Why Did Planning for An attack on Pearl Harbor Begin
Very Early in 1941 Answers
1. Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe argued for more negotiations and possible
concessions to avert war. Military leaders like Hideki Tojo, Sugiyama, and IJN
Chief of Staff Osami Nagano argued time had run out and that additional
negotiations would be pointless. They urged swift military actions against all
American and European colonies in Southeast Asia and Hawaii. Tojo argued
yielding to the American demand to withdraw troops would wipe out all the fruits
of the Second Sino-Japanese war, depress Army morale, endanger Manchukuo and
jeopardize control of Korea and so argued that doing nothing was the same as
defeat and a loss of face.
2. On October 16, 1941, Konoe resigned and proposed Prince Naruhiko
Higashikuni, who was also the choice of the Army and the Navy, as his successor.
Hirohito choose Tojo instead, worried, as he told Konoe, about having the
Imperial House being held responsible for a war against Western powers.
3. On November 3, 1941, Admiral Osami Nagano presented a complete plan for the attack
on Pearl Harbor to Emperor Hirohito.
4. At the Imperial Conference on November 5, Emperor Hirohito approved the
plan for a war against the United States, Great Britain and Holland, scheduled
to start at the beginning of December if an acceptable diplomatic settlement
were not achieved before then.
5. On November 30, 1941, Prince Nobuhito Takamatsu warned his brother,
Hirohito, that the Navy felt the Empire could not fight more than two years
against the United States and wished to avoid war.
6. After consulting with Koichi Kido (who advised him to take his time until
he was convinced) and Tojo, the Emperor called Shigetaro Shimada and Nagano who
reassured him war would be successful.
7. On December 1, Hirohito finally approved a "war against United
States, Great Britain and Holland", during another Imperial Conference, to
commence with a surprise attack on the US Pacific Fleet at its main forward base
at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.
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License.
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July 1941, the Imperial Japanese Navy headquarters informed Emperor
Hirohito that its reserve bunker oil would be exhausted within two years
if a new source was not found. On September 6, 1941, at the second
Imperial Conference concerning attacks on the Western colonies in Asia,
Japanese leaders met to consider the attack plans prepared by Imperial
General Headquarters, one day after the emperor had reprimanded General
Sugiyama about the lack of success in China, and the speculated low
chances of victory against the Western powers.