Pearl Harbor : The Missing Motive

Pearl Harbor: The Missing Motive examines the Japanese political calculations that led to the surprise bombing of the US Pacific Fleet in Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. In addition, this book's long term scope makes it a good background brief for today's Pacific hemisphere headlines, from Washington to Tokyo to Singapore. Although daring and stunningly effective in the short term, the attack on Pearl Harbor was a futile military operation. The Japanese started a war they knew they would lose, and did so in a way guaranteed to enrage the enemy. Imperial Fleet Commander Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, for years an adamant opponent of war with the United States, began insisting on the attack. Why? Explanations span the range between mania and sincere wrongheadedness. In any case, even a man so powerful would need a level of outside approval for such a mission. Where would he find that support, and for what reasons? Japan has been a polity for over seventeen hundred years. Precedent counts for much. Getting to a good account for the Pearl attack requires a bit of background material. This includes a recapitulation of Japanese history, including Japan's relations with its neighbors. Today Japan still has those same neighbors, and many of the same tensions that proximity brings. Oil is the macguffin of the narrative, and there is a lot of it in Southeast Asia. A broad history of that area is included, useful enough information with that part of the world likely to require a positive strategic relationship with the United States in the coming decades. The American oil embargo of July 1941 meant that Japan had only eighteen months before it ran out of oil and ceased to be a modern industrial nation. The Japanese had either to persuade the Americans to lift the embargo, or to obtain a new source of oil. The response chosen, the attack on Pearl, was not the only option the Japanese had. For example, the Japanese could have gotten oil from Southeast Asia in ways that were unlikely to start a war with the United States. Currently the Japanese have been debating increasing the role of the armed forces. The renunciation of offensive war made at the end of WWII was much more significant than many realize. Militarists were a driving force behind the attack on Pearl, although they did not understand their role in the matter. The roots of militarism were deep, and that is why today's debate is so freighted. Pearl Harbor: The Missing Motive uncovers a surprising new explanation for one of the worst and most shocking attacks on US soil. The forces involved are still active and relevant today.