THE SIGNIFCANCE OF PEARL HARBOR

Jane Thornton
History 1700-Sp18
Professor Hansen
April 21, 2018

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 The sun is rising over the calm Pacific Ocean much the same way as it has for centuries.

Today my eyes are seeing the sunrise with new perspective and respect for the events that

happened here. On March 18, 2018, my family made the pilgrimage to the Pearl Harbor

Memorial. Our group included my mom, grandmother, three aunts, one uncle, two cousins and

my older sister. We do not usually travel anywhere, let alone overseas, so this day is special in

many ways. My grandmother is 86 years old and she trembled with excitement as we

approached the vast and expansive memorial. So much of her life has been impacted by the

events of December 7, 1941. Her immediate family and community were consumed and shaped

by the sacrifices made by the United States as it entered into the Second World War. Even

decades after the end of the war, she taught school children year after year about the events of

that day. We have always been a patriotic family, but our trip to Pearl Harbor made everything

real for us all.

I interviewed my Grandmother GenaVee Broderick about the events of that fateful day.

My grandfather, a war veteran from World War II, had recently passed away. She said, with an

emotional voice and tears streaming down her face: “I was nine years old. I remember the horror

of that day as we sat around our big brown Motorola radio. It was a Sunday morning and we

listened all day long. President Roosevelt, I can hear his voice now, telling the people what we

needed to do, and to be strong. He said, ‘This is a Day that will live in infamy.’” She then said:

“I went to school the next day on Monday. When we got to school they told us not to be afraid,

but we needed to be prepared. They would sound an alarm and we were told to get under our

desks. It was very very frightening. I remember that.” She continued by telling “That Monday

morning, the streets were lined with young men going to the recruiting office to sign up to

protect the country. They never gave it a second thought. They were willing to give their lives to

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protect our freedoms and liberties. I thought about their moms and how they must have felt.

There were lines of the boys ready to enlist. This was before the draft. The next week when they

started the draft, those 18-45 years old had to enlist. My dad had to go sign up for the draft. I

thought it meant that he would have to go to war. I still remember where I was when he said he

would have to go down and sign up.”1 This narrative makes seeing Pearl Harbor all the more

hallowed and personal.

Pearl Harbor is a United States naval base near Honolulu Hawaii. On December 7, 1941,

the Naval base was an important stronghold for the United States and contained multiple

battleships including the Arizona, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Oklahoma, Tennessee, California,

Maryland and West Virginia. The base also held the heavy cruisers New Orleans and San

Francisco along with many other ships. This was a perfect target for the Japanese. The history

leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor is important and compelling. Further, Japan’s attack on

Pearl Harbor forever altered the history of the United States and America’s future by provoking

the government to create higher security measures, by creating controversial internment camps

for those of Japanese ancestry, and by forcing the United States out of their isolationist approach

to conflicts beyond our borders.

In the years leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japan had grown a large and

powerful army and navy and had become a competitor against the world powers of the West. In

1931 Japan created a new nation, a puppet state, Manchukuo, which was made from three

provinces of China. The Marco Polo Bridge Incident, A clash between China and Japan’s

troops, led to Japan’s full-scale invasion of China.2 Japan then took their expansion across the

1
GenaVee Broderick, interviewed by Jane Thornton, March 18, 2018.
2
“American Civilization, A Brief History,” OpenStax U.S. History. May 7, 2014, https:// openstax.
org/details/books/us-history.

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Pacific and into deep China. The United States strongly protested Japan’s expansion, which only

reaffirmed Japan’s philosophy that war with the West was inevitable. Relations between the

United States and Japan were contentious and public sentiment against Japan was high. In July of

1941 President Roosevelt immobilized all Japanese assets in the U.S. and later placed a full

commercial-blockade of Japan in hopes that this action would stop Japan from expanding. The

Japanese Prime Minister, Prince Fumimaro Konoye, advised that Japan restrain from further

expansion and strained to find an agreement with the United States. However, his cabinet did not

agree. In October of 1940 Hideki Tojo became Prime Minister of Japan. The new Prime Minister

Tojo was set on war and was not willing to risk any attack of the homeland of Japan. 3

In August of 1941 the United States set the Embargo Act over oil and steel to further

freeze out Japan. Since Japan relied on the United States for one-third of their imports, this

caused an oil crisis in Japan as well as much more economic backlash. The United States

expected that the sanctions they imposed on Japan would be enough to stop Japan from any

action against the U.S. The effect was exactly the opposite.4

Because Japan could no longer buy materials from the U.S., Japan decided to gain their

supply of oil from the Dutch East Indies. Japan realized that this action might give America a

reason to intervene since the U.S. territory, the Philippines, lay on the direct oil route the oil

tankers would take to get from Japan to Indonesia. Therefore, Japan decided to negotiate a

diplomatic solution with the U.S. In case negotiations failed Japan started to prepare for war.

After refusing several proposals by Japan, the U.S. issued a final counterproposal requiring Japan

3
C.L. Sulzberger, World War II, 1966.
4
Joel, “Effects of Economic Sanctions on Japan, 1941,” 2009. https://faroutliers.wordpress.com/2009/06/15/effect-
of-economic-sanctions-on-japan-1941/.

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to completely withdraw from China with no conditions and to enter in a nonaggressive pact with

all the Pacific Powers. Japan found the proposal unacceptable and delayed a rejection.5

At this point the United States public was highly against the U.S. fighting a foreign war

or any foreign entanglements. The United States government had most always had an

unwillingness to interfere with anything outside of the Western Hemisphere. The U.S. took

measures to avoid going to war, and cut defense spending. The United States government took

part in the 1921-1922 Washington Naval Conference which is responsible for cutting down the

size of nine of the nation’s navies. The U.S. government also signed the Four Power Treaty in

1921 with France, Japan, and Great Britain, forbidding any expansion in Asia. In 1928 The U.S.

and fourteen other nations signed the Kellogg- Briand Pact, pronouncing war an international

crime. These actions failed to make any significant impact because none of the agreements

committed the signees to take action if a nation violates the agreements.6

In January of 1941 the U.S. ambassador to Tokyo, Joseph Clark Grew, reported that

Japan might attempt a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor using all their military forces.7 Despite

Grew’s warning, the United States had no fear of an attack on the Hawaii Naval base. The plans

for the Pearl Harbor attack were put together by a staff working under Admiral Isoroku

Yamamoto. The Japanese assigned six carriers protected by a heavy screen of surface vessels

and submarines to attack the naval base. On December 2, 1941, the Japanese fighters received

the coded message “Climb Mount Niitaka” which commanded the attack to begin.8

5
“American Civilization, A Brief History,” OpenStax U.S. History. May 7, 2014, https:// openstax.
org/details/books/us-history.
6
Ibid.
7
Amanda Watts, “Joseph Grew and American-Japanese Diplomacy Leading to Pearl Harbor,” Constructing the
Past Volume 15, Iss. 1, Article 11, 2014. http://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/constructing/vol15/iss1/11.
8
Valeri Reitman, “Japan Broke U.S. Code before Pearl Harbor, Researcher Finds,” Los Angeles Times, December 7,
2001, http://articles.latimes.com/2001/dec/07/news/mn-12562.

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 Starting at 7:55 a.m. and lasting until 9:45 a.m. on December 7, 1941 three hundred and

fifty-three Japanese bombers, torpedo bombers, and fighters had destroyed half of the United

States Navy. Because they attacked on a Sunday, the U.S. soldiers were wandering around the

base and enjoying their Sunday.9 The Battleships Arizona, Tennessee, Oklahoma, West Virginia,

California, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Maryland were sunk or severely damaged. The cruisers

Helena, Honolulu, and Raleigh were all damaged. The destroyers Cassin and Downes and Shaw

were both damaged by bombs. The Auxiliary vessels Utah and, Curtiss, Vestal were all damaged

by various weapons. The destroyer Oglala was sunk by aircraft torpedo and bomb.10 The attack

on Pearl Harbor killed 1998 navy personnel, 109 marines, 233 army personnel, and 48

civilians.11

The United States Air Corps had only sixteen serviceable bombers left in its arsenal.

Tokyo newspapers claimed that the attack reduced the United States to a third-world power. The

next day the Senate voted unanimously in favor of war.12 An immediate result of the declaration

of war was the revival of the draft. In December of 1940, a year before the United States

declared war, the U.S. enacted the first peacetime draft. Men, with some exceptions, ages

twenty-one to forty-five were required to register for the draft. Then when America declared war,

active drafting began.

One significant impact of the attack on Pearl Harbor was the creation of the Central

Information Agency. After many investigations into Japan’s sneak attack, Congress concluded

9
C.L. Sulzberger, World War II, 1966
10
“Report of Damage Received,” Naval History, December 7, 1941, http://www.navsource.org/Naval/ damage.htm.
11
How Many People Died at Pearl Harbor Attack in 1941, 2010, http://www.howmanypeopledied.net/2010/10/how-
many-people-died-at-pearl-harbor-attack-in-1941/.
12
C.L. Sulzberger, World War II, 1966.

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that the attack’s blame should be placed on a lack of watchfulness on part of the American

Commanders and the poor coordination and exchange of information in Washington. After this

investigation the United States government concluded that they needed to reconstruct the way

that information was exchanged. In this process, the U.S. government signed the National

Security Act of 1947 and created the Central Intelligence Agency (C.I.A.).13 The C.I.A. has been

crucial to the American Government’s ability to collect, evaluate and share information. For

example, during the Cold War the C.I.A. played a pivotal role in preventing the spread of

communism. Today the C.I.A. is essential in fighting the war against terrorism. This increased

security all came about because of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Another momentous impact of the Pearl Harbor attack was the creation of Japanese

Internment camps. On February 19, 1941, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066,

authorizing the designation of land across the U.S. where any or all people can be excluded.

Although this order did not technically state a specific people to be relocated into these areas, it

was quickly interpreted to mean the Japanese Americans. After the Pearl Harbor attack the

American public quickly grew suspicious of all Japanese Americans. Days after Japan’s attack

the U.S. Department of the Treasury froze the assets of all resident aliens and citizens who were

born in Japan and the Department of Justice arrested approximately 1,500 religious and

community leaders that were supposed threats. Within a week of the order, all U.S. born children

of Japanese immigrants that lived on the California’s Terminal Islands, were forced to leave their

homes. A series of Proclamations were enacted that stated that all people of Japanese descent

would be removed from California. There was a total of ten internment camps with 110,000

Japanese Americans held captive inside. On March 18, 1942 President Roosevelt signed

13
“Intelligence Throughout History: The Impact of Pearl Harbor,” CIA, 2010. https://www.cia.gov/news-
information/featured-story-archive/2010-featured-story-archive/pearl-harbor.html.

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Executive Order 9102 creating the War Relocation Authority, a civilian agency tasked with

expediting the process. Days later the first group of Japanese Americans arrived in the Manzanar

War Relocation Center. The majority would spend the next three years of their lives there.14

Similar camps were set up all along the west coast, including Utah, Idaho, Arizona, and Oregon.

Canada was quick to follow the United States’ lead, relocating 21,000 of its Japanese

Americans. Mexico also created it own regulations for relocating people of Japanese descent. In

addition to the relocation the Federal Bureau of Investigation searched thousands of Japanese

American’s homes seizing what they considered contraband. Approximately one-third of

Hawaii’s population comes from Japanese descent. In a wave a mass panic after the attack on

Pearl Harbor, some politicians called for a mass incarceration of the descendants. At least 1,500

Japanese descendants from Hawaii were sent to relocation camps on United States mainland. The

idea behind the Japanese Relocation Camps was Lt. General John L. DeWitt’s brainchild.

DeWitt presented a report full of falsehoods about Japanese sabotage. Some people disagreed

with the proposal and thought that a mass relocation was not necessary. However, President

Roosevelt signed the order. Life in the relocation camps were far from than ideal. Internees

usually lived in some form of barrack with multiple other families. Each relocation center had its

own schools, mess halls, wok facilities, post offices and farmland. Many internees would work in

factories, on the farmland or agriculture processing plants.15

In December of 1944 the U.S. Supreme Court declared that the War Relocation Authority

did not have the power to detain citizens with no charges of disloyalty against them for longer

than the necessary time it took to separate the loyal from the disloyal. President Truman signed

14
“Executive Order 9066,” Encyclopedia Britannica August 9, 2016
15
Lisa Morehouse “Farming Behind Barbed Wire: Japanese-Americans Remember WWII Incarceration,” Food for
Thought, February 19, 2017, National Public Radio, https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/02/19/515822019/
farming-behind-barbed-wire-japanese-americans-remember-wwii-incarceration.

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the Evacuation Claims Act in 1948, which gave the Japanese American internees the chance to

file claims for lost property as result of their relocation. These internment camps were a sad

stain on our history, and another result of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Even in the aftermath of

the September 11, 2001 terror attacks, the National security realities of Guantanamo Bay echo

back to the inhumanity of the camps.16

Another impact the attack on Pearl Harbor had on our history was its forcing the United

States to give up its isolationism and join the war effort. From the very beginning the United

States has avoided interdependence as evidenced in the Declaration of Independence. The

Revolutionary War is often called the War of Independence. Isolation has been a popular and

perennial theme in our country’s foreign policy. Participation in World War I was delayed until

the submarine attack of one of ships. After World War I, and through the 1930s, the Great

Depression and the tragic losses of World War I pushed public opinion and government policy

toward isolationism. The United States refused involvement in the Asian and European

conflicts.17 Hitler had taken control of most of Europe. Japan was invading and conquering

much of Asia. Charles Lindbergh was the head of a powerful isolationist organization called

America First. He argued that England was losing the war and that the United States should

keep all military assets for itself and use them to defend the United States if the Nazis invaded

our country.18

16
Christopher Brauchli, “Guantanamo and the Japanese Internment Camps,” Counterpunch, July 21. 2003,
https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/02/19/515822019/farming-behind-barbed-wire-japanese-americans-
remember-wwii-incarceration, accessed April 24, 2018.
17
“American Isolationism in the 1930s,” https://history.state.gov/milestones/1937-1945-Isolationism.
18
Dan S. Boyd, “How Pearl Harbor Ended American Isolationism,” Dallas Morning News, December 2016,
https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2016/12/02/pearl-harbor-ended-american-isolationism.

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 The direct military attack on Pearl Harbor thrust the United States into war again. The

shift in foreign policy to end isolationism began immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

President Roosevelt noted the change away from isolationism in his fourth inauguration speech,

saying,

“Today, in this year of war, 1945, we have learned lessons – at a fearful cost – and we

shall profit by them. We have learned that we cannot live alone, at peace; that our own

well-being is dependent on the well-being of other Nations, far away… We have learned

to be citizens of the world, members of the human community. We have learned the

simple truth, as Emerson said, that, ‘The only way to have a friend is to be one.” 19

From the point in history of the Pearl Harbor attack, the United States has entered into many

alliances and international agreements including the North Atlantic Alliance now known as

NATO, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the United Nations, and NAFTA, North American

Free Trade Agreement. The United States has joined in many wars and armed conflicts as part

of the network alliances including the current military action in Syria. However in 2017 with the

election of President Donald Trump the questions of isolationism and national independence

have resurfaced. President Trump promised to withdraw the United States from NATO and

NAFTA. He has also imposed trade tariffs in order to achieve more independence. 20

Isolationism was given up after the attack on Pearl Harbor, but now may be making inroads back

into our country’s policies.

19
Franklin D. Roosevelt, “Fourth Inaugural Address,” January 15, 1945, https://www.history.com/topics/us-
presidents/franklin-d-roosevelt/videos/franklin-d-roosevelts-fourth-inaugural-address.
20
Dan S. Boyd, “How Pearl Harbor Ended American Isolationism,” Dallas Morning News, December 2016,
https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2016/12/02/pearl-harbor-ended-american-isolationism.

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 The United States Government and its national policies were impacted drastically by the

events of Pearl Harbor, but most importantly, individual communities and especially families

were impacted by Pearl Harbor and the ensuing war in the Pacific. My grandfather’s brother was

a Japanese prisoner of war and was one of 12 out of 200 of his group who escaped with his life

to return to America. Sadly, his life was shattered and he never was able to live a normal life

upon his return. My grandfather’s other brother was a mine sweeper detonating the mines to

protect the ocean in the Pacific. His ship was attacked by Japanese kamikaze pilots. He returned

alive, but spent weeks in a hammock in the trees behind his home, refusing to speak to anyone.21

These are but two of the several examples of direct family members who were profoundly

affected by the events of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, a day that still lives in infamy.

21
Thump, The History of Theodore Thornton, published in 2007, available through LDS Family History Library.

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 Bibliography

“American Isolationism in the 1930s.” https://history.state.gov/milestones/1937-1945/

Isolationism.

Boyd, Dan, “How Pearl Harbor Ended American Isolationism,” December 2016.
https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2016/12/02/pearl-harbor-ended-
american-isolationism.

Brauchli, Christopher, “Guantanamo and the Japanese Internment Camps,” July 21, 2003,
Counterpunch, https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/02/19/515822019/farming-
behind-barbed-wire-japanese-americans-remember-wwii-incarceration.

“Effects of Economic Sanction on Japan,” June 15, 2009. https://faroutliers.wordpress.

com /2009/06/15/effect-of-economic-sanctions-on-japan-1941/.

“Executive Order 9066,” August 9, 2016,

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Executive-Order-9066.

“How Many People Died at Pearl Harbor Attack,” October 4, 2010,

http://www.howmanypeopledied.net/2010/10/how-many-people-died-at-pearl-harbor-
attack-in-1941/.

“Intelligence Throughout History: The Impact of Pearl Harbor,” December 10, 2010,
https://www.cia.gov/news-information/featured-story-archive/2010-featured-story-
archive/pearl-harbor.html.

Joel, “Effects of Economic Sanctions on Japan, 1941,” 2009, https://faroutliers.wordpress.com

/2009/06/15/effect-of-economic-sanctions-on-japan-1941/.

Morehouse, Lisa, “Farming Behind Barbed Wire: Japanese-Americans Remember WWII

Incarceration,” Food for Thought, February 19, 2017, National Public Radio,
https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/02/19/515822019/farming-behind-barbed-
wire-japanese-americans-remember-wwii-incarceration.

“American Civilization, A Brief History,” OpenStax U.S. History, May 7, 2014,

https:// openstax. org/details/books/us-history.

Reitman, Valeri, “Japan Broke U.S. Code before Pearl Harbor, Researcher Finds,” Los Angeles
Times, December 7, 2001, http://articles.latimes.com/2001/dec/07/news/mn-12562.

“Reports of Damage Received, December 7, 1941,” December 12, 1941,

http://navsource.org/Naval/damage.html.

Roosevelt, Franklin D., “Fourth Inaugural Address,” January 15, 1945,

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 https://www.history.com/topics/us-presidents/franklin-d-roosevelt/videos/franklin-d-
roosevelts-fourth-inaugural-address.

Sulzberger, C.L., World War II, American Heritage, 1966.

Thump, The History of Theodore Thornton, 2007, LDS Family History Library, Salt Lake City,
Utah.

Watts, Amanda, “Joseph Grew and American-Japanese Diplomacy Leading to Pearl Harbor,”
Constructing the Past Volume 15, Iss. 1, Article 11, 2014. http://digitalcommons.
iwu.edu/constructing/vol15/iss1/11.

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My Grandmother GenaVee Broderick, telling me about the bombing of Pearl Harbor. I have a
video recording of the interview and will cherish it always.

14
The memorial plaque at the U.S.S. Arizona

My ticket to Pearl Harbor

15
Me at Pearl Harbor on the island of Oahu

16
March 18, 2018, visiting the U.S.S. Arizona memorial. Interestingly, high schools students
from across the state of Arizona donate flower wreaths to be displayed at the memorial.

17
Oil continues to leak from the U.S.S. Arizona to this day.
Some say it is the tears of the fallen soldiers.

An aerial view of the monument sitting on top of the

sunken U.S.S. Arizona.

18
Actual photo of the bombing of Pearl Harbor

19
Family showing the islands where our relatives fought the Japanese after the bombing of Pearl
Harbor. Scot pictured here with my mother, stated that his father never would speak about the
atrocities he witnessed and participated in during those traumatic years.

20
A poem that First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt kept in her wallet during World War II, inscribed in a
memorial at Pearl Harbor.

21
Brochure from Pearl Harbor

22
Map of Pearl Harbor. The U.S.S. Utah was the only other ship that was not raised and
refurbished. It rests under the water near the North arrow.

23
U.S.S. Utah Memorial. This was the first ship struck by bombs at Pearl Harbor.

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