OPPapers.com

Pearl Harbor, The American Perspective

About, sixty three years ago on a large naval base in a small state named Hawaii the United States of America was secretly attacked by the Japanese. Today, this dramatic event is known as Pearl Harbor. Pearl Harbor is credited for pushing the United States into World War Two. Usually, the American public lacks a detailed knowledge of Pearl Harbor. The Japanese way of life attributed to the way that they attacked the United States. The Japanese felt that rather than surrender they would kill themselves in honor of their emperor. So, men where willing to go on Kamikaze missions where they knew that they were not going to be coming back to their families. The United States was unprepared for the attack.
Before the attack on Pearl Harbor many other things had taken place in Europe, Africa, and Asia. The United States was remaining neutral to any fighting and attack from any other nation. At this time America and Japan were supposedly still at peace. Adolf Hitler and his new Nazi party were taking over. The party took an abundance of land over. They were becoming a world power stomping all over all of Europe. But Roosevelt insisted the United States was going to remain neutral. The British and the French were upset because the United States agreed to be an ally of France and Britain at the end of World War I with the Treaty of Versailles. In Susan Wels book December7, 1941 PEARL HARBOR America's Darkest Day, Franklin D. Roosevelt says in October, 1940 "I shall say and I shall say it again, again, and again, your boys are not going to be sent into any foreign wars"(Wels 44). Most Americans believed that even though the US was supplying Germany with more goods at the time, the United States would find a way to stay neutral.
The place where Pearl Harbor is located was not well known in the early 20th century. Pearl Harbor lies in the Hawaiian islands which are located in the Pacific Ocean. Kauai, Niihau, Oahu, Molokai, Maui, Kahoolawe, Lanai, and...