They received many warnings, the last from the Rusian Minister of Foreign Affairs, telling them that the Japanese would attack, but they ignored them!. Why !?Www@QuestionHome@Com
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Position:Home>History> Why do you think the USA authorities were caught by surprise in Pearl Harbor ?Question: Why do you think the USA authorities were caught by surprise in Pearl Harbor !? They received many warnings, the last from the Rusian Minister of Foreign Affairs, telling them that the Japanese would attack, but they ignored them!. Why !?Www@QuestionHome@Com
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Good question!. Perhaps they were toooooooo busy making business, making money and mo'h money to pay attention to what they considered to be "those little miserable yellow guys" I agree with those who say that it was incompetence, but at such degree it could practically be called treason It is my understanding, according to an article on the readers' digest, that indeed, Livitnov, the Russian Minister warned the authorities IN PEARL HARBOR that he was sure that the Japanese would attack at any moment!. The yanks said that it would be insanity to do so, and the Russian said that indeed, it would be madness, but that they would attack anyway They didWww@QuestionHome@Com Part of it was the fact of where!. Many experts expected the attack to occur at the Philippines, not Pearl Harbor!. The Philippines was closer to the Japanese base of power causing the US fleet to come to Japan and fight under unfavorable conditions!. No expected the Japanese to go thousands of miles to attack Pearl!. The Japanese themselves considered it a risk, expecting at least one carrier sunk!. Remember a fleet will only go as far as the shortest ranged ship, in this care the destroyers which were not able to complete such a journey!. They also knew that the Japanese plans for war in the Pacific involved the US fleet coming to them!. also, Pearl Harbor did receive a warning before the attack occurred, but the message was not passed onto an officer until after the attack had started!.Www@QuestionHome@Com We really weren't surprised (well, maybe the general public was, but the politicians and generals were not)!. They knew the Japanese were planning an attack, just not exactly where or when!. The base at Pearl Harbor had been placed on "high alert" in October and told that a Japanese attack was possible!. The military had increased security on Oahu to guard against spying and sabotage, both likely precursors to an attack!. The biggest reason the Japanese attack was so successful was because we failed to launch our fighters when we detected the incoming Japanese planes on radar!. The officer in charge wrongly assumed the radar contacts were American planes coming from the West Coast!. That mistake probably cost thousands of lives!. If we had scrambled fighters right away, we would have been able to shoot down many more Japanese planes, and while some ships and land targets still would have been hit, certainly others would have been spared!. As it was, most of our planes were destroyed on the ground! That detail always struck me as very odd!. If the base was on "high alert", the radar station operators should have reacted very differently!. They should have attempted to make radio contact with the incoming planes, and if that failed, they should have scrambled fighters!. Admiral Kimmel and General Short, the commanders at Pearl Harbor, were blamed for not doing enough to defend the base!. They were both discharged from the military for this failure!. They argued that they had not been given enough information by Washington, so that is why the base wasn't better prepared!. Many people believe there was a conspiracy, and that FDR set Pearl Harbor up to be attacked as an excuse to get the US into World War II!. I don't believe it; I think it was a combination of poor communication, disorganization, and incompetence, not a conspiracy!. So to get back to your question, our leaders weren't surprised that Pearl Harbor was attacked, but they were probably surprised at how successful the Japanese attack was!.Www@QuestionHome@Com first the u!.s!. knew the japanese would attack them!. however they didnt know it would happen at pearl harbor because of its isolation and the u!.s!. had no clue the japanese could orchestrate and attack using just aircraft launched from carriers!. another reason the attack was so successful was because the u!.s!. believed the water at pearl harbor was to shallow for a torpedo attack on its ship!. they were partly correct!.!.!.before the attack the japanese had to develop a new torpedo just for the pearl harbor attack!. because of these things the u!.s!. believed japan would attack its forces in the phillipines!.Www@QuestionHome@Com Some of it was racism!. No one thought that the Japanese were brave enough, or competent enough, to attack the entire U!.S!. Navy in its own home base!. The U!.S!. expected the Japanese to attack in the Philippine Islands, which were closer to Japan!.Www@QuestionHome@Com It's not so much that they were ignored, they were first trying to figure out if they were legit, and then they took their sweet time before attempting to notify them of an impending attack!. Once it was ready to code, it was too late!.Www@QuestionHome@Com They just wouldnt listen !.Billy Mitchell told them almost a blueprint of the attack even within a week of when they just laughed at him I always thought they wanted their own war before joining the one in EuropeWww@QuestionHome@Com |