Virtue Magazine

About the same time as the momentous battles around Moscow, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, after long, fruitless negotiations with the American government. At issue was the Japanese intention of creating a “Co-Prosperity Sphere of East Asia,” in other words, an east Asia under Japanese hegemony. The American government felt it had vital interest in Asia, and wished to exert their own influence there. They strongly opposed the Japanese war in China, which had tacitly began in 1933, and had been going on unrelentingly since 1937. Negotiations had heated up in 1941, as Roosevelt’s government placed an embargo on oil shipments to Japan, and froze Japanese assets in America. This, everyone knew, would inevitably lead to war. The Japanese were dependent on outside oil resources to maintain their war economy. Without American shipments, they would turn to the Dutch East Indies, which would cause the Americans to declare war on them.

Many Japanese were not anxious to face the superior might of the United States in conflict, and negotiations went on almost until the last minute, even as Admiral Yamamoto’s plan to bomb Pearl Harbor was set in motion. It was difficult to deal with Secretary of State Cordell Hull, though. He constantly emphasized Japan’s allegiance to the Axis Alliance, which, in reality, had little or no influence on Japanese policy. In peace conferences, he would harp upon bizarre, even ridiculous ideas such as Hitler launching a “world invasion with ten million troops and thirty thousand airplanes.” Ironically, this would represent far more accurately the Allied force that invaded Germany in 1945 than any force Hitler ever assembled.

Ultimately, negotiations broke down. A Japanese attempt at compromise was met with an American counter-proposal (“the Hull note”) of unacceptable terms. War was decided on. The Japanese determined they would seize the oil-rich areas of the Indies. To protect their oil supplies from the powerful American navy, they would launch a surprise attack on the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor. With it disabled, they could seize a ring of islands in the Pacific, which they would garrison, and dare the Americans to attack. They hoped the Americans would tire out, and accept Japanese hegemony in East Asia.

Strategically, their plan was a success. Much of the fleet at Pearl Harbor was destroyed, the battleships Oklahoma and Arizona being total losses. But the aircraft carriers were out at sea, and escaped. Moreover, the two waves of Japanese bombers missed the fuel tanks and dry docks, which would have vastly increased the magnitude of the disaster, and perhaps resulted in a much longer war. While the Japanese did seize their oil supplies, and create their “island ring”, their only influence on Americans at large was to anger them. America’s giant industrial capacity, already unofficially at war with Germany, was not fully at war with the entire Axis. The beleaguered Allies were delighted. Churchill would remember American entry into the war as one of the happiest days of his life. True, thousands of lives had been lost, and much territory, including the Philippines, and the British stronghold at Singapore, but in a war of attrition, the Allies could hardly lose. The only hope of the Axis was to score a monumental strategic victory that would force their opponents to sue for peace. The Japanese, after a long run of success, had their chance when they attacked Midway in summer of 1942. The Americans crushed them in brilliant fashion, and the high tide of Japanese expansion receded. The Germans would have their opportunity for smashing victory in the summer of 1942, at the gates of Stalingrad.