@@ystudbeast3 US is already in WW2 way before the Attack on Pearl Harbour. US President at that time were planning to convince his people to fight against Germany since Britain is dying but the Japanese attack simplified the event.
@@nogisonoko5409 Yeah sure American involvement was there before 1941 with lend lease but there was a massive difference in involvement between war mobilization and the lend lease phase. I more meant to compare how entry into ww2 revamped the US economy. Pearl harbor just happened to be the final straw.
@@ystudbeast3 It not just the Lend Lease, the Americans were protecting merchant shipping through the Atlantic sea by sinking any U-boats that they found. But other than that yes, war in Europe made US economy go boom.
I'd always read that Japan didn't believe it would win. The idea was to cripple the American navy enough to allow Japan to grab a bunch of territory, then only lose some of it in a peace negotiation. The devastation of Pearl made them believe the American navy was weaker than they'd thought, which is why they put up a fight rather than go with the original plan of peace negotiations.
Both Germany and Japan believed their own hype, and basically assumed that the Western democracies were too weak and decadent, lacking the courage and commitment to pay the price in blood to deny them their gains. It wasn't very rational in historical terms - some among them understood that it was a load of ignorant nonsense, even by a racial-political worldview the Anglo-Saxon was undeniably a ruthless and remorseless conqueror, and that the efficiency of democratic capitalism was a proven means of waging war. If certain people had paid more attention at school and drawn the appropriate conclusions this whole thing may have been avoided.
Well Japan lost war and territories. But the Western nations lost colonies too as a result of WW2 pacific theater. Japan got what it wanted. Decolonization of the world so that Japan could trade with them freely without any consent of the Western powers.
@idk France failed because for some reason unlike Spain and England, they didn't really move in to the places they conquered. Like they had a HUGE chunk of North America larger than the Brits ever had before and even after the 7 years war. But the French only used it for a port and fur trading so there was basically no-one living there.
Did you know that chronologically-speaking, the first Japanese action in December 1941against the western powers was the invasion of British Malaya? It happened about 45 minutes or so before the attack on Pearl - it was just after midnight local time in British Malaya. However, because of the effect of the International Date Line, it was the 8th of December locally, not the 7th (which it was in Hawaii). But looked at as a series of near-simultaneous actions, the landings in Malaya happened just before the attack on Pearl Harbor started.
I mean that would look like a typo in textbooks "8th of December Japanese attacked Malaya and few hours later on 7th of December started attack at Pearl Harbor"
Actually, I’ll revise my agreement with this. The Japanese attacks on Indochina happened during the summer of 1941, not December as my original post said. Also, by that time ‘French Indochina’ was actually under the control of the Vichy French state, not a legitimate French Republic. (Interesting that at that time the Japanese felt confident to attack a power nominally allied to National Socialist Germany). But I think the Japanese action in Indochina was quite separate from their attacks in December 1941.
Germany: We've won the Western Front, and are now attacking the USSR! We've avoided our dread Achilles heel of a war on two fronts! Come join us in attacking the USSR, Japan! Japan: Roger that, bombing the U.S. to drag them into the war. Germany: What Japan: What
British Aide: The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Churchill: We've won! Churchill after sleeping: First night of good sleep I have had since the fall of France.(2 years before) TL/DR quotes of Churchill below - “Now at this very moment I knew that the United States was in the war, up to the neck and in to the death. So we had won after all! ... How long the war would last or in what fashion it would end no man could tell, nor did I at this moment care ... We should not be wiped out. Our history would not come to an end ... Hitler's fate was sealed. Mussolini's fate was sealed. As for the Japanese, they would be ground to a powder. All the rest was merely the proper application of overwhelming force.” Short quote from Churchill's speech to a joint session of US Congress December 26, 1941: "Lastly, if you will forgive me for saying it, to me the best tidings of all-the United States, united as never before, has drawn the sword for freedom and cast away the scabbard." The man could make some fantastic speeches.
@@Sinvare I find Churchill the most annoying character in modern history - a man I know was a bigot, a racist, a buffoon at times, a monster at others... and yet, the guy could give a speech that would have had me fighting on the beaches, the landing grounds, with a beer bottle if that's all I bloody well had.
@@SSky06 "the most annoying character in modern history" I see you're finally back from the cave retreat you started in 2015... well, we'll give you some time, to catch up. We speak again.
"Well believe me Mike, I calculated the odds of this succeeding, versus the odds I was doing something incredibly stupid, and. . . I went ahead anyway. . . " -Crow T. Robot
Actually, it was a good plan. They knew they couldn't win. The point was to buy time so they'd be ready for the U.S if a truce wasn't accepted. The reason it failed was because the U.S carrier fleet happened to be absent from Pearl. The Japanese weren't stupid. I'm really disappointed that a youtuber who I like fails to do basic research :/
@@chozer1 That doesn't change anything. Unless the Japanese had some way of looking in to the future. With the information they had, it was a good plan. No one knew how important carrier warfare turned out to be, they weren't ready for it. Of course they were going to lose.
The Japanese were repeating the sneak attack strategy that they had used to start the Russo-Japanese War. Japan was victorious in that war, and it was still within living memory in 1941. They found out the hard way that the USA wasn't Tsar Nicholas II's Russian Empire!
@@doraemon61377 Your reply has nothing to do with my comment. I suggest you take some classes on reading comprehension, to save yourself the embarrassment of beclowning yourself further. 🤡
@@slik-0974 nope, the real experts think he never said that, similar to his rifle and grass quote. "The Internet has a lot of fake quotes" - Albert Einstein
@@danielhopkins2277 you had me for a second until I read who you were quoting it made me think of a not so popular quote from Sun Tzu's art of war "lmao that shit was funny"
churchills minions had kidnapped emperor of japan and attacking perl harbor on the day aircraft carriers were not in pearl harbor was the cost of releasing the emperor (we all hove come to know by this time how faithful were Japanese to their emperor) so that America could join the war and save Britain
I read a book on translated letters from a Japanese admiral, wish I could remember, who talked about receiving pressure from German officials to go to war against the US. There was some thought that Japan fighting the US would divert attention away from Europe, which Hitler promptly screwed up with declaring war against the US.
if Japan's army had been as competent as its navy, they may have been able to come out on top. part of the reason the USSR pushed back the Nazis was that Stalin was able to call in soldiers from the east who were trained to fight in the cold of the Russian winter. if they were too busy fighting Japan, they couldn't have helped against Germany.
"We can't wage a large-scale war against a great power like the Soviet Union, instead we should fight a great power not dealing with any massive invasion" Japanese politicians
At the time the Germans were pretending to be chummy with the USSR so the Japanese were unaware of their intentions to invade. If that had been communicated secretly to the Japanese then it may have changed the outcome of the war since both the Japanese and the Germans would have been attacking the soviets. However the Germans really were only allies with Japan in name and did basically nothing to help the Japanese. They certainly didn’t tell them any of their secrets which was a big blunder on their part. By the time they did attack the USSR the Japanese had already committed to the southern plan.
The imperial government isn't united. Japan has been running a government by assassination for a few decades. The people who aren't ultrapatriots have been pushed out of politics. Different branches of the government and the armed forces, and even little junior officers on the ground, can get away with weird stuff if they feel like it.
@brandon your summation of the events are severely misguided. There were already plans in place to invade mainland japan before anybody knew of the top secret nuclear program. The war was already over before nukes were dropped, tfw japanese just refused to acnowledge it.
Japan Army: *Loses a few border conflicts* Japanese Navy: "Ah! See! The southern strategy is the way to go!" US Navy: *Opens up coffin* "Alright get in."
churchills minions had kidnapped emperor of japan and attacking perl harbor on the day aircraft carriers were not in pearl harbor was the cost of releasing the emperor (we all hove come to know by this time how faithful were Japanese to their emperor) so that America could join the war and save Britain
@Plo Koon first I am not on meth Or cocaine & second you have no idea who I am and my family history is my grand father was fighting the British in india on nonviolence movement under Gandhi leadership but his brother joined the I.N.A (Indian national army) and had taken up arms with the Japanese under leadership of subash chandra bose to fight the British this is something I heard from my grandfather when I was young that his brother told him after returning from Burma I dont remember the details as I was very young at he time but I got no proof and even if I can get the emperor of Japan to convince you you will not listen because people you think that they just know everything just because you will believe the words of liers that a truth speaking brother
I bet you have not even heard of most of the facts i have revealed to you till date if you don't trust me crosscheck the details of the people I have mentioned above on the internet and you will be surprised how much less you know about the history of ww2
@@raghunandanankolekar7339 First, you need to use proper grammar and punctuation. Second, did you suggest that Great Britain attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor disguised as the Japanese in order to force the US into WWII?
@@ystudbeast3 I know. I wonder the thinking behind “if we hit them hard enough in their own land they will lose resolve to fight and fall apart” I wonder had that ever worked in a war?
@@davidalan6354 Worked to a degree on Russia during World War I, although it wasn't exactly an easy road there. I think the idea, usually, is less "hit them hard enough on their own land," more "I don't think they have the resolve or the economic strength to keep up after losses." Hitler did have some success in his quick tactics--look at Denmark or, obviously, France for what could happen if things went really well there. If it is possible to disrupt an enemy army's ability to function in a decisive attack, the opposing side has to reorganize and rebuild while your army is free to make that as hard as possible to do (their army being unfit to keep you from doing so). It was also a lot more possible, generally, before the twentieth century, before global wealth made fielding really modern armies practical, and when it could take months to send troops and messages out to replace losses.
@@wppb50 Russia in ww1 just killed itself, it wasn't really out of the German invasion The people there just felt like it was a good time to embrace socialism, something that is essentially the only time a quick war could've worked But the USSR was not in a moment of instability, so nothing came crashing down
I just love how james bizzonete has become such a meme with the community been there from the beginning Guess the Japanese lost cus they weren't sponsored by james bizzonete.
That actually made a lot of sense. And you explained it better than my history teachers. My great great grandfather was confused as Hell to think why they would bomb Pearl Harbor in the first place, he thought it was either that they hate us, or they want to show "who's boss" But either, it's both. Or they got confused of who they're supposed to attack.
It’s also important to note that their plan wasn’t quite as insane as it seems because half of our fleet wasn’t at Pearl Harbor when they thought it would be. If it had been, they might have succeeded in crippling us, at least for a time
It wasn't an insane plan cause the actual operation included the simultaneous invasions of the Philippines, Guam and Malaya. The bombing of the naval base was a part of a bigger pre-emptive strike on the Allies and did succeed in crippling the Pacific Fleet enough so that they won't be coming while their invasions are ongoing
@@BoldWittyName I seriously doubt the industrial capacity mattered much in the Pacific theatre. Anyone in the time knew that the US was a sleeping giant, more so for the resource constrained Japan. The war was more of a huge gambit on the political will in the US. The US was isolationist, didn't want to be involved in foreign wars, and primarily targeted colonies in Asia which are as good as places no American of the time cared for. Imo, Pearl Harbor was a fuck up cause the US was able to emphasize the American soldiers stationed there and make it feel like it was the Americans under attack.
@@madensmith7014 actually usakistan was economically choking japan. they were for all effects and purposes already at war. japan simply punched first. sadly they didnt have all the infromation we have now. if their attack had been executed when all the carriers were there, and they had taken the base instead of trying ot destroy it, they could have used it as a platform to keep the west coast of usakistan from producing ships. and at the very least force usakistan to withdraw some of its troops in europe, which would have given germany some breathing room, maybe enough to finish off england. but this is just hindsight. the attack was the worst possible kind of failure. one that looks and feels like a success.
Short version: Japan: They're going to attack us anyway but if we strike fast we can take out all their important fighting capability and they'll just give up once they realise we're super-powerful. America: We admit to nothing, no you didn't, no we won't, no you aren't.
@@jesseberg3271 Stereotypes? You mean people noticing what other groups of people do? Let us all know when you clowns start moving to Non-white countries or down into the hood. Then you can tell us your BS thoughts on (Stereotypes). LOL.
And besides, I'm guessing that if they successfully annilhated all US bases in the Pacific(which they didn't) the US would have a much harder time crossing the Pacific and attacking them
I think they probably got the wrong idea about America's isolationist approach, thinking that we were timid and unwilling to act. And that perhaps one show of force would scare us into submission. Wrong-o.
They specifically wanted to take out the pacific fleet which was at the time the US’s most powerful fleet and the one that would have responded to attacks on the pacific US territories. Unfortunately for the Japanese they botched the attack by attacking none of the reserve oil tanks, they attacked during low tied and some ships were able to be recovered and repaired, and some ships just weren’t present at the time.
It is fairly clear that General Short was ill prepared - he had received plenty of warnings while he was rather expecting a sabotage action instead of an air attack. however, there is one particular aspect. at the time of the attack, the aircraft carriers did not had an important rank compared to battleships. perhaps because of this, some high rank officers did not consider a massive air attack from carriers as a scenario. this may explain the almost complete absence of readiness for this scenario - which includes the pathetic service of radar operations. aircraft carriers got their later importance precisely after the PH attack.
One of my favorite historical 'what ifs?' is: "What if Japan in late 1941 had coordinated with Hitler and invaded Russia instead of striking south?" Scary, scary thought. But, as I understand it, Japan attacking north wasn't really an option given the oil embargo. (They had to take the Dutch East Indies within about 6 months to avoid running out of oil.) Still...interesting to think about.
The US was the one major thing holding back Japan's ambitions and as we know, fortune favours the bold. Some daring plans have worked spectacularly throughout history, so, this was their best shot at it. Whilst Japan had hoped for a knock out blow, in reality, they underestimated the importance of the American aircraft carriers, which, were far superior to their own. This meant they continued the attack knowing they weren't there. This was their best chance of buying time to sure up their position as the US would need time to repair and rebuild and maybe think twice about a war of attrition. It ended up being costly enough as it was both in money and men. At the end of the day, the US economy/industry, access to superior tech and numbers, whilst slow to kick in, were always going to win the day. Japan never had the numbers to land on US soil and expand elsewhere simultaneously, so, the result was unlikely to have gone any other way.
You say that, but you forget that Japan did literally the same thing to Russia leading into WW1, secretly attacking their navy at base, and destroying the Russian fleet sent to counter attack them, leading to their embarrassing defeat and sticking one more Nail in the Tsar's coffin. Russian was a much larger, more industrial, western power. If they could do it once why not twice?
@@christopherjones8448 Tsarist Russia was not mid-20th century America - it was not even remotely as industrialized, untouchable, or 'western' for that matter. I don't argue that some people in Japan saw things that way , but they only did so from pure ignorance - some argued strongly against that perception, rightly, but they were ignored. It was the fart-sniffing arrogance of some very, very stupid people to assume that Japan could take on the Anglo-Saxon West, particularly without bothering to coordinate a strategy with their so-called allies.
@@onylra6265 compared to Japan Russia was untouchable, at least that's what people believed and that's all it takes to swell someone's head and make them think "did it once, can do it again"
@@christopherjones8448 You forget how it ended... nukes. Factor this in with slowing America down and you realize that Japan in reality was LUCKY their plan didn't work as the damage would've been far worse/frantic/less caring about targets with Nukes. Japan could've been the first country erased by nukes... which also would've led to Cold War more likely spelling the end of everything.
@@Buglin_Burger7878 Yes the war ended with nukes. Which America did not have at the start of the war nor would Japan have any reason to think that anything of the sort would play a factor before making their decision to invade. Just your first sentence alone tells me all I need to know
Germany: So, Japan. We are gonna attack the Sowjetunion soon, ja? What are your plans or actions? Japan: We attacked America-Kun at Pearl Harbor. Germany: WAS. Italy: It can’t be that bad righ- OH NO THEY CAPTURED NORTH AFRICA, THEY ARE CAPTURING SICILY, OH GOD OH FU- Server: *Italy has switched sides* (Thank you for coming to my ted talk)
Japan: lol let’s attack America surely nothing bad will happen *attacks Pearl Harbor* America just chilling: damn so you chosen death *drops atomic bombs on japan* Japan: damn was not expecting that
The funny thing about Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan was the way they give credit. While they often say "Hitler invades Russia" or "Hitler invades Poland", they never say "Tojo invades Pearl Harbour" or "Tojo invades Burma" etc. they say "The Japanese"
Worse, the US bombed Tokyo within a month off the backs of submarines, then helped take down Germany, then nuked 2 cities because it did not feel like wasting the manpower fighting island to island.
Not to mention the fire bombings of many city's before that. That killed many times the number of people of those two. But for some reason nobody brings that up.
It always seemed to me that a big part of “they thought they’d win” was that they didn’t know the American carriers were imminently about to move. IIRC the carrier task forces were the primary targets and their destruction would’ve insurmountably crippled the Pacific fleet Lucky timing for the US that the Japanese didn’t have enough time to learn of the movements after they deployed their own fleet
@@Jebu911 Just for strategy. Germany was pro-China until late in the 1930s. The KMT got a lot of training and equipment from Germany until they started favoring Japan more.
"I have to jump off this cliff because I have no other options other than changing my lifestyle and I will not do that. I might just make it if the ground is soft and my clothes slow me down."
You forgot to say that the reason why Japan was chosing the south was also because the Dutch army (Indonesia was ofc Dutch terratory) was getting back to the Netherlands because of the German invasion. So they could much easier fight for the southern part. Ofcourse that worked the same way with the north but you get the point.
I think on the list #3 and #4 were a virtual tie. Thinking that the horse left outside your front gate would look lovely next to the fountain certainly wasn't the best move either. That one even birthed a metaphor we still use today, the Trojan horse.🤣
Thnx for this illuminating explanation of the big question: why Pearl Harbor? Most answers say that Japan thought they could win? This shows a much more nuanced answer - and a much more convincing answer! Take a look....
If America hadn't forced Japan out of isolation with Mathew Perry Japan most likely would've never been an empire with the capability to even attack America. America created it's own enemy ironically
I’m sure the other European powers would’ve done so eventually anyway without U.S involvement. The Portuguese and the Dutch already had deals with the Japanese before.
My conspiracy theory is that Britain encouraged the US to force Japan out of isolation with the idea that they would inevitably attack China. The super conspiracy theory is that the US encouraged and allowed the attack on Pearl Harbor to justify a war with the axis.
@@maxerd No doubt the President was told that embargoing Japan might just encourage them to go to war with the US. Roosevelt wanted the US to enter the war anyway so I wouldn't be surprised
This was a colossally stupid plan. Hannibal tried a similar trick against Rome and that saw Carthage destroyed. US would without a doubt have entered into a long and drawn out war with Japan even had Pearl Harbor been successful. Considering history of US, concept of surrender or giving up after being humiliated was not exactly something the American identity would readily accept. In the American Civil War alone the union forces were absolutely fucked up by Confederate forces early on because of repeated and colossal mismanagement of Union forces, including Lincoln's refusal to commit against slavery until foreign powers started thinking of picking sides, yet Union forces won. Their forefathers didn't stand up against the british or any other foe in the past. There was no precedent for it.
Which is weird because Yamamoto knew better and said as much before they started the war with the U.S.. He also said that an invasion of the main land would be impossible as there would be a rifle behind every blade of grass.
And the fact that Japan didn't bomb key targets at all. They should have bombed the repair bays, fuel and ammo storages, and other facilities, as well as the vessels, yet they opted to focus all their firepower on the battleships, and cruisers, which held up to the bombs relatively well. This meant that the US navy could get back up and running in a matter of weeks; the very thing the attack was supposed to prevent.
The biggest humor of all is that Manchuria had oil. Lots of it. The Daqing oil field which had more than enough to cover japanese needs. But in 1941 no one knew about it. Imagine if a japanese stumbled onto it in 1930. Self sufficient in oil the japanese would see little point in going to war against the US.
I think you should’ve added what happened in between. Great video nonetheless but we didn’t drop Fat Man and Little Boy until 4 years after they had bombed Pearl Harbor and the bombs were 3 days apart. But we gave them chances in between to stop and they didn’t. The Battle of Midway and The Battle of Iwo Jima were 2 key factors in to why we dropped the nukes on them as well.
They also got very unlucky that almost everything they damaged or sunk in PH was largely irrelivent (surface ships) in a war that was largely decided by aircraft carriers. 3 US carriers were within about 500 miles but none were in port.
2:28 “He got me,” Roosevelt said of Japan’s bombing of Pearl Harbor. “That ******* Hirohito boomed me.” Roosevelt added “He’s so good,” repeating it four times. Roosevelt then said he wanted to add Hirohito to the list of foreign leaders he meets with next summer.
Also, really important to note, the attack itself was focused on destroying American air craft carriers, specifically. Japan believed it would be too expensive and time consuming to rebuild those monstrosities, and with their dominance over the air in naval battles, the US wouldn’t be able to keep up. Unfortunately for Japan, as we know, that mission was a colossal failure, and the attack itself inspired scores of Americans to want to send troops to liberate Southeast Asia and avenge those who fell at Pearl Harbor. That, and, again, American industrial prowess circa 1942 was an incredible thing, and it took almost no time at all to recover our losses, something Japan definitely took into account, which is exactly why they wanted to knock out our air superiority at sea, not necessarily destroy a huge mass of ships that could be repaired or rebuilt within months.
Interesting that they gambled on a risky attack. Germany did the same when they attacked Russia, they knew war was inevitable and so decided to attack before Russia armed themselves. There is a recording of Hitler speaking with the Finish prime minister where he admits to their victory not being guaranteed but that they had to act, it sounds like the Japanese took the same chance.
If japen attack the USSR the axis powers might of actually won the war because it would force Stalin to fight japan this losing Moscow to the Germans resulting in the capitulation of the USSR this allowing japan to defeat china and all of germanys troops would be able to defeat the allies in France and this allowing the Germans to continue the The Blitz on UK at 1946ish and after london has been leveled the British surrendering to the Germans at around 1948. What do you think?
@@petersmulders8058 there are still the USA, and it ain't that simple, the soviet union still had troops ready to receive Japan, and I don't think they would have resisted at the climate of Siberia, and the USA would have stormed at both powers while distracted anyway, making the axis fail
@@petersmulders8058 1. The Soviets always kept a few troops on the Far East, even after one of their spies found out that Japan wouldnt go for its Northern Expansion Plan. 2. The Japanese got smacked by the Soviets even before they managed to drastically improve themselves. They and Germany both knew that the Soviets would only be harder to conquer with each year. 3. You honestly think Japan is somehow going to do a better job at holding the entirety of Siberia and not end up like the White Army?
@@elseggs6504 So your saying that the Soviets could defend when both the Germans and the Japanese are attacking them even tho the Germans were at the gates of Moscow fighting the Soviets alone? The Soviets would have no choice but to defend Moscow this allowing Japan to sweep Siberia all the way to Moscow and in result being just like the battle of Berlin in 1945 but with the Soviets
@@petersmulders8058 Do you have any idea how big Siberia is? All the Russians need to do is blow up the Transsiberian Railway and the Japanese troops would have to walk all the way from Korea to Moscow. Good luck with that.
Most of the admirality plans have some element of "And then the US public loses interest". If we just extend the war a little longer and add a few more pieces to the island security sphere the USA won't let the conflict run its full course. Imperial Japan is a weird government by assassination and negotiation. Branches of the government think they aren't responsible to eachother. This happens between the civilian government and the military, between the army and the navy, between factions of the navy etc. Some little junior officer does a thing in China and forces the others to accept that this is how we do things now.
@@SusCalvin Japan should have invested in better encryption and they could have made usa unwilling to go past hawaii. I mean originally midways battle was supposed to be really crippling to US but they managed to make it into an ambush. Great work by the allied decoders
Japan at that point never lost any war. They do not know how to lose. They were too confident. Japan could've just ditch its alliance with the axis which is a world away, and made an alliance with the Republic of China to conquer the Soviet Union, they both have the same interests.
churchills minions had kidnapped emperor of japan and attacking perl harbor on the day aircraft carriers were not in pearl harbor was the cost of releasing the emperor (we all hove come to know by this time how faithful were Japanese to their emperor) so that America could join the war and save Britain
@jeremy Lyons Japan produced on average 30 tanks a month. So that’s like 1 tank a day. With such production capacity, they could have made 1 big battle with Soviet union and then get back to infantry for the rest of the war. And infantry with tanks always wins against infantry without tanks. So even if they synchronized it with operation Barbarossa, I don’t know if outcome would be different.
@@TorIverWilhelmsen The northern plan runs into China too. Japan is a very small country and there's a whole lot of China to take. When the war with the USA is about to start, the army is still running pacification campaigns in China, Korea etc and trying to figure out if and how they can extract themselves. A bunch of the northern plan proponents think this consolidation on the mainland, together with a consolidation of the island chains, is going to deter the USA. The navy thinks US warship production will overtake the imperial navy if they just wait.
Kalkhin Gal is one of the least known battles but one of the most significant in world history. Because of the Soviet trouncing, under Georgy Zukhov, of the the Army of Kwangtung, coupled with the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact treaty of non-aggression between the Soviets and Nazi Germany, the Japanese knew they had no hope against the Soviet Union and could expect no help from its “ally” (Nazi Germany), the plan against the USA (also code named East Wind Rain) was the only one viable short of having to give up territory. When the Soviet spy ring, headed by Richard Sorge, found out about the Japanese plans and forwarded said plans to Moscow, the Soviets transferred literally over a dozen divisions to defend Moscow, along with Zukhov, and the Germans were defeated, saving the Soviet Union and turning the tide of war completely against Germany. Also, Japan’s failures at Pearl Harbor, besides not sinking the USA carriers, is they did not destroy the dry docks and repair facilities, nor the fuel farm nor the ammo dumps. In other words, instead of having to operate out of San Diego, the USA was able to operate still out of Pearl Harbor. This paid huge dividends at the Battle of Coral Sea, in which the Japanese had two of its carriers not be able to participate at Midway and the USA, instead of having two carriers not being able to participate at Midway (Yorktown would have not been able to be hauled to San Diego, repaired and make it in time back to Midway), were able to haul Yorktown to Pearl Harbor, affect repairs in record time and have it available for Midway. So, this is how a relatively obscure battle in 1939 affected the course and outcome of WW Twice.
@@stafer3 Just tying up Russian troops on the Pacific, and therefore giving Germany more advantages on the Eastern european front would likely have turned the tides in the Axis’ favor
Read more history please. US was very much involved in the European theatre even before D-Day. Err Supply Convoys to UK, Lend Lease to USSR for example. Fail joke.
@@stringer-ik1pc The USA was certainly cowardly to not want to get involved in a war which didn't involve them to begin with. You seem like a very smart and reasonable person, we should have a long, drawn-out discussion on the matter
“Not everybody in the Japanese government agreed and they knew that they would lose any war with the United States long or short” “They did it anyway” This is one of those things that I already know about but still make me lol
This video is done poorly. The original plan consisted of waves that would cripple Pearl Harbour entirely. They only conducted half of the plan resulting in Pearl Harbour still being used as forward base of operations.
@@LeRoiEnJaune He is a pretty funky guy. The navy itself divides in factions as well. Some believe the imperial navy needs to trim off US carriers. Use the carrier advantage we have today to curtail the US carrier advantage tomorrow sort of. Others think consolidating and fortifying the security sphere of colonies around Japan will deter the USA and let them sue for peace. They end up doing a bit of both, branches of imperial Japan do what they want.
Imperial Japan is a weird government. A lot of the armed forces branches and the foreign office, the security police and the others have their own policy. They operate under direct imperial authority, and by tradition the emperor does not intervene actively. This goes down to junior officers. Some group of colonels in China can decide on their own that what the emperor really wants them to do is to start blowing railways or something, and the rest of Japan just has to go along with whatever happens.
@@LeRoiEnJaune I mean I get the logic. We are under oil embargo. When we run out of oil reserves, our empire will collapse and we revert back to preindustrial era where we become colony of some other empire. What happens when we lose? Our empire will collapse and we become colony of some other empire. If the outcome is the same, but one one of the paths has 0,1% chance of winning and becoming great empire, you might as well do it.
Funnily enough Yamamoto, the mastermind behind Pearl Harbor, was one of those who was strongly against the war. He had spent time living in America as a military attaché and understood that A) the rest of the Japanese military was underestimating the grit and fighting spirit of Americans and B) they were HUGELY underestimating the US' industrial strength and resources.
Honestly they weren't. They knew they wouldn't win. The only issue was time. But then they didn't really allow themselves a position in which they'd be able to negotiate for peace
He predicted the war with eerie accuracy. He said that if they attacked Pearl Harbor, he’d run wild with his fleet and hammer the USA for six months, then they’ll have recovered and it’s over. It was almost exactly that timeline. He was an incredibly savvy military leader.
I think B is the biggest one. The part of North American continent that the US controls is so rich when it comes to industrial strength and resources I could see why people think the Japanese were crazy for attacking Pearl Harbor but from their perspective it wasn’t quite as crazy as it is for us in hindsight it was just a fucking gamble.
@@cazschiller well,, if USA not backstabbing Nazi probably would've reach Moscow Operation Barbarossa fail mostly cuz USA join the war,, USA join the war cuz IJN stupid ass plan
Also the USA: If i think about it that was not that a bad an idea *proceed to drone strike everyone including military basses in Lybia, Syria and god konw where else...*
you have mail Japan Japan: o cool what is it Mail: all your allies are dead and you no stand against The United States, the UK, China, France and the Soviet Union. Japan: Oh ok
