On the morning of Sunday, December 7, 1941, the Imperial Japanese Navy launched a sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The next day, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt noted in a speech to a joint session of Congress that it was "a day of infamy."
However, largely obscured by the Attack on Pearl Harbor, Japan actually launched a Japanese version of the "Blitz" elsewhere. It's already Monday in the Far East, and Pearl Harbor is just the beginning.
Pearl Harbor is just the beginning: Thailand succumbs
Japan invaded the Kingdom of Thailand in the early hours of December 8.
This led to fierce fighting, especially on the southern peninsula of Thailand, but a ceasefire came just five hours after the invasion. Japan invaded, neither the British nor the U.S. government provided assistance, and the country's prime minister, Thailand's field marshal Plaek Phibunsongkhram, considered his country isolated.
As a result, the Thai government succumbed to Japan's ultimatum, allowing Japanese troops to enter Thailand in exchange for Thai independence. Thailand became a member of the Axis powers.
A multi-pronged attack
Germany defeated the countries of Poland, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and France, followed by the actions of Yugoslavia and Greece, but Japan's ambitions were much greater, with battles against British Malaya, the Philippines, and the Dutch East Indies, and at 4:00 a.m. local time, 17 Japanese bombers attacked Singapore, the first attack on a British colony. The battles of Guam, Wake Island and Hong Kong also began.
Guam fell on December 10. Wake Island was occupied by the Japanese two days before Christmas, on December 23, 1941, and Hong Kong was forced to surrender on Christmas Day.
The Battle of Malaya lasted only two months and eight days until February 15, 1942. British army shame.
Less than a month later, the Dutch East Indies surrendered on March 9, 1942, while U.S. forces in the Philippines held out until May 8 of that year.
The Path of War at Pearl Harbor
By the time Roosevelt addressed lawmakers and called for a declaration of war on Japan, Winston Churchill, who had already spoken in the House of Commons, said: "At least four-fifths of the world's population is on our side." We are responsible for their safety and their future. There was light flickering in the past, there is light burning now, and there is light in the future that shines on the sea and land. ”
Britain declared war on Japan, and New Zealand declared war on Japan. However, among the allies that declared war on Japan, Canada was actually the first. On Sunday night, Canadian Prime Minister MacKenzie King and his cabinet issued an announcement ahead of Churchill or Roosevelt.
Australia's Governor-General Alexander Hall-Rusvin made such a statement a day later. At the same time that Canada declared war on Nazi Germany on independence, the declaration of war on Japan on December 9 was Australia.
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a tactical success, but a strategic failure. Several older battleships were bombed, but the sneak attack prompted the United States to intervene directly in the war, joining it with vengeful anger. The attack led to the later dropping of 2 atomic bombs by the United States in Japan.
Against the backdrop of Japan's invasion of Southeast Asia, the United States cut off Japan's steel and oil supplies. The United States has made it clear to Japan that it does not welcome further aggression. The United States had begun to support Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist regime through economic and military means. In short, the United States is ready for war, Japan wants to continue to invade and plunder resources, and the United States is no longer neutral.
The Philippines is Japan's lifeblood to Southeast Asia's oil and rubber. The United States has the largest air and naval bases in Asia in Clark and Krabi, Philippines. It constituted an obstacle to the southward advance of the Japanese army and threatened the security of the Japanese homeland.
The Japanese attempted to capture the Philippine Archipelago, seize U.S. military bases, and control the sea lines of communication between the Japanese mainland and Southeast Asia, creating conditions for an attack on the Dutch East Indies.
The slogan "Remember Pearl Harbor" undoubtedly ignited American enthusiasm for the war, and Japan's actions in the Philippines and Wake Island also provoked American outrage. The deaths of 2,300 Americans in Pearl Harbor forced the United States into the war.
In fact, the B-29 bomber has been so controversial that it drew protests when it was exhibited at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. And, of course, the Fat Man Atomic Bomb.
The Fat Man atomic bomb was actually assigned to the 509th Composite Group, 15 specially modified B-29 bombers. While most B-29s were armed with eight .50-caliber machine guns and a 20 mm cannon, these modified aircraft removed the tail guns and even removed other components to reduce weight in order to be able to carry the atomic bomb.
Colonel Paul Tibbets, who piloted Enola Gay, named his plane after his mother, "Enola Gay Tibbets" (1893-1983).