Seconds from Disaster S04E02 Pearl Harbor HDTV Documentary | Tokyo
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Seconds from Disaster Pearl Harbor HDTV Documentary Just before 8 a.m. on December 7, 1941, hundreds of Japanese fighter planes attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor near Honolulu, Hawaii. The barrage lasted just two hours, but it was devastating: The Japanese managed to destroy nearly 20 American naval vessels, including eight enormous battleships, and almost 200 airplanes. More than 2,000 Americans soldiers and sailors died in the attack, and another 1,000 were wounded. The day after the assault, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan; Congress approved his declaration with just one dissenting vote. Three days later, Japanese allies Germany and Italy also declared war on the United States, and again Congress reciprocated. More than two years into the conflict, America had finally joined World War II. The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise, but Japan and the United States had been edging toward war for decades. The United States was particularly unhappy with Japan’s increasingly belligerent attitude toward China. The Japanese government believed that the only way to solve its economic and demographic problems was to expand into its neighbor’s territory and take over its import market; to this end, Japan had declared war on China in 1937. American officials responded to this aggression with a battery of economic sanctions and trade embargoes. They reasoned that without access to money and goods, and especially essential supplies like oil, Japan would have to rein in its expansionism. Instead, the sanctions made the Japanese more determined to stand their ground. During months of negotiations between Tokyo and Washington, D.C., neither side would budge. It seemed that war was inevitable.
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Admiral Yamamoto studied at Harvard. He hitchhiked down thru Texas, and saw American oil reserves and heavy industry. He knew that War with America was the worst thing possible for Japan. Pro-war radicals in Tokyo threatened his life, so he was made C-in-C of the Combined Fleet. As a loyal officer, he too had superiors, so when he was ordered to prepare for war with America, he did so. He told anyone who would listen that he would be victorious for six months. After that, he had no expectation of victory. Six months after Pearl Harbor in the first week of June 1942, Midway. Yamamoto was right. He would die in April 1943 when his plane was shot down. His death was one of Japan's greatest losses. The fact that no one listened to him before Pearl Harbor was the greatest disaster for the Japanese.
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As dastardly and cowardly an attack as the 9-11 attacks. It was about as big a "sucker Punch" as any in history. All of those brave boys at Pearl Harbor that day were murdered not "killed in action in a declared war. Forever Japan should be ashamed.
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75 years later
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They forgot about the Midget Subs that Japan used in the attacks.
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cool.
Delay 6 more months, Politics in USA would have prevented US entering WWII for that much longer. The chain reaction from that is potentially enough to reverse the outcome of WWII.