Why was hawaii so important to the united states & why did japan bomb pearl harbor?

Emothic Von Hellsing

Hawaii is an important naval base because of its strategic location in the Pacific Ocean. Due to it's location it was a vital resupply area for ships to refuel and restock other supplies. Because of this, it gave America's Pacific fleet the ability to cover a vast area, or reach destinations faster then they would on the west coast mainland. The island itself wasn't what was actually important to Japan. But the Naval fleets station there. Japans goal when they were bombing Pearl Harbor was to destory as much of the fleet as possible, in order to keep us temporarly out of the war while they expand and fortifiy their position in the pacific. Their main target was our Aircraft Carriers stationed there. But luckly our Carriers were out on practic manuvers when they bombing happend. There bombing was effective as it extremely limited our capabilites to fight in the pacific for almost a year. Now, Anon is wrong. They didn't attack us because of an unfair deal of World War 1. Japan was under a heavy imperialism expasion ideology at this time. Japan had already invaded and taken over large amount of territory in China. Of which America was very against this, as a result we embargo about 75% of our overall export trade to them. Including very valuable resorces Japan needed such as steel and Oil. Because of this, Japan knew that America would eventually declare war on them, so they decided to attack first in the hope of preventing us from starting a war. Of course this backed fired on them.

The Oracle of Omigod

It was a naval base on the way to Asia. Japan attempted to sink our entire fleet at Pearl Harbor and almost did. They thought we would withdraw from consideration of entering the war. It had the opposite effect.

larry1

Importance of Hawaii....location, location, location, look at any map or globe....Hawaii is a major (for the Pacific) island chain that sits right in the middle of the Pacific and has great harbors. So, whichever major nation controls Hawaii controls the Pacific ocean (50% of earths surface). The Japanese attacked it so they could get rid of the American navy there, so Japan could then go on with their conquest of SE Asia, Indonesia, Eastern Pacific. They couldn't move to takeover these places with the Americans sitting powerful in the Pacific middle.

joedlh

Japan was an aggressive nation in the 1930s. It had invaded neighboring countries. The country's leadership saw the United States as a threat to its ambitions. In an effort to limit the resources that fueled Japan's aggression, the U.S. embargoed oil, gasoline, and rubber exports. The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in what they hoped would be a crushing blow to what they viewed as American imperialism. However, like Hitler, they underestimated the vast resources that the United States could bring to bear on the war effort. By bringing a reluctant U.S. into World War II, Pearl Harbor, rather than being a bold and brilliant victory, awoke the tiger and was in fact the first step toward the defeat of the Axis powers.

Joseph

Japan wanted to take over the oil fields in Indonesia. However, with Philippines, then a US Territory, located between Japan and Indonesia, any move by Japan in the direction of Indonesia would bring it in conflict with the US. With France and Holland knocked out of the war in Europe and the British busy fighting Germans and Italians almost single handed, the US Navy was the only force in the Pacific capable of standing up to Japan. The Japanese Government figured that by knocking out the US Pacific Fleet at its base at Pearl Harbor it could quickly overrun Indochina, Philippines and Indonesia. With the US fleet in ruins, Japan felt that it could then offer the US peace terms from the position of strength. As it turned out the plan nearly succeeded. Within six months after the Pearl Harbor attack Japanese forces occupied Indochina, the Philippines, forced the surrender of Singapore, and nearly run the Royal Navy out of the Indian Ocean. However, the attack at Pearl Harbor left two strategically important targets intact that together were worth more than a dozen obsolete WWI battleships that formed the US battle line: the Oahu Tank Farm that contained the fuel supply for the entire fleet and the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard. The Yard was able to patch up the damaged battleships enough for them to sail to the Mainland for major refit. In June 1942 in just 48 hours the Yard made enough repairs to USS Yorktown for her to join the Enterprise and the Hornet at Midway, where a presence of a third aircraft carrier made all the difference.

R K

pearl harbor and the US naval fleet was the only thing in the way of japanese expansion in the pacific area. it had to be eliminated.

JOHN

Hawaii had been a British colony - it's the only American state which keeps the British Union Flag upon it's State Banner. The Kingdom of Hawaii Image result for flag of hawaiien.wikipedia.org Hawaii was once an independent kingdom. (1810 - 1893) The flag was designed at the request of King Kamehameha I. It has eight stripes of white, red and blue that represent the eight main islands. The flag of Great Britain is emblazoned in the upper left corner to honor Hawaii's friendship with the British. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Hawaii Meet the real warriors of the Pacific https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiKFYTFJ_kw

james

A unsinkable air craft carrier. To launch from. Japan had no intention of taking Hawaii. It wished to cripple the American fleet so bad. That it would give them free roam of the Pacific. To do as they wished. For 9 months. They wished & did a very fast advance once the American fleet was crippled. They wished to take New Zealand. They got there 9 months. But they were stopped at Guadacanal. America got enough in there to stop them. By luck. & with the great beef trade. Australian beef was being shipped to Briton. It started being shipped to America. Our beef started going to England. Freed enough ships to supply Guadacanal. The slow American build up was over. The south rout was open. Faster than Japan expected. Next came MidWay. Japan lost its carriers there. Its battle ships were oil hogs. They had limited oil. Next came there retreat. American subs sank a number of troop transports. They could not get organized on a strong defend. They got stopped in West China before they reached those oil fields. Japan only had 12 low production oil wells in Japan. During WW2.Lack of oil limited how far there ships could maneuver. & they were oil hogs compared to most ships. But Hawaii they did not want. It was 9 months of free romper room in the Pacific they wished & a slow American build up to fortify & make kicking them out very costly. While Japan set outside American bomber range.

Fred

I'm going to buck the tide with this! I'm standing by Admiral James O. Richardson's 1940 stance: The movement of the Pacific fleet from San Diego to Hawaii is neither practical nor useful, if Japan goes to war with the U.S. Peral Harbor will be the fist point of attack. He ran war game trials and all ended in a disaster for the fleet anchored in Hawaii. All of the mock aircraft carrier attacks where from the North exactly as the Japanese fleet used. In February 1941 Commander of the Pacific Fleet Adm. Richardson insisting fleet return to San Diego, that Pearl Harbor was inadequately prepared and indefensible. Refusing to relax his view of pointlessly jeopardizing the U.S. Pacific fleet at Hawaii; Richardson was removed from duty. 10 Months later his well voiced belief of fear came true. FDR placed the Pacific Fleet in Pearl Harbor as a 'gesture' that the European colony possessions would be removed from Japanese conquest and returned to European countries. Japan bombed Pearl Harbor to gain free access to the Asian raw resources without U.S. intervention and wished to grow so powerful by the possession of that oil and rubber that no world power could confront the nation of Japan.

curtisports2

Hawaii gave the US a presence in the Pacific region, and its military installations at Pearl gave it faster response time than from the US mainland. Japan believed that if it could first incapacitate and then take control of the islands, it would be their staging area for an attack on the US mainland. Not that it ever intended or planned for a full-scale invasion, but if they could control all of the Pacific, they could harass the US into leaving them alone.

Anonymous

Besides the important Navy and Army bases there, it was the pineapple capital of the USA and important for the food exports.

Vinegar Taster

For a military base . Because we were cutting off their oil supplies .

Anon

Hawaii was important because of its strategic place in the pacific. Japan bomber Pearl Harbor because they hated us for not giving them a fair deal after World War I (they were our allies then).

Midnight Run

Hawaii was the sacrificial lamb that FDR used to involve the United States in the war in Europe. Roosevelt was elected following the stock market crash of 1929 (3 years later, actually) because he promised visions of grandeur for pulling America out of the Great Depression. Unfortunately, his New Deal programs were failures and, in some cases, even illegal. In order to cover up his failures and to stimulate employment, he began stirring up conflicts in Europe to provoke a war. He used the severe reparations against Germany by the Versailles Treaty to create animosities between Germany and Poland. As much as he tried, he was unable to sell Congress or the American public on the idea of getting involved in yet another European conflict that was of no business of the United States. On the one hand, he was reassuring voters that he supported American isolationism while, on the other hand, he was using scare tactics to convince people that it wouldn't take anything for Hitler to launch an attack on America - even though Hitler clearly stated that he had no interest in attacking America. As much as he tried between 1938 and 1941 he couldn't get the support he needed to go to war in Europe. The only way to do it was to bring the war to America - which he did by provoking the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. This is why Japan bombed Pearl Harbor - they were pushed into it by Roosevelt. And this makes Roosevelt a traitor to his country.