The attack on Pearl Harbor Since its inception, the United States has tried not to "establish alliances" with other countries (Wels,44). The United States rejected alliances with the League of Nations and the Treaty of Versailles (Wels,44). The United States was very clear that it wanted nothing to do with national affairs. On the other side of the world was Japan, a struggling country just like the United States. Japan was hit by depression, lack of vital food supplies and raw materials (Wels,44). Year after year, Japan has denied the opportunity for “territorial expansion” by taking control of neighboring countries. Due to the global context of the time, the attack on Pearl Harbor had a significant impact on American history. Yamamoto began planning the air attack on Pearl Harbor, known as “Operation Hawaii” (Wels, 66). The attack would be launched from a fleet of aircraft carriers. The Japanese naval fleet that would carry out the attack on Pearl Harbor consisted of destroyers, heavy cruisers, light cruisers, and many other ships (Wels,66). Japan was aiming for a near-term surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto did not think that Japan would be able to win a long-term war with the United States, due to the lack of surplus (Wels,51). This however did not stop Yamamoto, he calculated that Japan would have a chance if the US Pacific Fleet was eliminated. This is exactly what he did. As the sun began to rise over Pearl Harbor on December 7, 183 Japanese planes flew south to make history in the Pacific. Following these planes were 43 Japanese Zeros, 51 dive bombers and 49 high-altitude bombers carrying 1,786-pound bombs each, and 40 torpedo bombers made specifically for the attack on Pearl Harbor (Wels, 112). Again…middle of the paper…with terrible determination” (Davenport, 91). Despite Yamamoto and Naguno's immediate fame and success, everything happened really fast. Yamamoto was killed in 1943, when his plane was shot down by American fighters. As for Naguno, he decided his own fate by committing suicide in 194, failing to bring final victory to Japan (Davenport,97). Soon the Americans came up with a plan, a counterattack, trying to strike at the heart of Japan in Tokyo. The United States called this operation the “Doolittle” raid (FSBR). The attack was planned to take out multiple fuel furnaces and assembly plants. Unfortunately the raid did not go as planned and only scored one hit on one facility (FSBR). Despite the failure of the “Doolittle” raid, it still significantly improved American and Chinese morale (FSBR). Back at Pearl Harbor, sailors and cleanup crews began cleaning up the massive carnage from the recent attack.