Written By: Alexander Fuhrmeister
World War 2
How Do Pearl Harbor and The
Pearl Harbor Info
Bombings of Hiroshima/Nagasaki
The attack on Pearl Harbor occurred on
December 7, 1941. The Japanese planned
it because they were trying to prevent
the United States from interfering with
their military operations in Southeast
Asia. Their goal was that this would take
the US out of the war before they could
even make an impact on it, hoping the US
would settle for peace. Their strategy
was to fly in many Japanese planes and
drop a barrage of bombs and bullets on
US vessels. While this attack was
successful in the short term, it led to
consequences much bigger than Japan
would have imagined.
Compare to One Another?
Image Link
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How do they Compare?
Hiroshima Bombings Info
Let’s look at the impacts of the two historic events. Pearl Harbor resulted in 20
American ships destroyed, 300+ airplanes destroyed, drydocks destroyed,
airfields destroyed, 2403 Americans killed and at least 1000 wounded. As bad as
this may seem, it’s not much when compared to the devastating results of
Hiroshima and Nagaski. These resulted in an estimated 140,000 deaths in
Hiroshima and an additional 74,000 in Nagasaki. The Nagasaki bomb completely
destroyed or severely damaged about 40% of the cities buildings. In Hiroshima
at least 63% of buildings were completely destroyed with many more damaged.
The reason we see less destruction in Nagasaki is due to the city's landscape
and layout. Now, let’s put the actual event aside and look into what the result of
the events were. Pearl Harbor severely impacted the Pacific Fleet, but led to the
United States joining World War 2 on the side of the allies. Nowadays, many
people consider the United States to be the reason the Allies won the war. Their
ability to produce ridiculous numbers of bombers, tanks, and other war material
was very significant to the result of the war. Not only this, but millions of
civilians volunteered to fight in the war. While there’s no correlation that the
bombings were in revenge of Pearl Harbor, they did ultimately occur because of
it. If Pearl Harbor never happened, the US wouldn’t of became so conflicted with
Japan, and maybe they would’ve never decided to drop the atomic bombs. After
the bombings, World War 2 came to an official end less than a month later. The
bombings were very successful for the Us, but many believe it was far out of line
to drop them in the first place. All in all, Japan may have had some success in
their attacks, but it turns out to be something they likely wish they’d never
done. As for the United States, it was successful but something Americans
shouldn’t be proud about. We can only hope nothing of it should ever happen
again.
As a result of Pearl Harbor, the United
States declared war on Japan the
following day. Ultimately, this led to the
bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The decision was made because
President Truman was trying to end the
war as quickly as possible with the
lowest number of American casualties
possible. The United States chose
Hiroshima and Nagasaki because not
only were they significant cities, but they
were 2 of the few remaining ones after
earlier invasions. On August 6, 1945 the
US dropped the “Little Boy” atomic bomb
on the city of Hiroshima resulting in the
entire city’s devastation. On August 9,
1945 to ensure Japan would surrender a
second bomb known as “Fat Man” was
dropped on Nagasaki.
Sources: iowaculture.gov, history.com, documents 6.5 and 6.12
Little Boy, the bomb dropped on Hiroshima Link