Pearl Harbor Battle Analysis

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Pearl Harbor Battle Analysis On a pleasant and beautiful Sunday, December 7, 1984, Japan implemented a surprise attack on the US Naval Base in Pearl Harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii which gave United States a door to enter into World War II. Even though Japan did not follow through with the attack causing the third wave of bombers to break contact from dropping bombs to finish off the rest of the fleet docking in Pearl Harbor, it was a well prepared, and carefully orchestrated attack on the Americans because the Japanese followed almost all the nine Principles of War. However there was one principle that the Japanese did not executed causing them to surrender later on in World War II. There are nine Principles of War, that is;…show more content…
In addition, Japan were keen on expanding their empire and had to make a decision between surrendering or going to war with the United States. Lastly, United States had not yet entered the Second World War, because they were still reeling from depression due to the First World War. United States did, however, still possess the strongest naval fleets. In that perspective, the Japanese were almost as strong as the American navy. As time passed, America favored more and more towards joining the war. The Japanese anticipated a full-blown naval war with America and therefore, decided to act first by bombing Pearl Harbor which was a key terrain feature in the Pacific due to it’s massive and deep harbor for naval ships. The element of economy of force was also present during the attack on Pearl Harbor. This allowed Japans zero bomber to allocate minimum essential combat power towards the attack. With the economy of force, the element of maneuver also played abig role towards the raid. There were two aerial attack waves, totaling 353 aircraft that was launched from the six Japanese aircraft carriers. In actuality, Admiral Yamamoto’s plans consisted of three waves of attack. The first wave of attacked was launched at 0740 with 163 aircrafts that was coming from the North Shore. Their objective was to destroy airfields at Wheeler, Ewa, Hickam, and Pearl Harbor. The second wave was launched an hour later to the Windward side of the island with
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