essay pearl harbor

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Course: US history   >   Unit 7

• Beginning of World War II
• 1940 - Axis gains momentum in World War II
• 1941 Axis momentum accelerates in WW2

Pearl Harbor

• FDR and World War II
• Japanese internment
• American women and World War II
• 1942 Tide turning in World War II in Europe
• World War II in the Pacific in 1942
• 1943 Axis losing in Europe
• American progress in the Pacific in 1944
• 1944 - Allies advance further in Europe
• 1945 - End of World War II
• The Manhattan Project and the atomic bomb
• The United Nations
• The Second World War
• Shaping American national identity from 1890 to 1945

• On the morning of December 7, 1941, Japan attacked the US naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
• The surprise attack by some 350 Japanese aircraft sunk or badly damaged eighteen US naval vessels, including eight battleships, destroyed or damaged 300 US aircraft, and killed 2,403 men.
• Across the nation, Americans were stunned, shocked, and angered. The attack turned US public opinion in favor of entering the Second World War . The United States declared war on Japan on December 8, 1941.
• Japan’s allies, Germany and Italy, declared war on the United States on December 11. The United States responded in kind, and therefore entered World War II.

The Pearl Harbor attack

Motive for the attack, forewarnings about the attack, what do you think.

• On the attack at Pearl Harbor and the events surrounding it, see David M. Kennedy, Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 500-526; Gordon W. Prange, At Dawn We Slept: The Untold Story of Pearl Harbor (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1981), 499-504.
• Kennedy, Freedom from Fear , 521-522.
• Franklin D. Roosevelt, “ Address to Congress Requesting a Declaration of War with Japan December 8, 1941 ." Courtesy the American Presidency Project.
• Kennedy, Freedom from Fear , 512.
• See James L. McClain, Japan: A Modern History (New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2001), 470.
• Kennedy, Freedom from Fear , 519.
• Kennedy, Freedom from Fear , 517, 525.

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Why Did Japan Attack Pearl Harbor?

By: Sarah Pruitt

Updated: May 13, 2020 | Original: April 10, 2018

When Japanese bombers appeared in the skies over Pearl Harbor  on the morning of December 7, 1941, the U.S. military was completely unprepared for the devastating surprise attack, which dramatically altered the course of World War II , especially in the Pacific theater. But there were several key reasons for the bombing that, in hindsight, make it seem almost inevitable.

Tensions Began During the Great Depression

Before the Pearl Harbor attack, tensions between Japan and the United States had been mounting for the better part of a decade.

The island nation of Japan, isolated from the rest of the world for much of its history, embarked on a period of aggressive expansion near the turn of the 20th century. Two successful wars, against China in 1894-95 and the Russo-Japanese War in 1904-05, fueled these ambitions, as did Japan’s successful participation in World War I  (1914-18) alongside the Allies.

During the Great Depression of the 1930s, Japan sought to solve its economic and demographic woes by forcing its way into China, starting in 1931 with an invasion of Manchuria. When a commission appointed by the League of Nations condemned the invasion, Japan withdrew from the international organization; it would occupy Manchuria until 1945.

In July 1937, a clash at Beijing’s Marco Polo Bridge began another Sino-Japanese war. That December, after Japanese forces captured Nanjing (Nanking), the capital of the Chinese Nationalist Party, or Guomindang (Kuomintang), they proceeded to carry out six weeks of mass killings and rapes now infamous as the Nanjing Massacre .

The U.S. Was Trying to Stop Japan’s Global Expansion

In light of such atrocities, the United States began passing economic sanctions against Japan, including trade embargoes on aircraft exports, oil and scrap metal, among other key goods, and gave economic support to Guomindang forces. In September 1940, Japan signed the Tripartite Pact with Germany and Italy, the two fascist regimes then at war with the Allies.

Tokyo and Washington negotiated for months leading up to the Pearl Harbor attack, without success. While the United States hoped embargoes on oil and other key goods would lead Japan to halt its expansionism, the sanctions and other penalties actually convinced Japan to stand its ground, and stirred up the anger of its people against continued Western interference in Asian affairs.

To Japan, war with the United States had become to seem inevitable, in order to defend its status as a major world power. Because the odds were stacked against them, their only chance was the element of surprise.

Destroying the Base at Pearl Harbor Would Mean Japan Controlled the Pacific

In May 1940, the United States had made Pearl Harbor the main base for its Pacific Fleet. As Americans didn’t expect the Japanese to attack first in Hawaii, some 4,000 miles away from the Japanese mainland, the base at Pearl Harbor was left relatively undefended, making it an easy target.

Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto spent months planning an attack that aimed to destroy the Pacific Fleet and destroy morale in the U.S. Navy, so that it would not be able to fight back as Japanese forces began to advance on targets across the South Pacific.

Japan’s surprise attack on Pearl Harbor would drive the United States out of isolation and into World War II, a conflict that would end with Japan’s surrender after the devastating atomic  bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945.

At first, however, the Pearl Harbor attack looked like a success for Japan. Its bombers hit all eight U.S. battleships, sinking four and damaging four others, destroyed or damaged more than 300 aircraft and killed some 2,400 Americans at Pearl Harbor.

Japanese forces went on to capture a string of current and former Western colonial possessions by early 1942—including Burma (now Myanmar), British Malaya (Malaysia and Singapore), the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) and the Philippines—giving them access to these islands’ plentiful natural resources, including oil and rubber.

But the Pearl Harbor attack had failed in its objective to completely destroy the Pacific Fleet. The Japanese bombers missed oil tanks, ammunition sites and repair facilities, and not a single U.S. aircraft carrier was present during the attack. In June 1942, this failure came to haunt the Japanese, as U.S. forces scored a major victory in the Battle of Midway , decisively turning the tide of war in the Pacific.

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Pearl Harbor

Written by: Edward G. Lengel, The National World War II Museum

By the end of this section, you will:.

• Explain the similarities and differences in attitudes about the nation’s proper role in the world

Suggested Sequencing

Use this narrative before the Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima Narrative and the D-Day Narrative to introduce the United States’ entrance to WWII.

Although it stood among the victorious powers at the end of World War I, Japan remained unsatisfied by its acquisition of some scattered former German colonies in China and the northern Pacific Ocean. Its economic dislocation, caused by the Great Depression, and the increasing power of the Japanese military gave momentum to sentiment in favor of imperial expansion in Asia, centered at first around the Japanese colony of Korea. Japanese imperialists also argued that expansion was necessary to secure natural resources necessary for the prosperity and safety of the homeland.

Worries about Soviet expansion in Asia, along with the efforts of Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek to unify China, led Japanese military leaders to look to the occupation of Manchuria in northeastern China. In September 1931, the Japanese army, likely acting without the knowledge of the government in Tokyo, engineered a border incident that it used to justify the subsequent occupation of Manchuria. American protests to the League of Nations resulted in nothing more concrete than a formal declaration condemning Japanese aggression, which led Japan to walk out of the League in 1933.

Competing Japanese and American visions for the future of Asia drove the nations toward increasingly open hostility over the years that followed. Although Chiang Kai-shek had abandoned Manchuria without a fight, Japan adopted an increasingly interventionist posture in Chinese affairs. China and Japan entered into open, but still undeclared, war in July 1937. Japanese troops quickly took the upper hand, conquering most of coastal China and pushing inland. In December of that year, the Japanese captured the Nationalist capital of Nanjing (formerly Nanking), embarking on a campaign of atrocities (witnessed by American and European residents) that resulted in the deaths of perhaps 300,000 Chinese civilians and soldiers. This came to be called the “Rape of Nanking”.

The Japanese landed near Shanghai, China, in November 1937.

President Franklin Roosevelt’s administration recognized the growing threat to the Asian balance of power and trade, as well as to the security of the U.S.-controlled Philippines. The president and his advisors struggled to find a policy to halt Japanese aggression short of declaring war. American declarations of support for China and the 1939 cancellation of the Japanese-American Treaty of Commerce, which dated from 1911, had no significant effect on Japanese policy, which was now wholly dictated by the military.

Subsequent American embargoes on supplies of aviation fuel, scrap iron, and oil to Japan hit closer to the mark, given Japan’s increasingly frantic concerns about its scarcity of natural resources and the requirements of its armed forces. As his country continued to expand into Southeast Asia in the summer of 1940, Japanese Prime Minister Matsuoka Yosuke announced the creation of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. In theory a sort of Asian commonwealth, the sphere actually amounted to a vast empire dominated by Japan and obviously targeting European and American possessions in the region. Assumptions of Japanese racial superiority over all the peoples of Asia (and the world) helped drive this imperial impulse.

The Japanese government, by this time, had already decided war with the United States was all but inevitable and initiated military planning for the conquest of Asia. The initial plan was for land, air, and sea forces to collaborate in the invasion of British and other European colonies as well as the Philippines, on the assumption that the American navy would be drawn into the conflict and eventually defeated in a “decisive battle.” Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku, commanding the Japanese Combined Fleet, argued instead for a surprise attack on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

Admiral Yamamoto led the Imperial Japanese Navy during the attack on Pearl Harbor. His plane was shot down by the United States in 1943 and his death was a major blow for the Japanese military.

As American and Japanese diplomats negotiated in the summer of 1941, the Japanese government secretly decided on war. Yamamoto’s plan for the attack on Pearl Harbor was adopted in October. Still, Yamamoto entertained doubts, fearing that unless Japan managed to win the war quickly, the United States would eventually win by virtue of its greater latent industrial might.

The Japanese attack fleet, including six aircraft carriers and surface vessels, departed base in November and arrived in position 275 miles off Oahu, Hawaii, in the early morning of December 7. Observing strict radio silence and hewing close to a storm front, the fleet managed to avoid detection. American military commanders remained complacent right up to the moment the first Japanese planes appeared over Pearl Harbor at 7:55 a.m. In the raid that followed, which lasted almost two hours, Japanese dive bombers and torpedo planes destroyed or damaged almost 300 American aircraft on the ground. Worse, they sank or seriously damaged all eight of the U.S. battleships stationed at Pearl Harbor, along with almost a dozen other vessels. The attack killed 2,335 U.S. service members and wounded another 1,178.

A view of Pearl Harbor, captured by a Japanese aerial photographer, during Japan’s surprise bombing of the U.S. naval base in December 1941.

Though defeated, the Americans were not broken. Two American aircraft carriers that were normally stationed at Pearl Harbor and would certainly have been sunk that day were, fortunately, at sea on other duties on the morning of December 7; they escaped unharmed. This proved critical because the conduct of the Pacific War was to be decided primarily by carriers rather than surface fleets. President Roosevelt deployed all his formidable oratorical powers in asking Congress for a declaration of war on Japan, dubbing December 7 “a date which will live in infamy.”

Although not required to do so by the terms of his country’s alliance with Japan, German dictator Adolf Hitler responded to America’s declaration of war on Japan by declaring war on the United States on December 11. Roosevelt’s military leaders subsequently decided to emphasize Europe first in the future prosecution of the war. The American people, however, reserved special hatred for Japan and determined to fight that war to the finish and without mercy. For the next four years, “Remember Pearl Harbor” served as a national rallying cry.

Review Questions

1. Japan’s imperial expansion in China and Asia in the 1930s was driven by all the following except

• fears that the communists would seize power in China
• a desire to secure vital natural resources
• resentment against American and European influence in the region
• assumptions of Japanese racial superiority over the peoples of Asia

2. What event played a significant role in the Japanese decision to go to war with the United States?

• German dictator Adolf Hitler urged Japan to distract the United States from Europe.
• President Roosevelt threatened to declare war on Japan.
• American embargoes on oil and other supplies vital to the Japanese war machine
• Japanese fears of American military intervention in China

3. American interests in the Pacific that were threatened by Japanese imperialism in the 1930s included all the following except

• American control of the Philippines
• balance of power in Asia
• access to Asian trade
• security of the Hawaiian Islands

4. American reaction to Japanese imperialism in the Pacific during the 1930s included

• embargos on supplies of aviation fuel, scrap iron, and oil
• American military intervention to stop the “Rape of Nanking”
• American membership in the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere
• negotiation of a Japanese-American Treaty of Commerce

Note that dates and times of the Japanese fleet location are given as Tokyo time, not local time (for example, December 8 is December 7 local time in Hawaii, and 0310 (3:10 a.m.) is 0740 (7:40 a.m. local time).

5. The events depicted in the map directly led to

• President Franklin Roosevelt’s referring to this as “a date which will live in infamy”
• the unconditional surrender of Germany and Japan
• American acquisition of the Philippines
• American support of the League of Nations

6. How did American foreign policy change after December 7, 1941?

• The United States declared war on Germany, setting up the “Europe first” military strategy for World War II.
• The United States joined the League of Nations to counter growing fascism and totalitarianism.
• The United States formed a collective-security agreement with Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and Communist China to fight totalitarianism abroad.
• The United States declared war on Japan, abandoning the neutrality policy it had followed since the end of World War I.

Free Response Questions

• Describe the primary factors leading to Japan’s war with the United States.
• Explain the important military and geopolitical consequences of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941.
• Compare the circumstances surrounding the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor with the attack on Washington, DC, during the War of 1812 (see the Fort McHenry and the War of 1812 Narrative).

AP Practice Questions

“To the Congress of the United States: Yesterday, Dec. 7, 1941 – a date which will live in infamy – the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan. The United States was at peace with that nation and, at the solicitation of Japan, was still in conversation with the government and its emperor looking toward the maintenance of peace in the Pacific. . . . It will be recorded that the distance of Hawaii from Japan makes it obvious that the attack was deliberately planned . . . The attack yesterday on the Hawaiian islands has caused severe damage to American naval and military forces. Very many American lives have been lost. In addition, American ships have been reported torpedoed on the high seas between San Francisco and Honolulu. Yesterday, the Japanese government also launched an attack against Malaya. Last night, Japanese forces attacked Hong Kong . . . Guam . . . Philippine Islands . . . Wake Island. This morning, the Japanese attacked Midway Island. Japan has, therefore, undertaken a surprise offensive extending throughout the Pacific area. . . . As commander in chief of the Army and Navy, I have directed that all measures be taken for our defense. . . . No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory. . . . I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, Dec. 7, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese empire.”

President Franklin Roosevelt, Pearl Harbor Speech: Day of Infamy, December 8, 1941

1. The events described in this excerpt most directly led to

• the formation of the Anti-Imperialist League
• the Red Scare
• the development of the Manhattan Project
• increased support for American isolationism

2. The sentiments expressed in the excerpt contributed to which of the following?

• The decision to pursue a “Europe first” military strategy
• Violations of civil liberties on the home front
• A recommitment to the neutrality legislation of the 1930s
• Abandonment of the restrictive immigration policies of the late 1920s

3. This excerpt most directly reflected a growing belief that

• checks and balances should be suspended in emergency situations
• Spanish-American War territorial acquisitions were not worth the cost
• a unilateral foreign policy was the best course for the United States
• fascism and totalitarianism threatened the existence of the United States

Primary Sources

This 1940 article considers the state of American-Japanese affairs: W.H.M. “Economic Warfare With Japan or a New Treaty?” https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/1940-01-01/economic-warfare-japan-or-new-treaty .

Text of Roosevelt’s “infamy” speech to Congress: Roosevelt, Franklin D. “Speech by Franklin D. Roosevelt, New York (Transcript).” https://www.loc.gov/resource/afc1986022.afc1986022_ms2201/?st=text

Suggested Resources

Chambers, John Whiteclay, ed. The Oxford Companion to American Military History . New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Chang, Iris. The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II . New York: Basic Books, 1997.

Lord, Walter. Day of Infamy . New York: Henry Holt, 1957.

Prange, Gordon W. At Dawn We Slept: The Untold Story of Pearl Harbor . New York: Penguin, 1982.

Twomey, Steve. Countdown to Pearl Harbor: The Twelve Days to the Attack . New York: Simon and Schuster, 2016.

Weinberg, Gerhard L. A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II . Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1994.

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Movie Reviews

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"Pearl Harbor" is a two-hour movie squeezed into three hours, about how on Dec. 7, 1941, the Japanese staged a surprise attack on an American love triangle. Its centerpiece is 40 minutes of redundant special effects, surrounded by a love story of stunning banality. The film has been directed without grace, vision, or originality, and although you may walk out quoting lines of dialog, it will not be because you admire them.

The filmmakers seem to have aimed the film at an audience that may not have heard of Pearl Harbor, or perhaps even of World War Two. This is the Our Weekly Reader version. If you have the slightest knowledge of the events in the film, you will know more than it can tell you. There is no sense of history, strategy or context; according to this movie, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor because America cut off its oil supply, and they were down to an 18 month reserve. Would going to war restore the fuel sources? Did they perhaps also have imperialist designs? Movie doesn't say.

So shaky is the film's history that at the end, when Jimmy Doolittle's Tokyo raiders crash-land in China, they're shot at by Japanese patrols with only a murky throwaway explanation about the Sino-Japanese war already underway. I predict some viewers will leave the theater sincerely confused about why there were Japanese in China.

As for the movie's portrait of the Japanese themselves, it is so oblique that Japanese audiences will find little to complain about apart from the fact that they play such a small role in their own raid. There are several scenes where the Japanese high command debates military tactics, but all of their dialog is strictly expository; they state facts but do not emerge with personalities or passions. Only Admiral Yamamoto (Mako) is seen as an individual, and his dialog seems to have been singled out with the hindsight of history. Congratulated on a brilliant raid, he demurs, "A brilliant man would find a way not to fight a war." And later, "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant." Do you imagine at any point the Japanese high command engaged in the 1941 Japanese equivalent of exchanging high-fives and shouting "Yes!" while pumping their fists in the air? Not in this movie, where the Japanese seem to have been melancholy even at the time about the regrettable need to play such a negative role in such a positive Hollywood film.

The American side of the story centers on two childhood friends from Tennessee with the standard-issue screenplay names Rafe McCawley ( Ben Affleck ) and Danny Walker ( Josh Hartnett ). They enter the Army Air Corps and both fall in love with the same nurse, Evelyn Johnson ( Kate Beckinsale )--first Rafe falls for her, and then, after he is reported dead, Danny. Their first date is subtitled "Three Months Later" and ends with Danny, having apparently read the subtitle, telling Evelyn, "Don't let it be three months before I see you again, okay?" That gets almost as big a laugh as her line to Rafe, "I'm gonna give Danny my whole heart, but I don't think I'll ever look at another sunset without thinking of you." That kind of bad laugh would have been sidestepped in a more literate screenplay, but our hopes are not high after an early newsreel report that the Germans are bombing "downtown London"--a difficult target, since although there is such a place as "central London," at no time in 2,000 years has London ever had anything described by anybody as a "downtown." There is not a shred of conviction or chemistry in the love triangle, which results after Rafe returns alive to Hawaii shortly before the raid on Pearl Harbor and is angry at Evelyn for falling in love with Danny, inspiring her timeless line, "I didn't even know until the day you turned up alive--and then all this happened." Evelyn is a hero in the aftermath of the raid, performing triage by using her lipstick to separate the wounded who should be treated from those left to die. In a pointless stylistic choice, director Michael Bay and cinematographer John Schwartzman shoot some of the hospital scenes in soft focus, some in sharp focus, some blurred. Why? I understand it's to obscure details deemed too gory for the PG-13 rating. (Why should the carnage at Pearl Harbor be toned down to PG-13 in the first place?) In the newsreel sequences, the movie fades in and out of black and white with almost amusing haste, while the newsreel announcer sounds not like a period voice but like a Top-40 deejay in an echo chamber.

The most involving material in the film comes at the end, when Jimmy Doolittle ( Alec Baldwin ) leads his famous raid on Tokyo, flying Army bombers off the decks of Navy carriers and hoping to crash-land in China.

He and his men were heroes, and their story would make a good movie (and indeed has: "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo"). Another hero in the movie is the African-American cook Dorie Miller (Cuba Gooding Jr.), who because of his race was not allowed to touch a gun in the racist pre-war Navy, but opens fire during the raid, shoots down two planes, and saves the life of his captain. He's shown getting a medal. Nice to see an African-American in the movie, but the almost total absence of Asians in 1941 Hawaii is inexplicable.

As for the raid itself, a little goes a long way. What is the point, really, of more than half an hour of planes bombing ships, of explosions and fireballs, of roars on the soundtrack and bodies flying through the air and people running away from fighters that are strafing them? How can it be entertaining or moving when it's simply about the most appalling slaughter? Why do the filmmakers think we want to see this, unrelieved by intelligence, viewpoint or insight? It was a terrible, terrible day. Three thousand died in all. This is not a movie about them.

It is an unremarkable action movie; Pearl Harbor supplies the subject, but not the inspiration.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Film credits.

Pearl Harbor (2001)

Rated PG-13 For Sustained Intense War Sequences, Images Of Wounded, Brief Sensuality and Some Language

183 minutes

Josh Hartnett as Danny Walker

Ben Affleck as Rafe McCawley

Alec Baldwin as Doolittle

Kate Beckinsale as Evelyn

Cuba Gooding Jr. as Dorie Miller

Jon Voigt as President Roosevelt

Directed by

• Michael Bay
• Randall Wallace

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Pearl Harbor: The Causes and the Aftermath Essay

Introduction, background information, reasons for the attack, the attack’s aftermaths, works cited.

The Pearl Harbor massacre is one of the many historical events that will forever remain in the annals of history for its significance as far as war betweens nations is concerned. This is because, the events of the war are not only important to the American history, but to the world history, for global nations have a lot to learn from its effects.

In addition, the war between America and Japan has a lot of significance as concerns the world history primarily because, it gave World War II a great shift; a war that saw the destruction of many global communities.

It is important to note here that, although previously before the Pearl Harbor attack there existed many wars between nations, the attack triggered U.S.’s anger, making it to engage itself fully in the war, a factor that contributed to the currently existing power equalities in the world (Rosenberg pp. 3-9).

Many disagreements between leaders of these world “powerful” countries were major contributors to the onset of the war. The divisions were prevalent because of the discriminatory nature of opinions that different powerful countries shared.

For example, in the struggle by these world powers to increases their wealth and areas of jurisdiction during the World War II, majority of them had to conquer areas they considered rich of resources they were missing in their countries. Such efforts to conquer specific regions demanded many power struggles whereby, the only way of winning was through joining pacts hence, the clear differentiations that existed between these word powers.

Such differentiations led to the divided support that specific countries received where Japan was inclusive. For example, in its quest to fully rule China, Japan received a lot of opposition from America whereby, not only did America support China financially, but also it helped it improve its military prowess through provision of military aids.

This in many ways triggered Japan and its affiliate counties’ anger leading to the planning of the attacks (National Park Service: U.S. Department of the Interior p.1). This paper will discuss concepts of the Pearl Harbor attack. In addition, it will discuss reasons behind the attacks and the attack’s aftermaths.

Source: National Park Service: U.S. Department of the Interior p.1.

The attack was on one of America’s biggest naval base in Hawaii, a factor that marked the turning point as far World War II was concerned. The invasion took place on 7 th December, 1941, an attack that Japan wanted to use as a mechanism of wrecking America’s military prowess.

Although to some extent Japan achieved its goals, it never anticipated that such an attack could lead to its total destruction. This is because, although Japan succeeded in destroying this American naval base, subsequent retaliations from America saw its destruction; both in terms of properties and numerous lives. In addition, effects from such retaliations by America are evident even today in Japan, although the nation has advanced itself technologically and industrially.

Critical analysis of the attack on the harbor clearly show that, in many ways America was one of the greatest impediment to Japan, as it sought to expand its control of some Asian regions. Therefore, because America was such an obstacle, Japan thought that, the only way of making its dream come true is by wrecking America’s military prowess, with little know how that, its destruction was on the way.

On the other hand, through the attacks, Japan thought that, it could wreck the American fleet patterns, a factor that could render it a chance of advancing its economic prospects by venturing into the Dutch East Indies and other Asian regions. This is because it considered the region rich of many resources, which were essential in terms of boosting its war prowess, when it came to dealing with the United Kingdom and America, for they were its primary antagonists.

Causalities from such a vicious attack were more four thousand, with more than two thousand dead American citizens and less than one hundred Japanese citizens. It was such a big blow to the entire American community primarily because, not only did it result to massive destruction of military property, but also it led to numerous deaths that resulted due to later aftermaths of the war as it endeavored to vengeance (Wohlstetter pp. 3-19).

In addition, it is important to note that, to some extent America could have prevented such invasions had it established itself well. This is because, as research into the attack reveal, the American defense top organs had some know how on the awaiting tragedy, a fact that they failed to make sure its naval base in the Pearl Harbor was prepared for, incase Japan advanced such attacks.

May be had the defense department communicated such impeding threats or likelihoods of attacks, the country could have avoided the blood shade that occurred during that period.

In addition, it is also important to note that, Japan had organized well on how to launch the attacks, a factor that many attribute to America’s failure to defend itself. This is because, as America was busy engrossed in peace initiatives, Japan was preparing on breaking the talks and immediately launching the attacks without giving its antagonist a chance to organize itself (Mahar p.1).

In any conflict scenario, there has to exist many issues of contention among worrying communities, a fact that was not an exception in this war between America and Japan. In addition, it is important to note that, whether egocentric or for good gains, such wars result due to the need for one nation to dominate and rule over the other.

This was the case in the Pearl Harbor attack, primarily because Japan wanted to outsmart America; a nation that was a great impediment towards its quest to overlook the Asian region, through enriching itself with ill acquired resources. As research studies suggest, the whole contention issue was as a result of a time concept and not the struggle to ensure international diplomacy reigns. That is, the existence of America is this region; Asia-Pacific, was not a subject of apprehension to Japan, but rather its main concern was to take over power as concerned the control of the region.

It is important to note that, achievement of such expectations was one of the hardest things to achieve for Japan, because of the great powers that America had over this region (Rosenberg pp 35-45). On the other hand, the quest to control the Asia-Pacific region to some extent was cultural, because culturally Japan had one believe that is, it was mandatory for there to be a single ruler of the region; a plan they named “hakko ichiu” (Rymer Para. 2)

Although many attribute such power controls as the main factor, which led to the attack, as Robinson (p.1) argues, to some extent, the whole war issue between America and Japan was historical. This is because prior to planning and executing of the attacks, there were many issues of contention between these two economic giants.

Such war backdates to 1930’s, when there was global economic recession that saw Japan suffer economically, as America progressed. In addition, America looked down upon Japan, as militia controlled some of its regions leading to the overexploitation of the rich Manchuria region.

To counter such failures in its control, and in obeying the desire to expand its economic resources, Japan launched such attacks on the harbor in an endeavor to bring down America. On the other hand, it is important to note that, Japanese aggression may have resulted due restriction that America imposed on Japan via commercial treaties prior to 1940, as concerned the provision of natural and industrial resources.

Such restrictions came in full application after the prohibition of scrap iron materials exchange and aviation fuel supply. The fact that, Japan bonded with Italy and Germany in the tripartite deal, made its relationship with America to further deteriorate. This is because the signing of such an agreement was a clear indication of Japan supporting the European war, a war that America took sides.

Apart from such historical injustices and sanctions that were great obstacles to Japan’s development, there were many power struggles between these two nations. For example, prior to the Pearl Harbor attacks, America denied Japan recognition as concerned its occupancy of China.

To condemn Japan’s occupancy, America gave China support, both financially and in terms of military provisions hence, igniting more anger from Japan and its allies. On the other hand, to disapprove Japan, America imposed more sanctions, in addition to the early embargoes that it had mounted on the Japanese state.

As a mechanism of eliminating such sanctions and a sign of not accepting defeat, Japan organized such attacks. In addition, to Japan, such attacks were necessary, because Japan considered America an oppressing nation, due to the fact that, it refused to acknowledge other nations occupancy in other countries, where as itself had exploited Philippines as the Spanish-American conflict raged.

To disapprove America’s power controls as concerned the invasion of other countries, Japan sought to devastate its naval convoy, primary in the pacific region, for it was an obstacle to such exploitations. By attacking the American base, Japan thought that, recovery from such impacts was to take time, a fact that could guarantee them a chance of invading the countries it wanted (Robinson p.1).

In addition to breaking the American power controls, another reason behind the attacks was the endeavor by the Japanese to demoralize America as concerned its superiority when it came to wars. Japan to some extent, achieved this goal because in the onset of 1941, there was a raging debate on whether America should engage itself in warfare or not.

This divided the American citizenry, a fact that made Japan to attack, for it thought that it could paralyze America hence, win the war of control over the pacific region. It is important to note here that, to some level Japan had made a wrong assumption because such attacks led to its later destruction, for it was the only means of ending the war between the two countries.

Another main reason behind the war was the clear signs of discriminations that certain American rulers imposed on the Japanese citizenry. Such discriminations were clear in the Roosevelt’s administration, for many took him as a racist primarily against the Japanese citizens in America.

From the onset of his reign, Roosevelt had a discriminatory liking of the Chinese and a disliking tendency on the Japanese; a fact that many researches attribute to the nature of gains he received from the Chinese nation. On the other hand, his discriminatory tendency was prevalent on the way he treated the Germans.

This is because; Roosevelt’s ruling orientation was contrary to Adolph Hitler’s ruling orientation; dictatorship hence, his favoritism for the Europeans; primary Britain. In his ruling, foreign policies were of little significance, a factor that contributed to the decline in personal relations to other world rulers of that time more so Germany and Italy.

For example, during Germany’s quest to take over Lebensraum, through amalgamation with Britain and France, they opposed such quests, a factor that increased these countries enmity, because these countries were close allies of Japan. This to some extent proves that, although majority of individuals blame Japan for the onset of the war, to some extent what America was doing is a clear indication that they wanted war.

However, to avoid blame hence, look for an excuse for attacking Japan, America had to use any means that was at its disposal to trigger an attack from Japan. In this regard, it is important to note that, actions by America might have been one main triggering factors as far as the war was concerned (Higgs Para. 6-12).

Although Japan succeeded in wrecking the American naval base, its achievements were short lived. This is because, such attacked triggered America’s anger, hence the use of bombs to destroy many Japanese cities. The effects of such retaliations are prevalent even today in Japan as it endeavors to improve its infrastructural and industrial sector.

As a response to Japanese attacks, America launched efforts to track Japanese shipper fleet, something that never succeeded at first because of the minute numbers of American naval support. Although this was a deterring factor, as concerned revenge efforts, America still was determined to destroy Japan.

In many ways, the war gave many other nations courage of threatening America, a factor that made its revenge mission even harder. For example, because of the attack, which led to the destruction of the naval fleet, Germany and Italy started their own hostilities towards America, a fact that many attribute to many historical indifferences between these countries (McGraw-Hill Companies p.1).

Source: McGraw-Hill Companies p.1.

To counter the number of forces that were against America, America reorganized its military system, something that commenced with the recruitment of more military personnel. It is important to note here that, failure by Japan to mangle the fuel deport and repair amenities, gave America an added advantage of re-organizing its efforts to retaliate.

Although this was the case, it is also crucial to note that, subsequent attacks by Japan; second and third, were aimed at destroying the two important facilities. However, because of the anticipated dangers that were associated with such attacks; revenge from the American carriers, Japan stopped its second and third mission hence, giving America an added advantage.

After the re-organization and success in the efforts to salvage the remaining ships after the attack, America started to launch its revenge mission on Japan. Such revenges were in form of attacks the Japanese troops, something that never succeeded at first. Although this was the case, America continued in its quest to outsmart Japan hence, leading to its first victorious raid of 1942; the Doolittle attack. In many ways, this marked the onset of the many later raids that America instigated against Japan.

To avoid problems that were associated with short-range bombers, it used long-range ones, although it failed to achieve its goals of salvaging such bombers if they landed in China. In addition, because of such failures, America lost many of its crewmembers, due to the massive deaths that occurred.

Such attacks, led to more extended attacks from Japan on American territories for example the Midway Islands. Many losses resulted from such attacks, with Japan loosing four of its best carriers and a good number of its citizens. Suffering of innocent civilians was prevalent, a factor that was of less concern to these warring nations primarily because, their main concern was to defeat each other (Martin p.1).

As the war raged, America’s control increased, as it endeavored to control the pacific region through taking control of many areas in the pacific region. To some extent, such captures were of little significance primary because, such captured islands could not give a firm base of launching its attacks.

To ensure they captured an island that could guarantee them a chance of dealing with Japan properly, America through its military strived to capture the Iwo Jima Island, something that caused the demise of many American soldiers. It is crucial to note here that, such loses were of little significance to America, because finally in 1945, America took control of the island.

Capturing of the island saw the destruction of Japanese resources through vicious attacks from America, because at least they had a firm base of launching its attacks. Although this was the case, Japan also never surrendered something that prompted America to capture its Okinawa Island. Such an achievement was not easy and painless on the America, because out of it America lost approximately twelve thousand lives (D’Amato p. 1).

Such enormous causality numbers further ignited America’s anger, leading to the launching of the Atomic bombs against Japan. The first Japanese city to receive such attacks was Hiroshima, an incident that later happened in the city of Nagasaki. At this point Japan was defenseless hence, it had to surrender.

Although this marked almost the termination point of this war, its termination opened another page as concerned the war among nations; World War II. This is because; many other nations for example the Soviet Union joined America in the quest to destroy Japan and its supporters.

In conclusion, the initial attack on the harbor and the aftermath retaliation by the America had many negative impacts than these countries had anticipated. This is because, apart from the massive deaths that resulted from such veracious attacks, its impacts are clear even today as concerns the health status of the Japanese citizenry. In addition, the countries wasted many resources in the war, a factor that they could have prevented did they take the peace negotiations seriously.

Primary lessons that nations can learn from such a war include need for respect among nations, the need for negotiations when problems arise instead of extreme fights, and the importance of respecting human life. Although this is the case, it is a few nations, which have learnt for such an experience, because of the daily wars between different global communities.

D’Amato, Paul. Pearl Harbor, internment, and Hiroshima: historical lessons . Third World Traveler. 2010. Web.

Higgs, Robert. How U.S. Economic Warfare Provoked Japan’s Attack on Pearl Harbor . The Independent Institute . 2006. Web.

Mahar, Ted. The battle that ignited America. 2010. Web.

McGraw-Hill Companies. Aftermath. Glencoe. 2010. Web.

Martin, James. Pearl Harbor’s place in History. Institute for Historical Review. 2010. Web.

National Park Service: U.S. Department of the Interior. Arizona Project. 2010. Web.

Robinson, Bruce. Pearl Harbor: a rude awakening . British Broadcasting Corporation . 2009. Web.

Rosenberg, Emily. A date will live: Pearl Harbor . Durham: Duke University Press, 2003. Web.

Rymer, Eric. Attack on Pearl Harbor : events leading to December 7, 1941 and the attack on Pearl Harbor. 2010. Web.

Wohlstetter, Roberta. Pearl harbor warning and decision . Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1962. Web.

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IvyPanda. (2018, June 27). Pearl Harbor: The Causes and the Aftermath. https://ivypanda.com/essays/pearl-harbor-the-causes-and-the-aftermath/

"Pearl Harbor: The Causes and the Aftermath." IvyPanda , 27 June 2018, ivypanda.com/essays/pearl-harbor-the-causes-and-the-aftermath/.

IvyPanda . (2018) 'Pearl Harbor: The Causes and the Aftermath'. 27 June.

IvyPanda . 2018. "Pearl Harbor: The Causes and the Aftermath." June 27, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/pearl-harbor-the-causes-and-the-aftermath/.

1. IvyPanda . "Pearl Harbor: The Causes and the Aftermath." June 27, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/pearl-harbor-the-causes-and-the-aftermath/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Pearl Harbor: The Causes and the Aftermath." June 27, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/pearl-harbor-the-causes-and-the-aftermath/.

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Rockford, Freeport area schools send top spellers to 96th Scripps National Spelling Bee

Since 1925, children across the country have competed in classroom, school and regional spelling bees in hopes of making it to the big stage — the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

The 96th Scripps National Spelling Bee kicks off this year on Tuesday with preliminary rounds. The competition continues with quarterfinals and semifinals Wednesday and finals on Thursday.

At the national competition this year, the Rockford area will be represented by Ananya Joshi, a 12-year-old sixth-grader at Roscoe Middle School, and the Freeport area will be represented by Hendrix Feld, a 13-year-old seventh-grader at Pearl City Junior/Senior High School.

Joshi and Feld will compete with 243 other students from across the country, all vying to be the next Scipps National Spelling Bee champ.

According to Scripps, Ananya is a well-rounded student who enjoys playing the piano, building with Legos,, reading, learning Bharatanatyam, a classical dance form in India, coding on Scratch and writing essays and short stories. She is a member of her school's Science Olympiad team, quiz bowl team, student council and band.

Hendrix enjoys learning and building new things, Scripps said, and is a member of his school's Lego League robotics team. He hopes to pursue an engineering or science-based career. His favorite historical figure is Benjamin Franklin and his favorite musician is The Weeknd.

All of the spellers range in age from 8 to 15. They come from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Texas has the largest representation with 20 national competitors. California and Ohio are next with 17 each, followed by Florida, Illinois and New York with 13 each. Twelve competitors are from outside the United States, representing the Bahamas, Canada, Germany, Ghana, Guam, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

More than 70% of the students are competing in the Scripps National Spelling Bee for the first time.

Preliminary rounds are held 9 a.m. to 8:40 p.m. on Tuesday, quarterfinals at 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. and semifinals at 9 to 11 p.m. on Wednesday, and finals at 9 to 11 p.m. on Thursday.

The preliminaries and quarter finals will be televised on Ion Plus, and the semifinals and finals will be televised on Ion TV. All rounds of the competition will take place at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland.

Chris Green is a Rockford Register Star general assignment reporter. He can be reached at 815-987-1241, via email at  [email protected]  and X  @chrisfgreen .

Immediate Consequences of Alcohol Consumption

This essay about the immediate consequences of alcohol consumption explores how alcohol impacts physical health, mental state, behavior, and social interactions. It highlights the rapid onset of effects, such as impaired judgment and coordination, and risks like alcohol poisoning, memory impairment, and traffic accidents. The essay underscores the importance of understanding these risks to make informed decisions and promote safer drinking habits.

How it works

Alcohol consumption, whether in moderation or excess, can lead to a wide array of immediate consequences. These effects manifest rapidly and can influence physical health, mental state, behavior, and social interactions. Understanding these consequences is crucial for individuals who consume alcohol, as well as for those around them, to recognize the risks and take preventive measures.

Upon consumption, alcohol is quickly absorbed into the bloodstream through the stomach and small intestine. The initial physical effects of alcohol can often be felt within minutes, depending on various factors such as the amount consumed, the individual’s body weight, metabolism, and whether they have eaten.

One of the most immediate effects of alcohol is its impact on the central nervous system. As a depressant, alcohol slows down brain function, leading to impaired judgment, coordination, and reaction times. This is why activities that require full cognitive and motor skills, such as driving, become exceedingly dangerous under the influence of alcohol.

In low to moderate amounts, alcohol can induce a sense of euphoria, relaxation, and decreased inhibition. These feelings are often sought after in social settings where alcohol serves as a social lubricant, making conversations flow more easily and reducing social anxiety. However, as blood alcohol concentration (BAC) rises, the pleasant effects can quickly give way to negative consequences. Speech may become slurred, vision blurred, and balance compromised. Higher levels of intoxication can lead to more severe impairments such as dizziness, vomiting, and in extreme cases, loss of consciousness.

One of the critical immediate dangers of alcohol consumption is the risk of alcohol poisoning. This occurs when BAC reaches a level that depresses vital bodily functions to a life-threatening extent. Symptoms of alcohol poisoning include confusion, vomiting, seizures, slow or irregular breathing, hypothermia, and a pale or bluish skin tone. Alcohol poisoning is a medical emergency that requires immediate attention, as it can lead to coma or death if untreated.

Beyond the physical effects, alcohol consumption can significantly impact mental and emotional states. While alcohol might initially reduce stress and anxiety, excessive consumption can lead to heightened emotional volatility. This can manifest as increased aggression or depression, resulting in conflicts and altercations. Alcohol impairs the brain’s ability to regulate mood, leading to erratic behavior that can strain relationships and lead to regrettable actions.

Socially, the immediate consequences of alcohol consumption are vast. In a positive context, alcohol can enhance social bonding and create a sense of camaraderie. However, this is balanced by the potential for negative social outcomes. Alcohol lowers inhibitions, which can lead to risky behaviors such as unprotected sex, driving under the influence, and other forms of reckless behavior. These actions not only put the individual at risk but can also endanger others, resulting in accidents, injuries, and legal issues.

One of the most common immediate social consequences of alcohol consumption is involvement in traffic accidents. Driving under the influence of alcohol impairs judgment, slows reaction times, and reduces coordination, increasing the likelihood of accidents. Drunk driving is a major cause of fatalities and injuries on the roads, and the legal repercussions of being caught driving under the influence can include hefty fines, loss of driving privileges, and even imprisonment.

In professional settings, alcohol consumption can have immediate consequences on productivity and reputation. Coming to work intoxicated or with a hangover can impair performance, lead to mistakes, and damage professional relationships. Repeated instances of alcohol-related issues at work can lead to disciplinary actions, job loss, and long-term career setbacks.

Another immediate consequence of alcohol consumption is its interaction with medications and other substances. Alcohol can enhance or diminish the effects of certain medications, leading to unintended side effects. For example, mixing alcohol with painkillers, antidepressants, or anti-anxiety medications can be particularly dangerous, as it can increase the risk of respiratory depression, overdose, or severe drowsiness.

The physiological effects of alcohol also extend to its impact on the body’s organs. Alcohol is metabolized by the liver, and excessive consumption can cause the liver to work overtime, leading to acute liver damage. This is often experienced as pain or discomfort in the upper right side of the abdomen. Additionally, alcohol is a diuretic, which means it increases urine production, leading to dehydration. Dehydration contributes to many of the symptoms of a hangover, including headache, fatigue, and nausea.

On a psychological level, the immediate effects of alcohol can include memory impairment. Alcohol affects the hippocampus, a part of the brain involved in forming new memories. This is why individuals who consume large amounts of alcohol often experience “blackouts,” periods during which they cannot recall events that occurred while they were intoxicated. These memory lapses can lead to confusion, embarrassment, and potential harm if the individual engaged in risky behaviors.

Despite these numerous risks, the social and cultural acceptance of alcohol can sometimes overshadow the immediate negative consequences. Many cultures celebrate with alcohol, use it in rituals, and consider it a normal part of social gatherings. This can create a complex relationship with alcohol, where its consumption is both encouraged and fraught with potential dangers.

In conclusion, the immediate consequences of alcohol consumption are multifaceted, impacting physical health, mental state, behavior, and social interactions. While moderate alcohol consumption might have some social benefits, the risks associated with excessive intake are significant and should not be underestimated. Understanding these immediate effects can help individuals make informed decisions about alcohol consumption, promote safer drinking habits, and reduce the potential for harm. It is important for individuals to be aware of their own limits, recognize the signs of intoxication, and seek help when needed to mitigate the negative impacts of alcohol consumption on their lives and the lives of those around them.

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Notable deaths of 2024, so far

Notable deaths of 2024: Remembering those who have died, so far, this year.

Notable deaths of 2024: Remembering Iris Apfel, Carl Weathers, Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez, Joseph Lieberman and others who have died, so far, this year.

Glynis Johns

Jan. 4, age 100 | British actress, who became a film star in the late 1940s playing a flirty mermaid named Miranda, portrayed a singing suffragist in the Disney musical “Mary Poppins” and won a Tony Award in the musical “A Little Night Music,” where she introduced Stephen Sondheim’s standard “Send in the Clowns.” | Read more

Joseph Lelyveld

Jan. 5, age 86 | Journalist, who rose from copy boy to top editor at the New York Times, where he distinguished himself as the author of a Pulitzer Prize-winning book about apartheid South Africa and where he sought to carry the bedrock values of journalism into the digital age. | Read more

Mario Zagallo

Jan. 5, age 92 | Soccer player, who won two World Cups as a player, one as a coach and another as an assistant coach for Brazil. He was the first person to win the World Cup both as a player and a manager, as well as the only person to win four World Cup titles in various roles. (Pictured, center) | Read more

Joan Acocella

Jan. 7, age 78 | Cultural critic, whose essays for the New Yorker and the New York Review of Books — by turns stylish, erudite, droll and self-effacing — established her as an indispensable guide to modern dance and literature. | Read more

Joyce Randolph

Jan. 13, age 99 | Actress best remembered for playing Trixie Norton, the disapproving Brooklynite wife of a sewer worker, on the influential 1950s variety-show skit and sitcom “The Honeymooners.” (Pictured, right) | Read more

Jan. 13, age 79 | Pulitzer Prize-winning television critic for The Washington Post, who brought incisive and barbed wit to coverage of the small screen and chronicled the medium as an increasingly powerful cultural force, for better and worse. | Read more

Marnia Lazreg

Jan. 13, age 83 | Author and scholar, who used her experiences in French colonial Algeria as starting points for studies into the struggles and aspirations of women across the Muslim world, including her stance decrying the traditions of Islamic coverings such as headscarves. | Read more

ABilly S. Jones-Hennin

Jan. 19, age 81 | Longtime advocate for LGBTQ+ rights, who co-founded the first national organization for Black lesbians and gays and coordinated logistics for the first national LGBTQ+ march on Washington. (Pictured, left) | Read more

Jan. 19, age 75 | Her yearning vocals and street-smart vibe as lead singer of the Shangri-Las brought an edgier style to the girl-group era of the 1960s with such hits as “Leader of the Pack,” and she then mostly left music for decades until returning with a solo album in her 50s. (Pictured, center) | Read more

Dexter Scott King

Jan. 22, age 62 | Younger son of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife, Coretta Scott King, who worked to preserve his father’s legacy. | Read more

Arno Penzias

Jan. 22, age 90 | Physicist, who fled Nazi Germany in childhood, settled in the United States and in 1978 shared the Nobel Prize in physics for helping find vital early evidence supporting the big-bang theory of the creation of the universe. (Pictured, right) | Read more

Charles Osgood

Jan. 23, age 91 | Newsman who spent 22 years anchoring the CBS-TV staple “Sunday Morning” and decades as a radio commentator, and who carved a distinct place for himself in broadcasting by occasionally presenting the news in wry doggerel. | Read more

Jan. 23, age 93 | Journalist and historian who unlocked the hidden world of cryptology in his best-selling 1967 book “The Codebreakers” and became a preeminent scholar of signals intelligence, revered even among the keepers of the secrets he revealed. | Read more

N. Scott Momaday

Jan. 24, age 89 | Author, literature professor and member of the Kiowa Indian tribe, who became the first Native American to win a Pulitzer Prize — for his 1968 debut novel, “House Made of Dawn” — and helped inspire a flowering of contemporary Native American literature. | Read more

Chita Rivera

Jan. 30, age 91 | Vivacious Broadway musical star, who originated roles in “West Side Story,” “Bye Bye Birdie,” “Chicago” and “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” won two competitive Tony Awards and became one of the most honored Latina entertainers of her generation. (Pictured, left) | Read more

Jean Carnahan

Jan. 30, age 90 | Former U.S. senator, who became the first female senator to represent Missouri after she was appointed to replace her husband following his death in a plane crash. | Read more

Hinton Battle

Jan. 30, age 67 | Dancer, singer, actor and choreographer, who urged audiences to “Ease on Down the Road” as the Scarecrow in Broadway’s “The Wiz” and who later won three Tony Awards while performing acrobatic leaps, percussive taps and 190-degree kicks across the stage and screen. (Pictured, right) | Read more

Ellen Gilchrist

Jan. 30, age 88 | National Book Award-winning author, who channeled the people and places of the American South in wry and poignant prose, populating her novels and stories with independent-minded women who — like the author herself — resisted being forced into traditional roles as demure debutantes, wives and mothers. | Read more

Carl Weathers

Feb. 1, age 76 | Former NFL linebacker turned muscle-flexing actor in action fare, memorably as nemesis-turned-ally Apollo Creed in the “Rocky” franchise. (Pictured, right) | Read more

Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez

Feb. 2, age 75 | American soprano, who had recently established herself as an opera singer in real life when she was cast by a French director to play one on-screen in the 1981 movie “Diva,” a cult film that lodged her in the memory of generations of art house audiences. | Read more

Brooke Ellison

Feb. 4, age 45 | Disability rights activist, who was paralyzed from the neck down in an accident at age 11, graduated from Harvard University and became a professor and advocate for people with disabilities. | Read more

Feb. 5, age 62 | Toby Keith, a former rodeo hand, oil rigger and semipro football player who became a rowdy king of country music, singing patriotic anthems, wry drinking songs and propulsive odes to cowboy culture that collectively sold more than 40 million records. | Read more | See more photos

Seiji Ozawa

Feb. 6, age 88 | Shaggy-haired, high-voltage Japanese maestro, who served as music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra for almost 30 years and was among the first Asian conductors to win world renown leading a classical orchestra. | Read more

Anthony Epstein

Feb. 6, age 102 | British pathologist, whose chance attendance at a lecture on childhood tumors in Africa began years of scientific sleuthing that led to the discovery of the ultra-common Epstein-Barr virus and opened expansive research into its viral links to cancers and other chronic ailments. | Read more

Feb. 10, age 96 | He helped create the on-the-go breakfast as an inventor of Pop-Tarts, leading the Michigan baking team that developed an unpretentious, toaster-friendly pastry with a fruity filling and ineffable space-age sweetness. | Read more

Alexei Navalny

Feb. 16, age 47 | Steely Russian lawyer, who exposed corruption, self-dealing and abuse of power by Russian President Vladimir Putin and his cronies, sustaining a popular challenge to Putin for more than a decade despite constant pressure from the authorities and a near-fatal poisoning. | Read more | See more photos

Lefty Driesell

Feb. 17, age 92 | Head coach, who, in 17 seasons, built the University of Maryland into a college basketball power with ACC and NIT titles. | Read more

Princess Ira von Fürstenberg

Feb. 18, age 83 | Doe-eyed bon vivant, who first dazzled paparazzi as a teen bride of a playboy prince and who became an epitome of jet-set glamour and intrigue as a model in Paris, a movie temptress and a globe-trotting socialite who mingled with royalty, rogues and celebrities. | Read more

Hydeia Broadbent

Feb. 20, age 39 | She was born with HIV and spent nearly her entire life — ever since she was a young girl — as an advocate for HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention. | Read more

Roger Guillemin

Feb. 21, age 100 | Nobel Prize-winning physician, whose work on hormones produced by the brain helped lead to the development of the birth control pill and treatments for prostate and other cancers, and who engaged for decades in a famously scathing but productive scientific rivalry. | Read more

Roni Stoneman

Feb. 22, age 85 | The “first lady of the banjo,” who picked her way into bluegrass and country music history as a member of the Stoneman Family band and found wider fame as an irascible performer on “Hee Haw,” the down-home variety show. | Read more

Irene Camber

Feb. 23, age 98 | Italian fencer whose elegant wielding of the foil earned her a gold medal at the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki and an enduring reputation as a grande dame of her sport. | Read more

Richard Lewis

Feb. 27, age 76 | Black-clad stand-up comic, who mined guilt, anxiety and neurosis for laughs — naming some of his cable specials “I’m in Pain,” “I’m Exhausted” and “I’m Doomed” — and played a semi-fictionalized version of himself on HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” | Read more

Feb. 28, age 102 | Holocaust survivor, who endured years in Nazi concentration camps and two death marches before settling in Skokie, Ill., where he helped rally opposition to a planned neo-Nazi demonstration in the late 1970s that produced one of the most explosive cases in First Amendment law. | Read more

March 1, age 102 | New York textile designer, socialite and self-described “geriatric starlet,” who became an unlikely fashion celebrity in her 80s for her outré style. | Read more | See more photos

Juli Lynne Charlot

March 3, age 101 | Creator of ’50s “poodle skirt’” fad, a simple idea for the Christmas party outfit that turned into one of the defining looks of an era. | Read more

David E. Harris

March 8, age 89 | Former Air Force flier, who in the 1960s became the first Black pilot for a major U.S. passenger airline after battles by others to enter the industry, including a landmark anti-discrimination claim backed by the Supreme Court. | Read more

Dorie Ladner

March 11, age 81 | Dorie Ladner, who joined the civil rights movement as a teenager in Mississippi, braving gunfire, tear gas, police dogs and Ku Klux Klansmen in an undaunted campaign for racial equality. | Read more

Paul Alexander

March 11, age 78 | He was stricken with polio at age 6, earned a law degree and wrote a 2020 memoir about his life using the iron lung chamber to help him breathe. | Read more

David Mixner

March 11, age 77 | Political strategist, who helped move gay rights to the center of American politics and put his long friendship with Bill Clinton on the line over the president’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy barring gay people from serving openly in the military. | Read more

Helma Goldmark

March 15, age 98 | Holocaust refugee, who joined resistance, fled her native Austria and made her way to Italy, where as a teen she helped secure supplies for an operation that produced false documents for Jewish refugees. | Read more

Betty Cole Dukert

March 16, age 96 | Producer, who spent four decades as a behind-the-scenes power of the NBC weekly public affairs show “Meet the Press,” rising to executive producer of the program and helping secure guests spanning the ideological spectrum from Fidel Castro to Ross Perot. | Read more

Rose Dugdale

March 18, age 82 | English heiress, and debutante at a 1958 Buckingham Palace ball, who in 1974 was masterminding plots for the Irish Republican Army. | Read more

Martin Greenfield

March 20, age 95 | Tailor to presidents and stars, who, unbeknownst to many of his celebrity clients, learned his craft at Auschwitz and who came to America as his family’s sole survivor of the Holocaust. | Read more

Peter G. Angelos

March 23, age 94 | Baltimore lawyer, who won hundreds of millions of dollars for workers injured by exposure to asbestos, then became wider known to the public as the combative chief owner of the Baltimore Orioles for three decades. | Read more

Joseph Lieberman

March 27, age 82 | A doggedly independent four-term U.S. senator from Connecticut who was the Democratic nominee for vice president in 2000, becoming the first Jewish candidate on the national ticket of a major party. (Pictured, right) | Read more | See more photos

Louis Gossett Jr.

March 29, age 87 | Actor, who brought authority to hundreds of screen roles, winning an Oscar as a Marine drill instructor in “An Officer and a Gentleman” and an Emmy Award as a wise, older guide to the enslaved Kunta Kinte in the groundbreaking miniseries “Roots.” (Pictured, left) | Read more | See more photos

April 1, age 102 | Navy lieutenant commander and the last living survivor of the USS Arizona battleship, which exploded and sank during the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor. | Read more

O.J. Simpson

April 10, age 76 | Football superstar, who became a symbol of domestic violence and racial division after he was found not guilty of murdering his ex-wife and her friend in a trial that riveted the nation and had legal and cultural repercussions for years afterward. | Read more | See more photos

Notable deaths of 2023

Photo editing by Stephen Cook, Jennifer Beeson Gregory and Dee Swann. Copy editing by Shibani Shah.

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Picture Books

Can Reading About Trauma Help Kids Cope?

Two new picture books dive into refugee childhoods.

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By Alan Gratz

Alan Gratz is the author of the middle grade novels “Two Degrees,” about young people facing natural disasters, and “Refugee.” His latest novel, “Heroes,” about the attack on Pearl Harbor, was published in February.

Do children’s books about frightening events make the very young more afraid, or do they comfort them?

THE MANGO TREE (Abrams, 48 pp., $18.99, ages 4 to 8) , by Edel Rodriguez, author of the graphic memoir “Worm: A Cuban American Odyssey,” begins happily enough. Its opening pages are a succession of vibrant, stylized images in ruby red, dandelion yellow, harlequin green and turquoise blue that show an island, at first in the distance, far away from the ocean’s fantastical, writhing sea monsters; then closer up, a junglelike Eden brimming with flora and fauna — with a potted, perfectly round mango tree, in which two boys play, at its heart.

The mango tree is everything to the friends, both home and haven. They swing from its branches and fly kites from its top, all the while eating mangoes and drinking mango juice, and taunt the island’s horned, fanged beasts from a place of safety high above.

But a storm comes, as storms inevitably do, and the world turns menacingly monochromatic.

One of the boys is swept out to sea with the tree, its pot becoming his lifeboat. The boy, the tree, a dove they’d raised amid its boughs, and a lone mango travel the monster-infested ocean until they reach another shore.

This island, too, is filled with technicolor plants and animals, but these are different. Alien.

There are people here as well — blue people — and they welcome him. With their help, the boy plants his mango in a new pot. Soon there is a new mango tree, something familiar among all these strange and beautiful things.

Rodriguez’s vivid, woodblock-printing-style illustrations had me marveling at how a simple shape becomes a leaf, a kite, a fin, a house.

The wordless scenes, each filling a double-page spread, make the book feel a bit like a handful of panels in a very short comic book. But the absence of text gives the story a dreamlike, fairy-tale quality. The nameless boy becomes The Boy. The nameless island The Island. The nameless beasts The Beasts. In the absence of narration, readers of all ages will inhabit the child’s journey on their own terms, making “The Mango Tree” an absorbingly personal experience.

In SIMONE (Minerva, 48 pp., $18.99, ages 5 to 9) , written by the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Viet Thanh Nguyen (“The Sympathizer”) and illustrated by Minnie Phan (“The Yellow Áo Dài”), pictures and words tell the story of a young girl driven from her home by wildfires. Simone’s mother wakes her in the night, and with go-bags, the family dog and a few prized possessions they flee in their car. (Along the way, California’s brave emergency workers, including the state prisoners who have volunteered to fight the fires, are given their due.)

Simone’s mother is a two-time climate refugee — first from the floods that drove her from her home as a child in Vietnam, and now ferrying her own child away from wildfires.

They take shelter at a school gym, where Simone hears phrases like “climate catastrophe” and “global warming,” noting that “the adults were louder than the kids.” She shares her crayons with other children in the shelter, and for a short time they forget their troubles through art and friendship. A few days later, the lucky ones like Simone and her mother are able to return to their homes. “But what about the next time?” Simone worries. “Who would save us?”

Phan’s simple, charming style is reminiscent of Lois Lenski’s. Like Rodriguez in “The Mango Tree,” Phan paints the world during the natural disaster as devoid of color, except for points of focus: the orange flames outside the window, the blue water dumped from planes, the yellow jackets of firefighters, Simone’s box of rainbow-colored crayons. Only when the fire is gone does the color begin to seep back into the rest of Simone’s world, mirroring her own hesitant relief and the slow return of her confidence.

Both books demonstrate what newcomers add to the communities where they find refuge, but also what is lost in the process. The boy in “The Mango Tree” still has mangoes but not the best friend who once spent every day with him. Simone’s mother has her daughter, and a dry roof over their heads, but she realizes to her surprise that the American-raised Simone doesn’t know the Vietnamese word for water. There is a price to be paid for safety.

When Simone is feeling scared and helpless in the shelter, she remembers something her mother once told her: “You don’t fight fire with fire. You fight fire with water.” In the same way, you don’t fight fear with fear. You fight it with fear’s antidote: the truth. Both “The Mango Tree” and “Simone” do that in gentle, moving ways, showing young children that yes, there is sadness and suffering in the world, but we have family and friends and other helpers to see us through.

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