Pearl Harbor. Japan’s greater error.

 Up until Dec 7 1941 America was controlled by isolationists who believed we should stay out of any foreign wars, no matter what.  Isolationists pointed to Versailles Peace Treaty that ended World War 1.  Despite serious American participation on the Allied side, we did not get anything much from the Versailles treaty.  Mostly this was because the Versailles Treaty mostly concerned divvying up European colonies between the winners.  After suppressing the Philippine insurrection before WW1 we had little interest in obtaining more overseas colonies.   The Philippines taught us that running a colony is expensive, in lives, in money, and reputation.  There was still plenty of unsettled land in the West to settle countless farmers on. Up until Pearl Harbor the United States was solidly against any kind of military action, anywhere.  We knew that Japan was doing quite a bit of aggression in the East, gobbling up bit parts of China, Manchuria, and other tasty parts of the Far East.  We disapproved.  We send Japan a series of diplomatic notes, (nasty grams) letting them know we disapproved.  But no way were we gong to go farther than nasty grams.

Things drifted on, and we got more difficult.  We finally stopped selling crude oil and scrap steel to Japan.  Many historians said after the war that the embargoes on oil and steel forced Japan to do Pearl Harbor.  This is not true.  The Dutch East Indies had (still have) plenty of oil.  The Nazis had just invaded and occupied the Netherlands, which left the Dutch East Indies just hanging in the wind.  Japan could have sent a fleet of tankers, and some bankers with thick check books to the Indies and they could have bought all the oil Japan would need for years.   And scrap steel is easy to buy, in most places it ranks as ugly junk and people are happy to find someone to haul it away.

Instead Japan decided to declare war on America and deal us a heavy blow.  The Japanese government thought that after a solid blow the Americans would sue for peace.  Serious misunderstanding #1.  After taking a blow Americans never sue for peace, they get mad and start breaking things and enemies.  Most of Japan’s government leaders had never been to America, did not speak English, and had no idea of whom or what they were dealing with.  The one exception was Admiral Yamamoto.  He had done college at Harvard, served as Japan’s naval attaché in DC, spoke English, played poker, and traveled throughout America.  Too bad few people in Japan listened to him.  When they asked Yamamoto how the war with America would turn out he said “for the first six months we shall run wild.  But after six months I have no confidence at all.”

Yamamoto had it right.  Within 6 months of Pearl Harbor we met the Japanese navy at Midway and sank four of the Japanese carriers.  Japan never recovered from that blow.