In the early morning of December 7, 1941, the Japanese Navy made a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, the base of the U.S. Navy Pacific Fleet, in Hawaii, and the airfields of the U.S. Army and Navy.
The Pearl Harbor incident is considered to be the symbol of the outbreak of the Pacific War, and Isoroku Yamamoto, commander of the Japanese Combined Fleet, was the initiator of the "Pearl Harbor Incident." Today, let's talk about why Yamamoto Isoroku dared to wake up the sleeping giant lion of the US Navy by hitting the stone with an egg, and how he completed this sneak attack that shocked the world step by step? 
Background to the eventIn 1939, Japan set two directions for its future operations, "southward" and "northward." Initially, Japan coveted the abundant resources of the Soviet Union and drew up a strategic plan to invade the Soviet Union and occupy Siberia. However, the Japanese Army, which was originally full of ambition, suffered a defeat in the Normenhan area, and never dared to cross the Leichi again. Since the northern battlefield was lost, it could only plan to march south, and the ambitions of the wolves of Japan at that time can be seen from this, and they were preparing for the seizure of the world in the future. At that time, there were colonies in the Nanyang region of Britain, the Netherlands, the United States, and other countries, which added many difficulties to Japan's plan to go south. 
At the same time, since Japan and the United States pursue completely antagonistic East Asia policies, there will inevitably be a collision of interests between the two countries in East Asia. Finally, after a year and a half of hesitation, in 1941, with a shortage of oil and energy, and the bloody battle of the Chinese on the Chinese battlefield, the Japanese Navy formulated a plan for a sneak attack on Pearl Harbor and quickly put it into action. As mentioned earlier, Japan's southward expansion meant that it would have to stand on the opposite side of the United States, Britain, and the Netherlands, because these countries had colonies in the South Seas. In order to break through the sanctions imposed by the United States and the West, and for the grand blueprint of going south, Yamamoto clearly realized that only by destroying the US maritime forces in one fell swoop could Japan's plan to move south be smoothly implemented and lay the foundation for avoiding naval defeat in the future. 
Surprise attack on Pearl HarborIn order to confuse the United States, Japan put on a low posture of wanting to negotiate peace until the start of the sneak attack, so as to test the US reaction to Japan's southward move to Southeast Asia. In reality, however, Japan had already prepared the telegram and did not send it to the US side until the moment before the start of the sneak attack. This move is obviously an indiscriminate act, but in the eyes of the Japanese side, in order to achieve the combat goal, what is this little trick? During a spring Xi exercise in 1940, when Yamamoto saw the "heroic posture" of the Japanese air force flying vigorously in the sky, he excitedly said to the people around him: "The training is very effective, and we are confident that we will win this local war!" "On December 7, 1941, the Imperial Japanese Navy launched a surprise attack, bombing warships and related military targets at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii by means of aircraft bombing. More than 350 Japanese planes launched attacks on the Pearl Harbor Naval Base and the ships anchored at the base, dropped thousands of bombs, fired torpedoes at battleships represented by the "Arizona," and successfully sank the battleship "Arizona." 
In the face of the sudden attack, the US military was unexpectedly defenseless, they were awakened by the loud ** sound, and hurriedly counterattacked. The entire preemptive attack ended within 90 minutes, and in this short period of more than an hour, the Japanese sneak attack achieved major results, sinking four battleships and two destroyers, destroying hundreds of aircraft, and killing and wounding countless people. About 2,400 Americans were killed and another 1,250 injured in the attack. This day has become a permanent wound for the US Navy and a shame for the US Navy. After the attack, Japan officially declared war on the United States. The next day, Roosevelt, then the United States, delivered his famous "national humiliation" speech, followed by the formal signing of the declaration of war against the Japanese Empire. In the following days, Nazi Germany and Italy declared war on the United States at the same time. Since then, the United States has officially joined the great vortex of war in World War II. 
Yamamoto fifty-sixYamamoto was an adventurous man who was particularly obsessed with gambling, and his pleasure was to use a small amount of money to achieve great results. Yamamoto is really an expert in the field of gambling, and the objects he bets on are even more varied. He gambled with his colleagues, with his subordinates, and often with geisha, and he gambled seriously. He once repaid his debts for more than ten years because of a gambling contract, and was also banned from the casino because he won too much money in Nago, but the biggest gamble in his life was Pearl Harbor. The creation of the plan for the attack on Pearl Harbor was also closely related to Yamamoto's personality. In response to the attack on Pearl Harbor, it was said that it was a shocking sneak attack, and that only gamblers would dare to launch it. 
There are two very different views on the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor: First, a successful sneak attack that was carefully planned and successfully carried out by Japan. The second is the "bitter ploy" deliberately staged by the United States in order to logically join the maelstrom of World War II. From Japan's point of view, the attack on Pearl Harbor was a brilliant victory in both the short and medium term for its strategic purposes, because for some time after Pearl Harbor, the U.S. Navy lost its former prestige in the Pacific theater. For the next six months, the U.S. Navy was insignificant in the Pacific theater. Without the threat of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, Japan disdained other maritime powers in Southeast Asia, and since then they have successfully occupied all of Southeast Asia, the southwestern Pacific, and even expanded their power into the Indian Ocean for a time. Yamamoto won the bet this time, but he did not foresee the subsequent fall of the Japanese Empire. This careerist succeeded in awakening the lion of the United States, and while achieving a brief victory, he also greatly accelerated the demise of Japanese militarism.