7:20 AM
Mark
In October 1938, the President of the United States of America, Franklin Roosevelt, asked Congress for $500m to increase the United States of America's defence forces. This action was done because he believed that Germany was a threat to America. Especially considering the continued German military rearmament program and the events at the Munich conference. The Japanese however, saw this build up as a direct threat to their Empire because, America was the only country in the Pacific which could impede their expansion.Japan had prepared war plans to deal with any military intervention by America. The Japanese plan was to conduct one large naval battle against the American Navy, destroying it and resulting in the inability of America to interfere with Japanese expansion throughout Asia. Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto assumed command of the Japan's Combined Fleet in August of 1939. Having lived in America for several years he understood the type of people the Americans were and was able to formulate a attack plan that would catch America off guard.
In July 1939 a trade embargo was imposed on Japan by Roosevelt in an attempt to stop the Japanese expansion. This resulted in an increased ill-will and additional political problems between the two countries.On January 27, 1941 Joseph C. Grew, the U.S. Ambassador to Japan, wired Washington that he had learned information that in the event of trouble with America, Japan, was planning a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. No one in Washington believed the information and did not believe that the Japanese could surprise them. Most senior American military experts believed that the Japanese would attack Manila in the Philippine Islands. Another thought to location of attack was toward the north into Russia because of the war in Europe between Germany and the Soviet Union.
American scientists had developed a machine, code named Magic which gave U.S. intelligence officers the ability to read Japanese secret message and consular traffic, which provided all types of high quality information. However, because of preconceived ideas in Washington and internal politics between the Office of Naval Intelligence, the War Plans Division and the Army's own Intel office some data was not followed up or simply disregarded. As a result important pieces of the pre-attack puzzle were missed.
In November 1941, in an attempt to seek a diplomatic solution, Tokyo sent diplomat Saburo Kurusu as a special envoy to Washington to assist Ambassador Admiral Kichisaburo Nomura. Japan wanted the U.S. to agree to its southern expansion diplomatically but if they were unsuccessful, they would go to war.On Saturday, December 6 1941, the U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt made a final appeal to the Emperor of Japan for peace. There was no reply. Late the same day, the U.S. code-breaking service began intercepting a 14-part Japanese message and deciphered the first 13 parts, passing them on to the President and Secretary of State. The Americans believed a Japanese attack is imminent, most likely somewhere in Southeast Asia.
On Sunday December 7 the last part of the Japanese message, stating that diplomatic relations with the U.S. are to be broken off, reached Washington in the morning and was decoded at approximately 9 a.m. About an hour later, another Japanese message is intercepted. It instructed the Japanese embassy to deliver the main message to the Americans at 1 p.m. The Americans realized that 1 p.m. Washington time corresponds with early morning time in Pearl Harbour. The U.S. The War Department then sent out an alert but used a commercial telegraph because radio contact with Hawaii was temporarily broken. Delays prevented the alert from arriving at headquarters in Oahu until 12 p.m. (Hawaii time) four hours after the attack had already begun.
Pearl Harbour was not on a state of high alert as senior commanders had concluded, there was no reason to believe an attack was imminent and since it was Sunday morning, many officers and crewmen were not on duty. Aircraft therefore were left parked wingtip to wingtip on airfields, anti-aircraft guns were unmanned with many ammunition boxes kept locked in accordance with peacetime regulations.The attack began at 7:53 a.m with the Americans being taken completely by surprise. The first attack wave targeted airfields and battleships. The second wave targeted other ships and shipyard facilities. The air raid lasted until 9:45 a.m. Eight battleships are damaged, with five sunk. Three light cruisers, three destroyers and three smaller vessels were lost along with 188 aircraft. The Japanese only lost 27 planes and five midget submarines which attempted to penetrate the inner harbor and launch torpedoes.
Exercises:
On a new page in your books put the Heading “Pearl Harbour”. Under the heading write a 1/2 page summary based upon the information above. After you have completed the summary, write the following sub-heading and the questions in your books and answer them in full sentences using the link to the website listed below.
Note: you will need to click on "Attack Map".
The Events
1. What did the U.S. Minesweeper Condor encounter?
2. What was U.S. Marine Bert Davis' reaction?
3. What happened to the U.S. destroyer Ward?
4. What was U.S. Sailor Will Lehner's reaction?
5. What happened to the radar operators and their report?
6. Explain what happened to each of the moored boats at 7:55 a.m.
After the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbour they looked towards Borneo, Burma, Malaya and the Dutch East Indies, which is now known as Indonesia. They also planned to attack Singapore, as this was a strategically important position within the Asia region.
On 15 February 1942, the Japanese captured Singapore after devastating air attacks and land battles in which the Japanese travelled through the Malay Peninsula. A substantial amount of Allied and Australian troops were captured and interned into POW camps. For Australians this event was of serious concern, for Japan had just gotten closer to the Australian main land and defeated what was considered to be Australia’s best defence position. Suddenly Australia was left all alone in the Pacific.
The laws and regulations affected all areas of people's lives. Some of these were:
The years between 1919 and 1945 have sometimes been called the age of fascism. We have all heard of the Nazis and fascists, but our perception of these people is usually a German soldier wearing a grey or black uniform with a swastika on their left arm, whilst holding their right arm high toward the sky. However whilst this image maybe the most famous symbol of fascism, it is not the whole story.
Italy is considered to be the birthplace of fascist ideology. Benito Mussolini, a former socialist journalist, organized the first fascist movement in 1919 at Milan. The movement was called the Fasci Italiani di Combattimento (Italian Fighting League), and consisted of 200 members. The group, led by one of Mussolini's close confidants, Dino Grandi, formed armed squads of war veterans called Blackshirts (or squadristi) to terrorize socialists, anarchists, and communists. The group grew so rapidly that within two years, it transformed itself into the National Fascist Party at a congress in Rome. In October 1922 Mussolini led a march on Rome and ousted the then Prime Minister Luigi Facta. Once in power he began transforming the Italian political system into a fascist state.
In the 1930’s both France and Britain hoped to gain support from Italy with regards to opposing Germany’s ever-increasing aggressiveness in the European area. However Mussolini was not interested as he had ambitions to expand his own empire and as a result in 1935 Italy invaded Abyssinia, a North African state. Mussolini aligned himself with Germany and in 1936 formed the Rome-Berlin Axis.
Also in 1936 a Spanish General, Francisco Franco, claimed state power in Spain by leading a military revolt against the Republican government. Both Mussolini and Hitler and supported Franco’s take over by supplying him with troops, bombers and transport aircraft. Many people from other countries came to the aid of the Spanish government by volunteering to fight the fascists in an effort to stop the spread of fascism through Europe. They were unsuccessful.
Adolf Hitler was born on 20 April 1889 in Braunau-am-Inn on the Austrian-German border. His father was a customs official. Hitler left school at 16 with no qualifications and struggled to make a living as a painter in Vienna. This was where many of his extreme political and racial ideas originated.
By 1921 he was the unquestioned leader of what was now called the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP or Nazi Party).
In January 1933 Hitler became chancellor of a coalition government. He quickly took dictatorial powers and began to institute anti-Jewish laws and in 1935, Hitler proclaimed the Nuremberg Racial Laws that deprived Jews of their civil rights and paved the way for their persecution. He also began the process of German militarisation and territorial expansion that would eventually lead to World War II. He allied with Italy and later Japan to create the Axis.
The Jewish populations of the countries conquered by the Nazis were rounded up and killed. Millions of others whom the Nazis considered racially inferior were also killed or worked to death. In December 1941, Hitler declared war on America. The war on the eastern front drained Germany's resources and in June 1944, the British and Americans landed in France. With Soviet troops poised to take the German capital, Hitler committed suicide in his bunker in Berlin on 30 April 1945.
It emerged as a modern industrial economy with giant companies that assumed great importance as trading enterprises and in World War One, Japan had acquired the German islands north of the Equator. The Japanese mainland was barely touched by World War I and as a result Japanese industry had expanded to fill the gap left by Europe's devastated industry. However Japan had an ever increasing and demanding population and did not have sufficient natural resources to sustain itself.
The unemployed of Japan looked to the strength of the army to assist their plight rather than to the weak politicians. As a result the Japanese government looked towards taking over provinces of China by force to acquire their resource needs. Japan attacked Manchuria in 1931 and began to invest vast sums of money into the economy of Manchuria, which was effectively controlled by the South Manchuria Railway Company.
as they had commercial interests in China. Hitler, not wanting to confront the USA signed an agreement with Japan and Italy in September 1940 titled the Tripartite Pact. This pact ensured that if the United States entered the war they would have to face Japan, Italy and Germany.
John (Jack) Thomas Lang was an estate agent and politician, he was born on 21 December 1876 in George Street, Sydney.
By 1930 the Depression was now biting, with severe unemployment and balance of payments problems forcing deflationary policies. Lang’s policy for the October general election included extensive public works to reduce unemployment, restoration of reductions in public service salaries, markets for farmers' produce, and double payment for each family's first child. He also promised to balance the budget. He won the election by twenty seats.
In 1932 he faced charges of corruption in the operation of the 'tin hares' in parliament and the federal Prime Minister J. A. Lyons's Financial Agreements Enforcement Act provoked Lang to withdraw more than £1 million in cash from two Sydney banks. The Federal government then used its new powers to take over the revenues of New South Wales, depriving Lang of banking facilities. Massive demands were made on the governor to dismiss him.
