serious threat to the southward advance of the Japanese army, and if it is not destroyed at the beginning of the war, with the passage of time, the US fleet will continue to strengthen, and the Japanese Navy will be difficult to win, which will greatly affect the implementation of Japan's southward strategy. However, if an attack is launched in the form of a surprise attack, and the large ships and aircraft of the US Pacific Fleet are destroyed or paralyzed by carrier-based aviation, so that it cannot recover and participate in the war in a short period of time, so as to seize the sea and air supremacy in the early stage of the war, it will be able to ensure the safety of the flank of Japan's southward advance. Moreover, if the main fleet of the U.S. army at Pearl Harbor could be sunk at the beginning of the war, it would also dampen the morale of the U.S. Navy and the American people, and eliminate the possibility of the United States relying on aircraft carriers to launch a surprise attack on Japan's territory, especially the Japanese capital and other major cities.
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a Japanese operation to show off the muscles of an aircraft carrier
During World War II, the number of aircraft carriers in the Combined Fleet of the Japanese Navy was not small. From the early 1940s, when Japanese Navy aircraft carriers entered their heyday, until the end of the Pacific War in 1945, Japan built 29 aircraft carriers (4 of which were launched but not completed). In 1922, the Japanese-built "Fengxiang" aircraft carrier was considered the world's first standard aircraft carrier.
With the help of a huge aircraft carrier formation, the operational objectives were achieved "steadily, accurately, and fiercely" as the combat strategy pursued by Japan in the battle of Pearl Harbor. In the early morning of December 7, 1941, a Japanese Navy fleet of six aircraft carriers, carrying 414 carrier-based aircraft, left Japan for Pearl Harbor under the command of Vice Admiral Tadaichi Minamitake. The fleet remained completely radio silent en route. In addition to these 6 aircraft carriers, the Japanese fleet included 2 battleships, 3 cruisers, 9 destroyers and 3 submarines. In addition, 8 tankers and 2 destroyers sailed to the North Pacific to wait.
Carrier-based aircraft taking off from the aircraft carrier attacked the U.S. military base in two waves, and the first wave attacked 183 aircraft, breaking through the clouds and fog, and pounced on Pearl Harbor. At 7:53, a signal of "Tiger, Tiger, Tiger" was sent back, indicating that the surprise attack was successful. Since then, 168 aircraft from the second wave of attacks have attacked again. The Americans in a hurry suffered heavy losses, 4 of the 8 battleships were sunk, one ran aground, and the rest were severely damaged; 6 cruisers and 3 destroyers were damaged, 188 aircraft were destroyed, and more than 2,400 officers and men were killed or wounded. Japan lost only 29 aircraft and 55 pilots, as well as several pocket submarines.
Although the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor achieved an immediate victory, in the long run, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was undoubtedly a disaster for itself. One of its main targets was three U.S. aircraft carriers, but none were in port at the time. Navies and other observers around the world agreed that the traumatization and sinking of most U.S. battleships was the biggest outcome of the battle, but in reality the U.S. quickly repaired those ships and updated their combat capabilities. More importantly, Pearl Harbor quickly mobilized an otherwise disparate nation to a concerted victory over Japan, which may have been the reason why the Allies later demanded unconditional surrender. Some historians believe that Pearl Harbor itself determined the fate of Japan's defeat.
Figure: From the network
Producer: Popular Science China
Author: Yue Jiangfeng
Planner: Song Yajuan
Producer: Guangming Network Science Popularization Division
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