Pearl Harbor was one of the most famous attacks in the history of World War II, when the Japanese Combined Fleet severely damaged the U.S. Pacific Fleet and drew the United States into the war. For Pearl Harbor, in the eyes of most people, this is a "stupid" strategic decision in Japan. It pulled the United States, a powerful war machine, into World War II, and undoubtedly hastened the collapse of Japan.
However, from the perspective of the Japanese side, Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor was not a stupid decision, but a correct decision made by many military, political, and diplomatic talents in Japan after a long and repeated discussion.
Japan attacks Pearl Harbor
When it comes to the reasons for Japan's defeat in World War II, many times it is inseparable from the problem of resources. Yes, Japan's small land area and small domestic resources are the dilemmas that Japan has always faced.
At the beginning of Japan's initial "war of aggression against China," the propaganda of "destroying China in three months" was ostensibly Japan's confidence in its military capabilities, but in fact it was also the "goal" that Japan had set for itself in desperation. Because in the eyes of the Japanese military department, if China could not be destroyed quickly in three months, due to the constraints of its own national strength, Japan would lose the war of aggression against China.
At that time, although Japan obtained strategic materials such as coal, iron, and copper from the northeast after occupying the northeast, strategic materials such as oil and rubber were mainly imported from the United States. In 1937, Japan's imports from the United States reached more than $100 million, and oil, refined oil, scrap steel, and raw cotton alone reached $140 million.
For oil alone, Japan's share of oil needed from the United States reached 80 percent, and by 1939 it had risen to 85 percent.
The Japanese invasion of China
That is to say, the United States completely controls the lifeblood of Japan's resources, and once the United States imposes an oil embargo on Japan, Japan's war machine will immediately stop operating, and those aircraft, artillery, and ships are a bunch of useless scrap iron.
As the saying goes, "once a cannon is fired, the gold is two thousand", and as the war continued, Japan's domestic finances became more and more tense. Japan's military expenditure is also increasing, and in 1937 Japan's economic budget was 3.4 billion yen, of which the direct military expenditure reached 43%. By 1938, Japan's military budget had reached 5.3 billion yen. More than Japan's overall economic budget of 1937.
At that time, in order to maintain war spending, Japan could only increase taxes and issue more government bonds. According to records, in 1938, "the corporate income tax was increased by about 80%, the personal income tax was increased by 30%, the inheritance tax was increased by 10%, and the property tax was established to increase the indirect tax on alcohol and tobacco." At that time, Japan had begun to implement wartime materiel control. The national economy has begun to experience a crisis.
To this end, Japan can only do more wars and intensify plundering of other countries in order to obtain resources and benefits. At that time, Japan maintained the war in China by "feeding the war with war".
At this time, the Japanese army was faced with two choices: one was the army-led "northward" attack on the Soviet Union and obtained the oil and gas resources of Siberia; the other was the navy-led "southward" Southeast Asia, obtaining local rubber and oil, but this was bound to touch the interests of the United States.
In the winter of 1939, the Japanese Army decided to launch a tentative attack on Soviet forces in the Far East, the two sides fought in the Nomonkan area, and in May 1939, the Japanese Kwantung Army began to attack the Soviet-backed Mongolian People's Republic, and the Soviet government began to intervene under the Soviet-Mongolian Mutual Assistance Agreement.
Soviet forces at the Battle of Nomonkan
On June 18, the famous Soviet general General Zhukov was appointed commander of the 57th Special Army and began to gather troops in the Nomonkan area to fight against Japan. Zhukov formed the multi-service 1st Army, equipped with a large number of tanks, aircraft and heavy artillery. At that time, the Soviet army was several grades stronger than the Japanese army in terms of equipment and firepower, and in this conflict, the Soviet side consumed 31,000 tons of artillery shells, while the total consumption of Japanese materials was less than 2,000 tons, and the war was completely one-sided. The result of the battle was also a crushing defeat for the Japanese army.
Japan's elite Kwantung Army had no ability to fight back under the Soviet iron fist, and the infantry and artillery wing commanders of the Japanese 23rd Division were all killed, not counting the aviation, and it was determined that 35 people above the battle were killed, and after the defeat of Japan, the commander of the Kwantung Army, Kenkichi Ueda, resigned, and the commander-in-chief of the front line, Michitaro Komatsubara, committed suicide by caesarean section.
It can be said that a large number of grass-roots officers of the Japanese Army have died in Nomonkan. The defeat of the Kwantung Army made the Japanese headquarters realize the fact that Japan was now no match for the Soviets. In addition, halfway through the Battle of Nomonkan, Germany, as an ally, suddenly signed the Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact with the Soviet Union, which not only made the strategic abort of Japan and Germany in attacking the Soviet Union, but also made the Japanese feel betrayed.
Therefore, Japan decided not to provoke the Soviet Union again, and signed the "Japan-Soviet Neutrality Treaty" with the Soviet Union.
Japanese equipment captured by Soviet troops at the Battle of Nomonkan
At this point, the Japanese Army's strategy of "going north" was a complete failure. After the failure of Japan's "going north" plan, in order to alleviate the domestic economic pressure, Japan only has one way to "go south".
Two years later, on July 24, 1941, Japan attacked southern French Indochina, and Japan's behavior seriously touched U.S. interests in the Pacific, when the United States, which had just emerged from the economic crisis, decided to impose sanctions on Japan and demand that Japan withdraw its troops from China and Vietnam. On July 25, the United States announced a freeze on all Japanese assets in the United States and imposed an oil embargo.
Before Pearl Harbor, Due to U.S. sanctions, Japan's domestic oil reserves were only enough for 2 years, which means that japan would lose the war in two years.
At that time, Japan was faced with two choices: First, it was soft, submitted to the United States, admitted the defeat of the war, and withdrew its troops from China. Second, go south to compete for the Pacific region, tear the face of the United States, and continue the war.
First, if Japan succumbs to the United States and admits defeat in the war, withdraws its troops from China and Vietnam. Japan will certainly not agree, and the economic crisis in Japan is bound to cause Japan to collapse, and the result will be unbearable for anyone.
If it attacks the Pacific region from the south, although it is bound to make Japan face the wrath of the United States, Japan can obtain the resources used to maintain the war, so that Japan can avoid the defeat of the war in a short period of time and get the opportunity to turn around.
"Pearl Harbor" planner: Isoroku Yamamoto
That is to say, the first choice, Japan will certainly be defeated, the second choice, Japan has a chance to win, although the chance is very slim, but the two harm each other lesser. So Japan decided to attack the Pacific.
Since Japan has decided to compete with the United States for hegemony in the Pacific, it must face the powerful Pacific Fleet of the United States. At that time, Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto said in formulating the strategic plan that since the United States had launched economic sanctions, there must be military action in the future. As the saying goes, "preemptive strike, second strike is subject to man". So the Japanese Navy decided to sneak attack Pearl Harbor and eliminate the American fleet to win the opportunity for Japan.
In fact, at the beginning of Japan's war of aggression, the result of its defeat was already doomed, and what the senior officials of the Japanese military department could do was to delay the arrival of that day as much as possible.
On Sunday, December 7, 1941, the Japanese Navy, under the cover of heavy fog, conducted radio silence throughout the whole process and successfully reached the vicinity of Pearl Harbor. Six carriers of the Japanese Navy raised more than 350 fighters and rushed to the unprepared U.S. fleet with lightning speed, before the Pearl Harbor defenders could react. Pearl Harbor has become a sea of fire. 5 U.S. battleships were seriously wounded, 3, and more than 10 other ships were also injured; 188 aircraft were lost, 291 could not take off, and more than 6400 casualties were lost. The U.S. Pacific Fleet was severely damaged. At the same time, the Japanese Navy and Army launched an all-out offensive against the South Pacific islands.
After Pearl Harbor, the Americans who were damaged by the Pacific Fleet were in a state of strategic defense for most of the year, and Japan took the opportunity to occupy Southeast Asia and the southwestern Pacific, and its power expanded all the way to the Indian Ocean. Strategic resources such as oil and rubber in Southeast Asia have made Japan's chariots start again, making Japan invincible in a short period of time. At the same time, it also allowed Japanese militarism to last for five years.
Aircraft carrier of the Japanese Navy
The attack on Pearl Harbor was an extremely correct strategic choice for Japan at that time. Isoroku Yamamoto, a senior member of the Japanese military, had served as a naval attaché in the United States, so he had a deep understanding of the industrial capabilities and war potential of the United States, and he vigorously opposed war with the United States all his life, but as far as the situation facing Japan at that time was concerned, going to war with the United States was something that Japan had to do.
In the eyes of the world, the Pearl Harbor incident was a stupid strategic decision made by Japan, but it had its rationality and inevitability in logic, and under the premise of the grand strategy of having decided to go to war against the United States, it was an extremely correct choice to sneak attack Pearl Harbor and directly attack the "heart" of the US Navy.
Moreover, in the early days of the Pacific War, the Japanese Navy did put great pressure on the United States, and MacArthur, commander of the U.S. Far East Army Command, left his subordinates in the Philippines to "turn into the wind" and went to Australia to serve as the commander of the Allied Forces in the Southwest Pacific Theater.
It can be said that the Pearl Harbor incident launched by Japan now seems to be a trick by Japan to pull the United States into the muddy waters of war, but Japan at that time really did not have a better choice. Fortunately, Japan did not find the existence of the Daqing oil field in the northeast for technical reasons and luck reasons, otherwise there would be a third option in Japan's entire strategy, and the outcome of the entire World War II who knows what changes will occur?
Contributing Author: Sherlock Holmes