Pearl Harbour

Many know what happened, who did it and what happened later, when one mentions 7 Dec, 1941. But it may not be so straight as it seems. The attack on Pearl Harbour was a consequence of a sequence of events which took place over a span of over 10 years. Japan wanted to create a sphere of influence over East Asia. Its conflict with China was opposed by US. To tackle its increasing threat US decided to put embargo on oil and iron scrap. Japan decided to attack and capture the resources of Indo-China and Dutch East Indies along with other South East Asian nations. But the threat of US pacific fleet was looming large over Japanese ambitions. Japan decided to attack Pearl Harbour to negate the influence of US navy in the pacific, and the rest, as they say, is history.

In my opinon, attack on pearl harbour was a big mistake. US was waiting for a strong reason to enter world war on the side of the allies. Theorists say that few US leaders knew of the attack early on but chose to keep silent for obvious reasons. Japan could have tried negotiations with several other countries apart from US and waited for the outcome of German invasion of Russia before the tripartite pact between Germany-Italy-Japan, which was its also a big mistake. Their expansionist ambitions could have been better controlled if the army had been in check but the Empire lost it there as it could have been difficult to do so without the support of few cabinet ministers.