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Critique of Pearl Harbor and the Coming of the Pacific War
Akira Iriye in his book Pearl Harbor and the Coming Pacific War strives to "give students a deeper and more nuanced understanding of what the world was like in the late fall of 141 and what forces produced the Pearl Harbor tragedy." He argues these forces consisted of political, economic, and military components that led irrepressibly to conflict regardless of the skill or incompetence displayed by national leaders. The powerful nations involved in the escalation to December 7th were all operating from the assumption that imperialism was an effective manner in which to obtain national prosperity, security, and prestige.This premise forced a conflict between the young imperialistic nation seeking to expand (Japan) and the established nations (Britain, United States, and the Netherlands) seeking to maintain the status quo. Iriye successfully convinces the reader this conflict was irrepressible because he reveals how this imperialistic assumption caused Japan to sign the Tripartite Pact and to view an attack on the United States as self-defense while also causing the United States to embargo oil shipments to Japan and issue the Hull Note.
Iriye's book is divided into two parts with the first half documenting the 141 diplomatic negotiations between the United States and Japan.The second half is a collection of well-selected essays documenting the viewpoints of the major nations involved in the escalation to hostilities.These essays provide depth of understanding and answered the following important questions. Why did United States China policy lead to the rejection of the Japanese Plan B? Why did Japan "Go South" instead of attacking Russia in 141? How did a petroleum embargo lead to war? And most importantly, why did Japan consider imperial expansion to be self-defense? Only two important issues were not adequately addressed in these essays. Iriye states "The occupation of southern Indochina…proved to be a fatal step that ultimately led to war with the United States". Japan appears to have assumed the United States would not respond to this occupation with a total embargo, because the Vichy French government had initially invited the Japanese into their colonial possession.No record is presented documenting how the United States formulated this strict embargo policy over an occupation for which Japan had some political justification. Also many of the essays mention the "relentless economic squeeze" American embargoes placed on Japan, yet no elaboration is given on how this squeeze effected the availability of consumer goods, standards of living, or arms production.Otherwise the essays are masterful at portraying how the political and economic world order prior to the attack effected Japanese and American decision-making.
This world order impelled the Japanese to think they needed to expand their Empire or otherwise eventually become subjugated under a larger imperial power.Japan had modernized industrially very quickly in the sixty years prior to WWII by successfully copying the West. The Japanese "continued to imitate the Western races…(and Japan) imitated Western imperialism in its dealings with the Asian races." The Japanese recognized the pattern of powerful imperial nations dominating weaker imperial nations.In the 180's the United States had acquired the possessions of the weakened Spanish Empire.Japan was expanding to secure the reliable resource base necessary to further industrialize and militarize in order to avoid future domination.The fear of slowly being weakened by foreign resource embargoes spurred their adoption of the Tripartite Agreement.Japan hoped this alliance would limit British and American interference in their resource allocation through territorial expansion.
The United States attempted to limit Japanese expansion.Roosevelt used economic sanctions approximately twelve times in response to Japanese expansion from 14-141. He imposed sanctions to negate the increase in resource base derived from these invasions, thus keeping Japanese imperialistic potential constant.Given Roosevelt's strategic economic tightening on Japan, war was inevitable.
Because the United States viewed Japan solely as a rival imperialist power and not a potential economic partner, the United State issued the Hull Note.Japan was the primary threat to British, Dutch, and American exploitation of economic resources in the Pacific and would greatly increase in power if it acquired access to these resources.Roosevelt felt he could only lift the embargo if Japan completely equivocated on the occupation of China. Such an equivocation would reduce Japanese access to China's resources and signal Japan no longer planned further expansion. A free and prosperous China could also be used to counter balance an economically expanding Japan.Peace, as the Japanese envisioned it, with China was not a viable option because continued Japanese political and economic control of China would only increase the Japanese threat.Only by returning to the conditions of 11could the United States foresee long-term security for its interests in the region.This essential feature of the Hull Note clearly reveals the imperialist model pervaded decision making on both sides.
Strategic planners in Japan came to view an attack on the United States as an act of self-defense.A conflict between the powers was viewed as inevitable because Japan would only feel secure when the nation's military was large enough to deter a potential United States attack.These planners maintained that to deter such aggression, Japan would have to continue territorial expansion to obtain raw materials. Expansion would cause the United States to impose a stricter economic embargo, this would in turn cause Japan to invade the oil fields of the Dutch East Indies leading to the war the planners were attempting to prevent through deterrence. This reasoning is consistent with the imperialistic worldview.Once the 141 negotiations to end the United States embargo proved unsuccessful, the Japanese developed the best plan to achieve victory in the inevitable war.A surprise attack on Pearl Harbor would sink the battleships required for United States naval operations against Japan.
Decision-makers for the United States and Japan viewed war as inevitable because each assumed Japan could gain power, prestige, and security only through imperialistic expansion.Mr. Iriye's introduction and collected essays show how an imperialistic worldview pervaded the decision making of leaders involved, thus Pearl Harbor was the result of a pervasive political philosophy and not the product of poor political leadership.World history since Pearl Harbor has been dominated by attempts to replace the imperialist model with a new paradigm that will avoid future irrepressible conflicts.By effectively explaining that the forces leading to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor were political, economic, and military in nature Iriye succeeds in providing the reader with background information helpful in understanding contemporary history.
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