1/3/2024 0 Comments Pearl harbor dateJapan had previously been open to the Portuguese, Spanish and Dutch – but each sought to “civilize” the Japanese by bringing western culture and religion. In answering the question, how could America have avoided Pearl Harbor one needs to look further back – well beyond the oil embargos of the early 1940s some ninety years.įor Pearl Harbor to have been truly avoided, it could be argued the course to Pearl Harbor began on July 8, 1853, when American Commodore Matthew Perry led his four ships into Tokyo Bay and sought to reestablish regular trade between Japan and the western world. However, it is likely that Roosevelt expected an attack, but the when and where were still most certainly unknowns. Those were risks no war leader could take no matter how badly he might have wanted an excuse for war. What if the attack was early and the carriers were sunk, what if the oil facilities were destroyed or what if the Japanese invaded and occupied Hawaii. Military leaders don't allow such attacks to happen because it is impossible to control the outcome. There are countless theories on whether Roosevelt – or for that matter Great Britain's Winston Churchill – knew that the sneak attack was coming. The short answer is that it is one of intelligence failures and underestimating the Japanese – but as noted above the hawks in the American military, as well as President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, needed the attack as a way to convince the nation to join the fight against the tyranny of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. The other half of the question is how America could have avoided Pearl Harbor.
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