WORLD WAR II 1941 1945
THE ATTACK ON PEARL HARBOR
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Question
[CLICK ON ANY CHOICE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER]
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US aircraft carriers weren’t in the harbor
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didn’t destroy Pearl Harbor oil supplies
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failed to damage most of the US battleships
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failed to achieve complete surprise
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Detailed explanation-1: -But the Pearl Harbor attack had failed in its objective to completely destroy the Pacific Fleet. The Japanese bombers missed oil tanks, ammunition sites and repair facilities, and not a single U.S. aircraft carrier was present during the attack.
Detailed explanation-2: -While the attack inflicted significant destruction, the fact that Japan failed to destroy American repair shops and fuel-oil tanks mitigated the damage. Even more significantly, no American aircraft carriers were at Pearl Harbor that day.
Detailed explanation-3: -While there is no single correct or simple reason for the attack, this lesson should help students realize that Japan’s motivation for attacking Pearl Harbor was driven by its political self-interests, its scarcity of economic resources and perceived opportunity costs, and America’s embargo policy.
Detailed explanation-4: -The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was not a success. It increased U.S. opposition to Japanese expansion. The United States mobilized to fight back faster than Japan had anticipated.
Detailed explanation-5: -Attacking Pearl Harbor was Japan’s worst mistake for a variety of reasons but two stand out as the most important. One was economic, Japan could never hope to match the US on economic terms and the other was political, the attack brought the US into the war with an enthusiasm it probably would not have had.