(although it shouldn't have been so much of a 'surprise' when a huge task force of the navy of a madman heads towards you!)
However, I disagree with the 'existential threat' supposition which the US allegedly posed to Japan prior to the opening of hostilities between us as expressed in the post as causing the PH attack... (I didn't watch the video, but I am an avid student of the Pearl Harbor attack and the entrance of the United States into the second world war.)
The Japanese attack on our Pearl Harbor naval base was NOT because Japan
thought of the US as an 'existential threat' which they needed to attack---
it was only one small part of a broad Japanese offensive across much of the Pacific!
They attacked our navy at Pearl Harbor to attempt to secure their 'eastern flank',
and prevent us from resisting their other offensives in southeast Asia
and other nations in the southwest pacific who were rich in resources,
such as the Dutch and English island colonies like Singapore, Thailand, and Malaya... (and modern Indonesia),
many of which were rich in resources like rubber and oil...
They were quite successful at neutralizing our navy with their attack on Pearl Harbor,
although they failed to eliminate any of our aircraft carriers there,
which were their primary targets, but none of them were in port at that time...
However, on the whole that Japanese offense was quite successful
for the first six months--- they took over most of what they wanted in the Pacific,
although they were never successful in subduing China totally...
Some of their military leaders said they thought that
'we can take all that territory in six months, and then hold out forever'---
and it worked out very well, prior to a naval battle called 'Midway'
where airplanes from three US aircraft carriers managed to sink
FOUR of the Japanese aircraft carriers which had attacked Pearl Harbor, in June 1942
Oddly enough, their naval leader Yamamoto, who had traveled in the United States
prior to the war, was personally against making war on the United States---
but as a loyal military leader to his country, initiated the planning for
a possible attack on the Pearl Harbor base in January 1941...
The outcome of that attack planned by him was very successful
at neutralizing our navy, other than the failure to sink any US aircraft carriers...
but he also foresaw that Japan could not win a long war against
the industrial might of the United States--- his best hope was for
some kind of negotiated peace early in the war--- but that didn't happen.
Later, the United States military killed Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto on April 18, 1943, during World War II in an operation known as "Operation Vengeance". US intelligence intercepted his flight itinerary, leading to a planned interception where American P-38 Lightning fighters shot down his aircraft over Bougainville Island in the Solomon Islands.
His death was a great loss to the Empire of Japan...
= new reply since forum marked as read
