Pearl Harbor: The Story and the Backstories   

We know that the attack happened on December 7, 1941. What happened on December 6? What happened in 1940, or 1930, or 1853? Does it matter? Can we understand any discrete event in history without knowing what came before? How far back do we have to go? This course traces the converging and colliding paths taken in Asia by the European colonial powers and their later followers, the United States and Japan, the rise and fall of their respective international power, their collective and respective interactions with China and Russia, their maneuvers and negotiations, threats and responses, and finally the attack itself. We will see how Japan tried to travel the path from a rural feudal monarchy to a modern industrialized state in just 75 years, a process that took England over 800 years, and the resulting confusion and dysfunction of Japanese government and society in the 1930s. We will witness the ways that domestic history and politics shaped each nation’s approach to foreign relations. We will travel the evolution of naval warfare from sailing ships through battleships to aircraft carriers. We will see the profound influence of code-breaking on war and diplomacy. We will see how ingrained culture and preconceptions about peace and war influenced decision-making and caused major historical and technological trends to be missed or dismissed. Finally, we will see how deeply each participant misunderstood and underestimated the others and why Japan embarked on a suicide mission to challenge the US in 1941 in a war they could not win.
 

We know that the attack happened on December 7, 1941. What happened on December 6? What happened in 1940, or 1930, or 1853? Does it matter? Can we understand any discrete event in history without knowing what came before? How far back do we have to go? This course traces the converging and colliding paths taken in Asia by the European colonial powers and their later followers, the United States and Japan, the rise and fall of their respective international power, their collective and respective interactions with China and Russia, their maneuvers and negotiations, threats and responses, and finally the attack itself. We will see how Japan tried to travel the path from a rural feudal monarchy to a modern industrialized state in just 75 years, a process that took England over 800 years, and the resulting confusion and dysfunction of Japanese government and society in the 1930s. We will witness the ways that domestic history and politics shaped each nation’s approach to foreign relations. We will travel the evolution of naval warfare from sailing ships through battleships to aircraft carriers. We will see the profound influence of code-breaking on war and diplomacy. We will see how ingrained culture and preconceptions about peace and war influenced decision-making and caused major historical and technological trends to be missed or dismissed. Finally, we will see how deeply each participant misunderstood and underestimated the others and why Japan embarked on a suicide mission to challenge the US in 1941 in a war they could not win.