“TORA!TORA! TORA!,” yelled the Japanese commander, signaling the Japanese pilots to attack. With those three words, the Japanese began to assail the island of Pearl Harbor with their bombs.
The film TORA! TORA! TORA! is boring and the acting is banal, however it is an extremely accurate portrayal of a historic event. This movie claims to be one of the most spectacular action films ever made. It stars James Robards as General Short, and was nominated for 5 Academy Awards. The movie begins with the Japanese plotting their strategy for their coming attack on America and then switches back and forth between events in America and Japan prior to the attack. The second half of the movie is when the action begins with the attack on Pearl Harbor.
The reason this film bored me was because more than one half of the film was spent on pure dialog, no action or anything to really keep me engrossed. Also, the only recognizable actor in the film was Jason Robards and most of the acting was poorly done. However, for this movie having been made in 1970, the action scenes during the actual attack on Pearl Harbor were somewhat realistic.
I cannot recommend this film for entertainment purposes, but if you are looking for a movie that is directly related to this historical event and is accurate with it’s facts, then TORA!TORA!TORA! is the film you are looking for.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Friday, October 24, 2008
Contraversial Issue
The United State’s use of the atomic bomb on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, Japan, in August of 1942, is a controversial issue connected to the December 7, 1941 Japanese attack on America’s Pearl Harbor. Americans opinions are split on whether the decision to use nuclear weapons on Japan was the appropriate retaliation for Japan’s assault of Pearl Harbor.
An editorial from the Las Vegas Review Journal written on the 60 year anniversary of the U.S. nuclear attack on Japan acclaims the decision. However, Fred E. Foldvary, Senior Editor of The Progress Journal considers the bombing a “historic blunder.” The Editor of the Las Vegas Review Journal states in his editorial that it would have taken months and probably years to elicit surrender from Japan just by continuing the “submarine blockade of food going into Japan, and the firebombing of Japanese cities. Mr. Foldvary, of The Progress Journal, makes the opposing point that the Japanese did not surrender because the U.S. demanded an unconditional surrender and would not negotiate terms with the Japanese. The Japanese government wanted to be able to keep their emperor as ruler, but the United States would not allow that according to Fred Foldvary.
The Las Vegas Review article makes the point that with a full on war against Japan, the ultimate death toll for both the United States and Japan could have been in the millions. Instead U.S. soldiers were spared and only 300,000 Japanese lost their lives. Mr. Foldvary of The Progress Reports disagrees with these figures. He reports in his editorial that a “worst case scenario for death with a Japanese invasion would be less than 50,000. He states that those who “defend the atomic bombings use grossly inflated numbers of potential casualties.”
Both of these editorials have facts supporting their opinion that contradict each other. Those who support the U.S. use of the atomic bomb on Japan feel that this was the only way to end the conflict with this country and to keep the overall death toll low. The opposition states that America should have negotiated further with Japan and allowed them to make some of the choices for the peace treaty.
Works Cited
“Editorial: Hiroshima Bombing Anniversary.” Las Vegas Review Journal. 6 Aug. 2005. http://www.reviewjournal.com/1vrj_home/2005/Aug-06-Sat-2005/opinion/2794069.html.
Foldvary, Fred. “Hiroshima, mon horreur.” The Progress Report. 21, Oct. 2008.
http://www.progress.org/2005/fold415.htm.
An editorial from the Las Vegas Review Journal written on the 60 year anniversary of the U.S. nuclear attack on Japan acclaims the decision. However, Fred E. Foldvary, Senior Editor of The Progress Journal considers the bombing a “historic blunder.” The Editor of the Las Vegas Review Journal states in his editorial that it would have taken months and probably years to elicit surrender from Japan just by continuing the “submarine blockade of food going into Japan, and the firebombing of Japanese cities. Mr. Foldvary, of The Progress Journal, makes the opposing point that the Japanese did not surrender because the U.S. demanded an unconditional surrender and would not negotiate terms with the Japanese. The Japanese government wanted to be able to keep their emperor as ruler, but the United States would not allow that according to Fred Foldvary.
The Las Vegas Review article makes the point that with a full on war against Japan, the ultimate death toll for both the United States and Japan could have been in the millions. Instead U.S. soldiers were spared and only 300,000 Japanese lost their lives. Mr. Foldvary of The Progress Reports disagrees with these figures. He reports in his editorial that a “worst case scenario for death with a Japanese invasion would be less than 50,000. He states that those who “defend the atomic bombings use grossly inflated numbers of potential casualties.”
Both of these editorials have facts supporting their opinion that contradict each other. Those who support the U.S. use of the atomic bomb on Japan feel that this was the only way to end the conflict with this country and to keep the overall death toll low. The opposition states that America should have negotiated further with Japan and allowed them to make some of the choices for the peace treaty.
Works Cited
“Editorial: Hiroshima Bombing Anniversary.” Las Vegas Review Journal. 6 Aug. 2005. http://www.reviewjournal.com/1vrj_home/2005/Aug-06-Sat-2005/opinion/2794069.html.
Foldvary, Fred. “Hiroshima, mon horreur.” The Progress Report. 21, Oct. 2008.
http://www.progress.org/2005/fold415.htm.
Friday, October 17, 2008
Reflect and Reconsider
When we were instructed to choose a subject that we could write about for an entire semester, on a blog, the three topics that I began to think about were football, the war on drugs and the attack on Pearl Harbor. Out of those three, I chose the one I was most engrossed in and that was Pearl Harbor. Setting up the blog was somewhat difficult since I don’t have high speed internet and I am not exactly computer savvy. I learned that the most efficient way to complete my assignment for the week was to write it in a word document and then cut and paste into the blog.
When I began to research this topic, I knew quite a bit of information about the attack on Pearl Harbor, but had little knowledge about the conspiracy theory. This assignment has given me the chance to study the conspiracy idea more in depth, which I wouldn’t have done otherwise. I was surprised at how solid the facts were for there being a conspiracy. It was amazing to read about the number of warnings our government received prior to the attack that they hid from military officials on Pearl Harbor. At first, I was shocked to find that the United States government would go to such great lengths to rally the public to support our entrance into World War II. But after further reading on the subject, I discovered how dishonest our government was at this time.
From my research about the conspiracy of the attack on Pearl Harbor, I no longer have any doubts that the U.S. government covered up the warnings and allowed the Japanese to attack Pearl Harbor. As of right now I am wondering why textbooks don’t mention the true account of Pearl Harbor and how it really wasn’t a surprise. The second item I am pondering is whether FDR’s presidency was totally corrupt or just in this instance. In the second quarter I plan to investigate the U.S. retaliation against Japan.
When I began to research this topic, I knew quite a bit of information about the attack on Pearl Harbor, but had little knowledge about the conspiracy theory. This assignment has given me the chance to study the conspiracy idea more in depth, which I wouldn’t have done otherwise. I was surprised at how solid the facts were for there being a conspiracy. It was amazing to read about the number of warnings our government received prior to the attack that they hid from military officials on Pearl Harbor. At first, I was shocked to find that the United States government would go to such great lengths to rally the public to support our entrance into World War II. But after further reading on the subject, I discovered how dishonest our government was at this time.
From my research about the conspiracy of the attack on Pearl Harbor, I no longer have any doubts that the U.S. government covered up the warnings and allowed the Japanese to attack Pearl Harbor. As of right now I am wondering why textbooks don’t mention the true account of Pearl Harbor and how it really wasn’t a surprise. The second item I am pondering is whether FDR’s presidency was totally corrupt or just in this instance. In the second quarter I plan to investigate the U.S. retaliation against Japan.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
What Warnings did Our Government Recieve?
The conventional thought in the United States is that the clamity of Pearl Harbor was a complete surprise. Americans are taught to believe that we were hit without warning and that there was no way to prepare a fight against the attacking Japanese. Textbooks and encyclopedias all give the same story of the peaceful Hawaiian harbor being destroyed by the Japanese in a matter of a few hours on a lazy Sunday morning. For instance, in the book The Story of America , the author states that “the Japanese struck Pearl Harbor without warning” and “The Americans caught completely by surprise, could offer only feeble resistance.” Unfortunately, this is not the whole truth. While the average Navy Seaman, Army Private, Airman, Marine and civilian had no idea what was coming, those in authority in America’s government did, starting with the President.
The U.S. had many reports from secret agents in foreign countries that the Japanese were planning to attack the United States. Most of the intelligence information specifically states that the attack would occur at Pearl Harbor. Reports of a planned attack even came from our own U.S. Ambassador to Japan (Persico 2001).
For instance, on January 27, 1941, Dr. Ricardo Rivera-Schreiber, who was the Peruvian envoy in Tokyo, informed Max Bishop, Secretary of the U. S. Embassy, that his spies had told him about a planned attack on Pearl Harbor. Bishop immediately told the U.S. Ambassador to Japan, Joseph C. Grew, who knew Schreiber well and felt that “he would never mislead me in anything he might pass on to me” (Prange 1981). Grew sent a wire to Washington D.C. with the information he had been given. No one in Washington believed the report. They thought it was a wild rumor and that Japan could never “pull off a surprise attack against the United States”(Tweeten 2005).
In July of 1941, a military attaché in Mexico reported to Washington that his sources had seen the Japanese building special small submarines to be used in attack on the American Navy in Pearl Harbor. The Mexican attache’ also stated that the Japanese were practicing surfacing and submerging the small subs (Willey 2005). This report was also ignored.
Also in July, a famous British secret agent named Dusko Popov, whose code name was “Tricycle,” gave information to the FBI that an attacke on Pearly Harbor was coming soon. The FBI told him that his information sounded like a set-up. They said it was “too precise, too complete to be believed,,,it sounds like a trap” (Willey 2005). A meeting wa set up between Popov and J. Edgar Hoover, the Director of the FBI, but Hoover kept the information to himself. (Persico 2001).
In addition, another secret agent told CBS newscaster Eric Severeid that the Korean underground intelligence had positive proof that Pearl Harbor would be attacked before Christmas. One spy had actually seen Admiral Yamamoto’s plans. This Korean spy’s name was Kisoo Hann and he spoke personally to a U.S. senator named Guy Gillette. Guy Gillette then took this information to the State Department, the Army and Navy Intelligence Office and the President. No one did anything with that information either (Willey 2005).
In October of 1941, the Soviet Union’s most famous spy, Richard Sorge told the Kremlin that Pearl Harbor would be attacked within a few months. Moscow informed the United States (Willey 2005). Sorge was caught in Japan and then hung (Prange 1986).
The anti-Nazi German Ambassador to the United States, Dr. Hans Thomsen, on November 13, 1941, gave a report to U.S. Intelligence that the Japanese would be attacking Pearly Harbor (Willey 2005).
These are just a few of the reports the American government received from secret intelligence sources. No one in authority in the U.S. government made these threats against Pearl Harbor known to those stationed at the base in Hawaii.
Sources used:
Persico, Joseph. Roosevelt’s Secret War. New York: Random House, 2001.
Prange, Gordon. At Dawn We Slept. New York: Penguin Putnam Inc., 1981.
Prange, Gordon. Pearl Harbor. New York: Penguin Putman Inc., 1986.
Tweten, Stone. “Road to Pearl Harbor.” 19 Jan 2005.
http://history.Acused.edu/gen/WW2Timeline/RD-Pearl.html.
Willey, Mark. Pearl Harbor Mother of All Conspiracies. 19 Jan. 2005.
http://geocities.com/Pentagon/6315/pearl.html.
The U.S. had many reports from secret agents in foreign countries that the Japanese were planning to attack the United States. Most of the intelligence information specifically states that the attack would occur at Pearl Harbor. Reports of a planned attack even came from our own U.S. Ambassador to Japan (Persico 2001).
For instance, on January 27, 1941, Dr. Ricardo Rivera-Schreiber, who was the Peruvian envoy in Tokyo, informed Max Bishop, Secretary of the U. S. Embassy, that his spies had told him about a planned attack on Pearl Harbor. Bishop immediately told the U.S. Ambassador to Japan, Joseph C. Grew, who knew Schreiber well and felt that “he would never mislead me in anything he might pass on to me” (Prange 1981). Grew sent a wire to Washington D.C. with the information he had been given. No one in Washington believed the report. They thought it was a wild rumor and that Japan could never “pull off a surprise attack against the United States”(Tweeten 2005).
In July of 1941, a military attaché in Mexico reported to Washington that his sources had seen the Japanese building special small submarines to be used in attack on the American Navy in Pearl Harbor. The Mexican attache’ also stated that the Japanese were practicing surfacing and submerging the small subs (Willey 2005). This report was also ignored.
Also in July, a famous British secret agent named Dusko Popov, whose code name was “Tricycle,” gave information to the FBI that an attacke on Pearly Harbor was coming soon. The FBI told him that his information sounded like a set-up. They said it was “too precise, too complete to be believed,,,it sounds like a trap” (Willey 2005). A meeting wa set up between Popov and J. Edgar Hoover, the Director of the FBI, but Hoover kept the information to himself. (Persico 2001).
In addition, another secret agent told CBS newscaster Eric Severeid that the Korean underground intelligence had positive proof that Pearl Harbor would be attacked before Christmas. One spy had actually seen Admiral Yamamoto’s plans. This Korean spy’s name was Kisoo Hann and he spoke personally to a U.S. senator named Guy Gillette. Guy Gillette then took this information to the State Department, the Army and Navy Intelligence Office and the President. No one did anything with that information either (Willey 2005).
In October of 1941, the Soviet Union’s most famous spy, Richard Sorge told the Kremlin that Pearl Harbor would be attacked within a few months. Moscow informed the United States (Willey 2005). Sorge was caught in Japan and then hung (Prange 1986).
The anti-Nazi German Ambassador to the United States, Dr. Hans Thomsen, on November 13, 1941, gave a report to U.S. Intelligence that the Japanese would be attacking Pearly Harbor (Willey 2005).
These are just a few of the reports the American government received from secret intelligence sources. No one in authority in the U.S. government made these threats against Pearl Harbor known to those stationed at the base in Hawaii.
Sources used:
Persico, Joseph. Roosevelt’s Secret War. New York: Random House, 2001.
Prange, Gordon. At Dawn We Slept. New York: Penguin Putnam Inc., 1981.
Prange, Gordon. Pearl Harbor. New York: Penguin Putman Inc., 1986.
Tweten, Stone. “Road to Pearl Harbor.” 19 Jan 2005.
http://history.Acused.edu/gen/WW2Timeline/RD-Pearl.html.
Willey, Mark. Pearl Harbor Mother of All Conspiracies. 19 Jan. 2005.
http://geocities.com/Pentagon/6315/pearl.html.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Survey Results
In my survey I Posed 5 questions relevant to my topic:
1. Do you believe the attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise to our government?
2. Would it taint your opinion of the United States government if you found out that they exploited the soldiers at Pearl Harbor by letting the attack happen without warning them?
3. Was it right for the US to retaliate against Japan by dropping the atomic bombs?
4. Would the United States have entered WWII if the events of Pearl Harbor had not occurred?
I chose question # 1 because I wanted to see if people knew about the many warnings the government got prior to the Japanese attack. Question # 2 was chosen because it seems like many individuals now days are quick to believe that the US government is corrupt. The third question regarding our retaliation was picked because a lot of Americans feel it was wrong for the US to retaliate against Afghanistan and Iraq and I was wondering if they felt the same in this instance. I chose the final question because there is evidence that Franklin D. Roosevelt allowed Pearl Harbor to happen in order to enter WWII with the support of the American citizens.
I expected yes answers to the first two questions and no as an answer to the third one. I was unsure of what people’s opinion would be on the fourth. I polled eleven individuals, six were adults, two of these were women, and all were over the age of 40. The remaining five were students under the age of 22. Two were male college students and three were in high school, and two of the high school students were female.
Everyone’s answers to the first two questions were exactly what I predicted. However, in the third question regarding bombing Japan, the adults all stated that they f felt it was right to retaliate against the Japanese, but the students disagreed. Two of the adults stated that the US would not have entered WWII if Pearl Harbor had not been attacked, and everyone else believed we would have gone to war eventually even without the Japanese attacking Pearl Harbor.
In my future blogs I would go more in depth about the warnings that the US government received prior to the attack to show the evidence that this was not a surprise. I could also show the proof of how the President wanted to participate in WWII but could not without the support of the American people.
1. Do you believe the attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise to our government?
2. Would it taint your opinion of the United States government if you found out that they exploited the soldiers at Pearl Harbor by letting the attack happen without warning them?
3. Was it right for the US to retaliate against Japan by dropping the atomic bombs?
4. Would the United States have entered WWII if the events of Pearl Harbor had not occurred?
I chose question # 1 because I wanted to see if people knew about the many warnings the government got prior to the Japanese attack. Question # 2 was chosen because it seems like many individuals now days are quick to believe that the US government is corrupt. The third question regarding our retaliation was picked because a lot of Americans feel it was wrong for the US to retaliate against Afghanistan and Iraq and I was wondering if they felt the same in this instance. I chose the final question because there is evidence that Franklin D. Roosevelt allowed Pearl Harbor to happen in order to enter WWII with the support of the American citizens.
I expected yes answers to the first two questions and no as an answer to the third one. I was unsure of what people’s opinion would be on the fourth. I polled eleven individuals, six were adults, two of these were women, and all were over the age of 40. The remaining five were students under the age of 22. Two were male college students and three were in high school, and two of the high school students were female.
Everyone’s answers to the first two questions were exactly what I predicted. However, in the third question regarding bombing Japan, the adults all stated that they f felt it was right to retaliate against the Japanese, but the students disagreed. Two of the adults stated that the US would not have entered WWII if Pearl Harbor had not been attacked, and everyone else believed we would have gone to war eventually even without the Japanese attacking Pearl Harbor.
In my future blogs I would go more in depth about the warnings that the US government received prior to the attack to show the evidence that this was not a surprise. I could also show the proof of how the President wanted to participate in WWII but could not without the support of the American people.
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