Japan attack on Pearl Harbor?

Question

I read that the attack on Pearl Harbor was written in detail by one man living in Japan. Has everyone ever read what Japan was planning to do AFTER they attacked Pearl Harbor? Two movies that I saw (Tora, Tora, Tora, and Pearl) showed go-in, bomb, then leave... Was that the plan?

Answer 1

Their plan was to completely annilate the U.S. fleet, which ment that the pilots were also tasked to destroy the submarines, the harbor facilities, and the carrier task force that was assigned to the region, but that didnt happen. The carriers were out on manuvers, and the pilots never got around to the facilities, which ment the ships that werent sunk, or damaged beyond repair were recovered and repaired. Their reasoning behind the attack was for the early success to allow the japanese navy to take the pacific from hawaii to australia, and then finish off the fleet the americans sent over to fight back, there by crushing the will of the Americans to fight back, the populus believed the attack would crush american resolve, however Yamato, the planner of the attack, was just trying to delay the Americans until he had a foot hold, because he knew american quanity would eventually led to victory in the pacific, so with the early success he hoped he could buy himself enough time to build a defense strong enough to break american resolve when they tried to retake the Pacific. And it might have worked if they would have beenable to locate the carriers and destroy them before they played a critical part in the battles for coral sea and midway, and destroyed the facilites that latter became the headquaters for admiral Nimitz.

Answer 2

There was no invasion force, if that's what you mean. The invasion forces were elsewhere, and the Pearl Harbor attack was limited in its goals to a spoiling attack to keep the US Navy from sailing to interdict those invasions.

Answer 3

The main focus of the Pearl Harbor attack was to destroy America's Pacific Fleet.  

Answer 4

No the plan was to neutralize the American naval threat in the Pacific than to  take all of the Pacific islands and most of Asia and create a japneise empire. they oped that in the one attack they would wipe all American naval forces the problem they messed alll of the American carriers they wern't at port. along with alot of the American flett if they had waited a week they might have won because most of the fleet would have been at port they never really planed for a prolonged war with America the paln was to kill the American fleet capture all of the pacific islands than Asia.  

Answer 5

That was the plan. Bomb the ships and the harbour and make it impossible for the US Navy to intervene in the Pacific. There was a third wave planned that would target the ship repair docks and the oil storage, but the Japanese commander was alarmed at the increase in losses from the second wave and decided to withdraw. The entire point of the attack was to cripple the US Navy so that the Japanese could expand unopposed in the Pacific. They were planning to take the Philippines, which was a US possession at the time, so they knew they'd be at war with the US eventually. The attack on Pearl Harbour was supposed to be devastating enough that by the time the US recovered it would be too late, they even hoped that the US would simply sue for peace if they go hurt badly enough.

Answer 6

I am not sure but I don't think you should believe a movie you saw about it because it might not be true.

Answer 7

The plan for the attack on Pearl was to knock out the US Pacific Fleet, then with Luck the US would sue for peace rather than fight. There was to be no follow up invasion, no second attack, nothing. Capturing Pacific islands was not a part of the Pearl Harbor attack plan, that was part of a larger plan that included the plan to knock out the US from the war before it could enter it.

However, there was one part of the Pearl attack plan that failed even bigger than the Pacific Fleet carriers not being at Pearl that morning. The Japanese consulate in DC was supposed to deliever an announcement of the attack before it occured. Samurai mentality, you don't attack a sleeping enemy and kill him while he sleeps. Instead, you kick him out of bed and give him a sword so he can defend himself. The attack wasn't supposed to be a sneak attack, we were supposed to know full well Pearl was about to be attacked so we could try and mount a defense. Yamamoto was more upset that his plan had become a sneak attack than he was about the carriers not being present. He knew the US wouldn't sue for peace from a sneak attack. Yet the Japanese ambassador's people were not able to decipher their own code fast enough to deliver the warning before the attack.

The US had known for a while there was going to be an attack on American territory, but we were expecting it to come somewhere else. Think the Phillippines, Guam, Midway, anywhere but the Hawaiian Islands with Pearl being the particular target. It was figured Hawaii was too far away for the Japanese to reach undetected. But other US territories were being prepared for a possible Japanese attack. MacArthur was stepping up the defenses of the Phillippines. The Enterprise was sent to deliver a squadron of Marine fighters to Gaum and was on her way back to Pearl after completeing her mission. Lexington was carrying a squadron of Marine aircraft to Midway when word came of the Pearl attack. And the only other active carrier in the Pacific, Saratoga, had just finished an overhual in Bremerton and was in San Diego to embark her air group before heading towards Pearl or anywhere else in the Pacific. Pearl was never considered in danger, which is what made the attack even more shocking.

However, more disturbing is the fact that US cryptoanalysts in DC were able to read the Japanese political code faster than those in the Japanese consulate because they code intercept it and decipher it faster. And yet nothing was done with the info that could have prepared the fleet. So the plan to attack just Pearl never got to the people who needed it the most.

Answer 8

They were just trying to neutralize the threat of an American naval presence in the Pacific because they wanted to expand their empire among those islands.

Answer 9

They were honestly not planning anything. They were obessed with domination, and they thought they could get it, what with being in alliance with Hitler.

It was stupid because by bombing Peral Harbour, it brought America into the war. I can tell you this... if they had succeeded (even though they never could have) they would have moved onto 'bigger' and 'greater things.' I know they bombed a city in the country I live in (Australia) the city being Darwin, so I supposed they would have tried to continue conquering the Asia/Pacific.

They seriously had no plan, they were dominating idiots during the war.

Hope this helped!

-Tim :]

Answer 10

such a gd movie. and sad momment.

Answer 11

~The US had been engaged in constant provocations against the Japanese since WWII began with the Manchurian incident in 1931.  Bases on Guam, Midway, Pearl, Luzon, Clark Field, Subic Bay and elsewhere were being beefed up.  Those bases were guns pointed at Japan's head and knives at her throat.  FDR was sending all kinds of aid to Ho Chi Minh and the Viet Minh in the form of money, weapons, ammo, advisers and like war materials to use in their fight for freedom and independence against the Japanese and Vichy French.  The US had also been sending like aid to the Chinese to assist them in the Second Sino-Japanese War.  Those actions were clear acts of war against Japan and gross violations of neutrality.

At the same time, the US was going out of its way to aid Great Britain against the n***s, from the various Neutrality Acts through Cash and Carry and Boats for Bases to Lend Lease.  The Germans had been on China's side with the US in Asia.  Constant US violations of neutrality caused the Germans to abandon China and enter the Tripartite Pact with Italy and Japan.  The intent was to let the US know that a declaration of war against any of them would result in war with all.  The hope was that the US, not wanting to be involved in a global two-front war, would actually act like the neutral it claimed to be.  Hitler knew the US was no match for the Werhmact (Churchill told FDR in 1942 that the only force on earth that could hope to survive a war on the continent against Germany, let alone win, was the Red Army and history proved Churchill correct) but US activities against Germany would not be tolerated without sanctions.

On September 11, 1941, FDR announced to the world during his Fireside Chat that he had ordered the US Navy to fire on German warships on sight and without provocation if they were spotted in US defensive waters, which he described as the entire North Atlantic from the US coast, along Canada, past Greenland and Iceland to the shores of the British Isles.  In July and August, he pulled Douglas MacArthur out of retirement in put him in charge of a new army he had created, the USAFFE, in the Philippines.  He stationed 15,000 marines on Luzon and sent the largest collection of US warplanes outside the US to the Philippines, astride vital Japanese trade and military routes.  

The Japanese did NOT want war with the US.  They knew they couldn't win.  They also knew such a war was coming, especially after they received the Hull Note on November 26, 1941.  The dispatch was an ultimatum that stopped about a millimeter short of being a US declaration of war.  The Tojo Cabinet felt backed into a corner.  Japan had submitted to Matthew Perry's Black Ships in 1854 and they weren't about to do it again.  Western imperialism in the Far East had relegated Japan to permanent status as a second-rate nation and the Japanese had had enough. The ever-increasing and debilitating US embargoes of vital goods just made matters worse.

Yamamoto drew up plans for Operation Z (the attack at Pearl) but he recommended strongly against implementing it.  He said, " I shall run wild for six months to a year, but after that, I can not say."  He also said "The American’s will, repeat, will win".  However, it was agreed that it was in Japan's national security interests to strike first, in the hopes that by taking out the Pacific Fleet in a sudden and complete strike, the US would have no choice but to sue for peace, actually act like the neutral it claimed to be, lift or reduce the embargoes and withdraw military aid from the Chinese and Indochinese.  At best, the Japanese hoped to buy the 6 to 12 months they needed to secure the oil, rubber and steel resources in Malaysia and Indonesia.  They knew they had a better chance of survival by taking a decisive offensive action rather than fighting a prolonged defensive war.  Those were Japan's only two viable options after November 26, 1941, other than to give up any hope of becoming a viable modern nation and once again surrender herself to western subjugation and domination.  

The US was aware that the Japanese had worked up a plan for an attack on Pearl and were training for it since January 27, 1941, when Joseph Grew, US Ambassador to Japan, sent a communique to Washington warning of it.  In October, German Chargé d'Affaires to the US Hans Thomsen, an anti-n**i,  told US intelligence officials that Pearl Harbor would be attacked "soon". FDR was intent on getting actively involved in the war on both fronts but the American people and Congress were opposed.  Roosevelt simply stepped up the provocations over which he had executive control.  Anyone with half a brain and a history book knew Japan had to, and would, respond.  Anyone with half a brain and a map knew where the response would come.  The Philippines may have been the goal, but Pearl was the key.  Whether or not the US had sufficiently cracked all Japanese codes in 1941 to have confirmation that the Kido Butai was inbound (a highly debatable and unlikely prospect), it was obvious that Pearl would be hit and the Hull Note insured that it would be hit soon.  FDR got his war.

The plan may well have worked if the carriers had been in port, or if Genda had been allowed to launch the third strike against the drydocks and oil storage facilities at Pearl or if Nagumo had been allowed to take out Midway on his way home.

Yeah, Japan was the bad guy.  Because of US trade policies and support of Japan's enemies, because of US, French, Dutch, British and French imperialism and colonization in the Far East, the Pacific Basin, Indonesia and Indochina, because Japan has never been able to feed itself or develop industry from resources available on the home islands, because the occidental powers attempted by treaty or military and economic coercion to insure that Japan would always be subservient to western dictates and unable to defend herself, the Rising Sun had the audacity to try to join the 20th century by the same means that the western world had employed in the region and throughout the world for centuries.  Japan tried to secure her borders and her natural sphere of influence but had no intention of moving westward.  Had the British treated her fairly, Japan would have left New Zealand and Australia alone and not even Tojo had any desire or intention of moving on San Francisco.   To date, there exists no substantiation that there was any approved Japanese plans to invade Australia although there was at least one Japanese invasion plan proposed;  Prime Minister Tojo himself vetoed that plan.

Answer 12

The only plan was to strengthen Japan's power in the Pacific.  It only made sense at the time to destroy the threat from the American navy based illegally in Hawaii, which was once an independant country.

What was the plan for after the attack?  Continue keeping white imperialistic Brits and Yanks out of Asia for the benefit of Asians.  Just like any other imperialistic military, they thought they were doing good.

The interesting thing is that Japan has basically taken over Hawaii in the long run, as most of it is owned by Japanese and half the tourists there are from Japan.  Just like how Times Square is basically Japanese.  The biggest neon signs in the biggest city in the U.S. are for Japanese companies and products.  Americans simply can't afford to own their most important assets.

Answer 13

AFTER THE ATTACK ON PERL HARBOR JAPAN HAD NO INTENTIONS ON DOING ANYTHING BACK TO THE U.S.A BECAUSE JAPAN HAS ALREADY WON THE WAR DO IT WAS CASE CLOSE AND I THINK THE SINGN THE TREATY OF PEACE OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT.

Answer 14

Destroy our aircraft carriers. Luckily they were out doing practice missions when Japan struck. A couple of planes from one even shot down a few enemy planes.

Answer 15

The plan, was to destroy the American fleet at Pearl Harbor, consolidate their territorial gains in the Pacific and negotiate a peace settlement with the US. The fact that things didn't go the way the planners hoped does not mean that it was a bad plan, only that the plan didn't work.