![dead realm fuse dead realm fuse](https://www.gamespot.com/a/uploads/scale_medium/1593/15930215/3590659-nioh-2-screen-21-ps4-us-10sep19.jpg)
The rest of the population, the vast majority, were serfs, peasants tied to the land, and thus subject to the power of their local daimyo. The land was ruled, theoretically, by a great warlord, or “Shogun.” Power on the local level, however-real power, that is-lay in the hands of the large landholders, the “daimyo.” Each daimyo had his own band of armed men, knights known as samurai who were sworn to serve him. This was a symbolic earthquake, one that rocked the very foundations of Japanese life, traditions, and society, and in many ways, Japan still deals with the aftermath today. Not the seismic variety, the kind that shakes the ground under your feet. The date is July 8, 1853, and an earthquake is about to hit Japan. To understand this world-historical event, you have to travel backwards in time-pretty far back, in fact, to the middle of the nineteenth century. Sure, you can always find near-term factors that explain an event, but it is equally important to study the “long fuse”-the long-term causes that extend back into the past.Īnd so it is with Pearl Harbor. They’ve often been months, years, even decades or centuries in the making. Roosevelt told the American people that the Japanese attack was an act of “infamy,” a crime, and that was a compelling explanation for most of his listeners, enough to lead his country to war.Īsk any historian, and they’ll usually tell you that historical events don’t just come out of nowhere.
![dead realm fuse dead realm fuse](https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/qconline.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/0/a3/0a39eb7c-83c3-51e0-8c9a-250301348566/5fed06abc6fe9.image.jpg)
What made Japan decide to strike? What were relations between the two countries like at the time? How had things gotten to this point? President Franklin D. In 75 minutes, more than 2,400 Americans are killed and 19 US Navy vessels damaged or destroyed.Įver since that day-announced to a shocked listening public back home via the magic of radio, Americans have been trying to make sense of it. The attack comes, for most Americans, like a bolt out of the blue, early on a Sunday morning. A surprise attack by aviators of the Imperial Japanese Navy hits the unprepared US Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.