How a Harvard-educated Japanese Admiral planned Pearl Harbour attack on US

India Today

4 days ago

In what could be a defining moment in the Russia-Ukraine war, Kyiv launched one of the biggest drone attacks under Operation Spider's Web and struck 4,000 km deep in Russian territory, destroying 41 strategic bombers, some of which were reportedly aircraft capable of carrying nuclear weapons. The Russian media and several pro-Kremlin bloggers referred to the attacks as Russia's "Pearl Harbour" moment, referring to the Imperial Japanese Navy's surprise attack on the US Pacific Fleet in Hawaii in 1941.advertisementBefore we dive into the historic Pearl Harbour attack, here's why the latest drone attack by Ukraine is being compared to the World War II event.In the special forces' operation on Sunday, which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said took "over a year and a half" of planning, Ukraine hit two Russian air bases in Olenya, Murmansk and Irkutsk, Siberia – over 6,000 km apart in different time zones.
Such was the magnitude of the drone attack that over 30% of Russia's bomber fleet — Tu-95 and Tu-22s and A-50 airborne radars — was destroyed, suggest reports.Like the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbour, this drone attack could also change the course of the war. The drone attack comes even as Russia hit Kyiv with missiles last week after Russian President Vladimir Putin's plane was reportedly targeted by Ukraine, a surprise escalation to the war after talks of a ceasefire.HOW US AND JAPAN ENDED ON OPPOSITE SIDES IN WWIIadvertisementThe US foreign policy in the late 1930s hinged on support for China. However, at the beginning of the next decade, in 1941, Japan was deeply embroiled in a war with China to expand its empire across Southeast Asia, mainly for resources such as oil, metals, and rubber.As per American policy then, aggression against China by Japan meant that Japan would come into direct conflict with the United States. Simultaneously, the Japanese had entered into an alliance with the Axis powers — Germany and Italy.In the wake of these developments, the US, along with Britain and the Netherlands, imposed severe economic sanctions, including an oil embargo, which threatened Japan's military operations, which by July 1941 had occupied all of Indochina. The US government by this time had severed all commercial and financial relations with Japan.WHY JAPANESE ADMIRAL PLANNED PEARL HARBOUR ATTACKJapanese leaders, particularly Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, believed a pre-emptive strike against the US Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbour, Oahu, Hawaii, would not only hold back the US naval power long enough for Japan to secure its Asian conquests, but also force Washington into negotiations with Tokyo.Yamamoto, who had studied English at Harvard and served as a naval attache in Washington, understood America's industrial potential but gambled on a full-blown knockout.advertisementAs per Seymour Morris Jr, the author of 'American History Revised: 200 Startling Facts That Never Made to the Textbooks', if Washington had done some serious background checking into Yamamoto's student days when he was a student at Harvard from 1919 to 1921, they would have uncovered useful clues to his psychological makeup, mentions Harvard Magazine's official website.The magazine makes mention of a psychological trait of Yamamoto, quoting Morris, who said, "When they (Yamamoto's classmates) introduced him to the game of poker, he became a fanatical poker player who would stay up all night, winning hand after hand. And what did he do with his poker winnings – lead the good life? No, not at all: he hitchhiked around the country during the summer, exploring America". The Harvard Magazine also mentions that years later, as a naval attache at the Japanese embassy in Washington DC, and still a compulsive poker player, Yamamoto gambled with members of the US military. "Spurred on by his victories," Morris wrote, "he developed contempt for the mental agility of his American naval opponents at the poker table."Two decades later, as the admiral of the Japanese navy, Yamamato's strategy was akin to playing a hand of poker — a surprise aerial assault on Pearl Harbour, using carrier-based planes. Japanese pilots began training extensively in shallow-water torpedo attacks, as Pearl Harbour was only 40-feet deep.advertisementUS FLEET AT PEARL HARBOUR CAUGHT BY SURPRISEOn December 7, 1941, the war drums rolled and the first wave of Japanese attacks came, lasting almost 50 minutes, from 7:55 am to 8:45 am. The ships, which were moored together, made them easy targets for the Japanese. Over 180 Japanese warplanes from 6 aircraft carriers struck US airfields and battleships in the first wave of attacks.During the attack, a 1,760-pound armour-piercing bomb hit the USS Arizona's magazine, causing a massive explosion, killing 1,177 sailors. Soon, torpedoes sank the USS Oklahoma, killing 429 naval men. Just five minutes later, a second wave of attacks came with over 160 warplanes that targeted the remaining vessels, the shipyards, and other docks.The US intelligence reports suggest they suspected a conflict soon after sanctions against Japan, but they were caught off guard by such a massive assault. An Army radar operator spotted the incoming planes but was told they were expected to be US B-17s.advertisementThe attack left 2,403 US soldiers dead, and 1,178 wounded. A total of eight US battleships were sunk in the attack and 188 aircraft were destroyed.The next day, on December 8, 1941, the United States entered the Second World War, declaring a war on Japan. Four days later, Axis powers Germany and Italy declared war on the US on December 11.The Pearl Harbour attack finally made the US join World War II and changed the course of the war. The attack on its Pacific Fleet also contributed to the US emerging as a global leader in the coming decade. As the OG Pearl Harbour changed the course of history, the "modern Pearl Harbour" could change the shape of things to come.