Pearl Harbor Myths Debunked
The stories people tell about Pearl Harbor aren’t always entirely accurate. Historians are certainly skeptical of some of the presumptions linked to the attack nowadays. The National World War II Museum’s Rob Citino has laid out his objections to particular “facts” we tell ourselves about Pearl Harbor. We need to be careful in making claims about the complicated, he argued, otherwise, we risk misinterpreting the nation’s past.
Myth: The U.S. was a "sleeping giant"
The assault on Pearl Harbor was a terrible shock for the U.S. and its citizens, but it didn’t occur in a vacuum. The attack was launched in secret, true, but the odds of America and Japan coming to blows had been rising year on year for a long time.
“The attack on Pearl Harbor was a crime, a military attack that took place without a declaration of war,” Rob Citino told Time. “But at the same time, all these stories are very, very complex.”
Japan had expansive aims
For decades, the two nations had been standing in opposition to each other. One main of the main sources of conflicts in the 1930s was that the Japanese had been acting in an antagonistic way toward China. Japan seemed intent on expansion, and their Chinese neighbor was in their sights.
Taking over parts of that country would have economic and demographic benefits for Japan, and all of this came to a head in 1937. The Japanese declared war. Opposing Japan’s hostile approach towards China, the Americans then got involved in the messy situation.
The U.S. stood in opposition to Japan
They imposed a series of sanctions and embargoes on Japan, hoping to bruise its economy. If the U.S. could limit its access to money and vital supplies, the thinking went, Japan would have to pull back a bit. But as things turned out, that plan failed spectacularly.
Far from being discouraged to expand, the Japanese, if anything, were emboldened to carry on. Officials from both sides engaged in months of talks, but no firm resolutions were ever reached. In hindsight, it can seem like war was basically unavoidable.
Definitely not a "sleeping giant"
All of this challenges another widely believed myth about America being a "sleeping giant" before Pearl Harbor. But what does that actually mean, and where exactly did this phrase come from?
The story is that Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku, who orchestrated the Pearl Harbor assault, said it after the attack had taken place. The Japanese commander supposedly said, “I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.”