From: fester@island.COM (Mike Fester)
Subject: Re: Relativity of Pearl Harbor
Organization: /usr/local/rn/organization
Distribution: na
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1992 16:24:39 GMT

In article <1992Jul28.181126.11830@srg.srg.af.mil> dpipes@spica.srg (Dave Pipes x4552) writes:
>In article <76518@ut-emx.uucp> zing@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Leon Z. Lee) writes:
>>

>>[1] It is precisely because of Japan's contact with the West that Imperial
>>Naval factions insisted that a formal declaration of war be presented before
>>any attack should commence against the US.  The Japanese Representatives Nomura
>>and Kurusu was instructured by the Japanese Government to deliver the
>>Declarationof War one hour before the attack was to commence.
>>
>>However, due to the manual deciphering system that the Japanese possessed,
>>it was not possible to decode the 14-part encrypted message before their
>>appointment with the US Sec. of State.  When the message was finally delivered,
>>the attack upon Pearl Harbor has commenced for 1 hour.  Thus, the impression
>>of a sneak-attack was engrained into the American psyche.

As it was INTENDED to be a sneak attack, the impression is hardly unwarranted.

>>[2] Militarily-speaking....the attack on Pearl Harbor was a tremendous
>>military achievement !  The coordination, innonvations, and distance of
>>the attack was truly commendable.  The mere odds against the Japanese
>>launching a successful attack from the Kurile Islands .....over a distance
>>of 2500 miles...not to mention that the entire fleet had to refuel in the
>>middle of the Pacific and yet had to aviod detection...is a feat that
>>few countries had matched.

The attack was launched from the Kuriles? Hardly. The Kuriles are north of
the Japanese main islands.

Military success? Hmm. It was designed to a) force the US to the bargainning 
table with Japan, b) deliver a stunning blow to the US, preventing it from 
effectively entering the war, or c) do as much damage as possible.

It did not force the US to the bargainning table. It DID awaken the world's
greatest industrial power and focus a good deal of its wrath against the
Japanese. Utter failure on point a.

While the Japanese followed up the Pearl Harbor attack with quick successes in
the Phillipines and SE Asia, within 6 months, they had been given tactical
setbacks at Guam, Midway, etc. Less than a year later, the US seized the
offensive at Guadelcanal, and never relinquished it. I'd call it a failure
of point b.

It DID destroy a few ships. It did NOT destroy a single carrier, nor did it
wipe out our Pacific oil supply, which lay in above-ground storage tanks
in Hawaii! At that time, our entire Pacific reserve was in Hawaii. Had it
been destroyed, point b MIGHT have become a success. I'd call point c a 
failure as well.

All of this of course, begs the fact that the planners of the attack considered
it suicide. Yamamoto's first official words after the attack are reportedly
"I fear we have awakened a slumbering giant". His first words to his returning
crew; "Train more pilots". Hardly appears he was thrilled with the prospects
after the attack.

Not, IMHO, much of a success, save from a propaganda point of view.

>>The situation placed before you is not a henious sneak-attack by those
>>so-called "nips" from across the sea.  Far from it....this episode in 
>>American history demonstrated the total inept command structure of the
>>US military in preventing this attack.

It was in fact a sneak attack. It was designed and carried out as such.

>>[4] Chinese Premier Chou En-Lai was once asked about his opinions on the
>>French Revolution...he replied "It's too early to tell".  As
>>a student of history, I can state quite confidently that the final 
>>judgement and guilt of Pearl Harbor have yet to be passed.

You may state anything you like with any degree of confidence you like. Your
reading of the events here, however, seem somewhat suspect.

As a self-professed "student of history", you should have pointed out that 
Japan learned, apparantly, nothing from the Russo-Japan war of the early
1900s. They carried out a sneak attack that effectively wiped out the
Russian fleet in the Pacific, and then carried on a land war for several
years. As a result of their "successes", they were forced to request outside
mediation to end the war; Japan could not afford any more "victories" whereas
the Russians were willing to absorb more "defeats". 

In short, Japan was not able to break a major industrial power and force it 
to accede to Japanese terms, even a power as weak as Tsarist Russia. The US
was a considerably stronger power, and the consequences of Japanese mistakes
would prove dramatically more severe.

Mike
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