The origin, growth and development of Japanese art and culture Term Paper

The origin, growth and development of Japanese art and culture - Term Paper Example Most of the Asian fashion designs might seem to be imitations of the European styles, but this is not the case in actual sense. On the other hand, it would be absurd to ignore the impact that the Western countries have had on the East. In the entire development period which was most vibrant during the twentieth century, aesthetics and other methods where gotten from the European countries and many Asians where proud to recognize the efforts of Western countries. As the poet Tekkan once mentioned, â€Å"We love the poetry of our predecessors, who are both from the West and the East† (Arrowsmith, 2011, p.28). The beginning of the Metropolitan Court Culture By the occurrence of the Heian period, which was between 794-1185, the Japanese governing system was not fully transformed. During this period, power in Japan had been transferred to the emperor and his ministers. The quasi-independent aristocracy was now changed to the metropolitan elite that comprised of the rituals, intrigu es, history and the imperial courts. The most fundamental happening during this revolution was the adoption of the Chinese cultures and civilization. In 618, a dynasty known as Tang was established and it reigned for almost 300 years. During this period, most of the Chinese cultures acquired their flowering and maturity. ... These styles were unique, and an example is the three dimensionality and realism by the use of models in visual arts. In no time, the art designs and models came to be known as Tang International Styles (Mason, 2005, p.41). The Art of Buddhism Buddhism is one of the earliest arts that were established in China. By the mid years of the fifth century, Koguryo and Paekche, which were all Korean kingdoms, had adopted the art of Buddhism. Silla also adopted the art during the same period as the Korean kingdoms. During the Tang, just as the other Chinese dynasties, the Buddhism community played a vital role in the general affairs of the nations that adopted it. With well located monasteries and temples, the Chinese empire was inhabited by the Buddhist community that managed to make the Tang emperor the most supreme authority on the planet. In an artistic view, the Buddhist community can be said to be the richest, as arts lead to wealth and influence. As the Tang International Style is stil l embraced and praised in the four corners of the earth, its originality is reflected on the surviving paintings and sculptures of the Buddhists (Mason, 2005, p.41). The Paekche embassies, including that of 584 and 552, were unable to introduce Buddhism to Japan. However, they managed to attract the attention of Prince Shotoku who was a champion of the Buddhist cause. By 587, Buddhism had gained control in the Japanese Imperial government and was in fact a crucial foothold. In less than a century, the art has spread and was now in Yamato itself, under the regimes of Tenmu the emperor and Jito the empress who was Tenmu’s successor. Jito officially advocated Buddhism as one of the vital instruments in the

Research-based Reading Program Essay Example for Free

Research-based Reading Program Essay The Texas Reading Initiative has outlined a fairly comprehensive statement on the value of reading and the significance of infusing the habit of literacy among the young. Besides teaching/conducting a reading program per se, the quality, depth and integrity of such teaching methodology is equally important. This is the main reason why most reading advocates have bannered the discourse of a â€Å"research based† reading program rather than the traditional teaching methodology for teaching children how to read. It works on the emerging assumption that teaching the young is delicate enough for the reading teacher to adapt a research-based method. The paper on Components of a Research-based Reading Program, part of the Red Book Series by the Texas Education Agency, outlines the fundamental attributes of the recent development of teaching reading among the young. It is composed of a deeper understanding of the recesses of a child’s mind, its formation, development and predictable growth (Hilgard, 2001). Generally, the essential attributes of these Twelve Essential Components comprise an advanced understanding of adult-child training and communication: the Teacher-Trainer, the channel and the recipient (the child). These maybe the basic attributes of ordinary communication but an analysis of the paper can reveal that the communication framework is actually the basis of this research-based program, not to mention that the concept of code interpretation and language are involved and mentioned in that paper. The two ends of this communication curve, the Teacher-trainer and the child are the live working elements of this reading program, which makes the simplest components. What is generally interesting in these Twelve Components is the channel element and how the child decodes the communication. The paper frequently discusses the concept of language and how the child perceives instruction from the teacher, which is its whole point. This is the brunt/meat of the teaching methodology, where the paper discusses â€Å"opportunities† and â€Å"strategies† to aid child development. Such things are stated on the paper as to how to exploit the nature of the language channel, where educators strategically use the oral component to understand the written language-the act of reading. According to the authors, by the oral way, the child is directed into opportunities for appreciating sounds, its differences and â€Å"referents†, a concept used by linguists. They say that children may read aloud and â€Å"understand their building blocks† (www. tea. com), which we assume as auditory building blocks. This may imply that to reinforce one’s reading, one has to learn how to speak it first, using the auditory logic of the language’s construction, thus utilizing the nature of the child’s brain to absorb these â€Å"building blocks† into communicative memory (www. childdevelopmentinfo. com). And of course, there is the written format to contend with. This is where the recipient can visually decode using some of the strategies. Decoding in this context means visually playing with the language construction (â€Å"wordplay† as the paper says) through â€Å"blending† and what they call â€Å"word families† and writing patterns. On a lighter note, there is nothing new about the research-based reading program offered by the Texas Reading Initiative. The allegedly â€Å"new† methodology works much like teaching a foreign language to students in the collegiate level, but in the child’s case, localized and specialized for a kindergarten or grade-schooler. The same opportunities and teaching strategies have existed in basic foreign language class in university, and child psychologists seem to find it effective if made easier for children. Reference: Child Development Institute. Reading Improvement. Retrieved January 27, 2008, from http://www. childdevelopmentinfo. com/store/reading-improvement. htm. Hilgard, E. R. (2001). Introduction to Psychology. New York : Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

Improving Mother/Daughter Relationships in Amy Tan’s Joy Luck Club Essa

Improving Mother/Daughter Relationships in Amy Tan’s Joy Luck Club One day everything is going great, in fact things could not be better and then you say something and your friend turns to you and says â€Å"oh my god, you sounded just like your mother†.   That is when you freak out and think to yourself it is true I am turning into my mother.   This is every daughters worst nightmare come true.   When a young girl is growing up her mother always says and does things that the girl vows she will never say and do but she does.   Very rarely do we see cases of women wanted to be like their mother but it usually happens even if they do not want it to.   In the book The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan tells stories of four Chinese immigrant mothers and their relationships with the American born daughters.   In this novel, Tan shows us the struggle these mothers face in teaching their American daughters about their heritage.   Throughout the novel it becomes evident that the daughters feel it is important to learn about their history and dev elop stronger relationships with their mothers Throughout the novel the reader is introduced to the characters one by one learning about their past and their present lives.  Ã‚   Each chapter deals with individual stories of relationships between husband and wife, mother and daughter,   and even daughter and daughter.   Every story helps the reader learn how important the mother daughter relationship is in The Joy Luck Club. First, Suyuan Woo who is actually dead but story is told by her daughter Jing-Mei Woo.   Suyuan Woo started the Joy Luck Club when she came to America so she and other Chinese immigrants could talk about Chinese culture and how to carry on traditions and make living conditions better for her... ...ws us that for young women to understand themselves they must understand their mothers.   The mother daughter relationship in The Joy Luck Club is illustrated through a learning process especially in Waverly and Jing-Mei’s situations.  Ã‚   Each women has to learn though her mother and her own feelings what it is like to become Chinese because that is basically what this book’s theme is.   Through the novel the women are developing mentally through experience some positive and some negative.   Each women finds herself through her mother and comes to peace with themselves Work Cited Tan, Amy. The Joy Luck Club. New York: Random House, 1989. Sources Consulted Do, Thuan Thi. Chinese-American Women in American Culture. 1992 http://www.ics.uci.edu/~tdo/ea/chinese.html Jokinen, Anniina. Anniina's Amy Tan Page. 1996 http://www.luminarium.org/contemporary/amytan/

Innovative Human Resource Practices : Global Perspective.

Innovative Human Resource Practices : Global Perspective. â€Å"Any company that’s going to make it in the 1990’s and beyond has got to find a way to engage the mind of every single employee. If you are not thinking all the time about making every employee more valuable, you don’t have a chance. What’s the alternative? Wasted minds? Uninvolved people? A labour force that’s angry or bored? That doesn’t make sense. † – Jack Welch Positively correlated with the economic transition is the strengthening and diversification of human resource management practices, a break away from the more traditional, though extremely challenging fields of Personal Management and Industrial Relations. The maturity of various industries in India has also seen a maturity in the way the various players approach their human resource management. One excellent example is that of BPO Industry. In the beginning it was only meant to handle non-core activities like payroll management etc. ut as the industry-matured it saw the entry of various players coming-up with strategic core service support like NAD, RR&D etc. This led to a stronger focus on HRM. What is happening in India today is similar to the experiences of economically developed nations through several past decades; and will happen in least developed countries too, in times to come. Hence, it would be prudent to talk of modern human resource practices in a more general, i. e. , global framework. Of course, contextual peculiarities will only serve to enrich our knowledge pool. But the first thing we need to clear – both at a conceptual and at a terminological level – what we are looking for. The main task is to find a common definition of ‘innovative practices’, a definition that most of us could agree upon in order to avoid conflicting interpretations or misunderstandings, â€Å"Innovative practices are original, exemplary, successful, adaptable, new solutions gained from experience†. Undoubtedly, the â€Å"Innovative Practices† when considered are large in variety. They range from the introduction of new technologies to the assignment of new duties to the increase in competences, they test new organizational models, and they introduce innovative tools of social and political governance at a local level. Modern workplaces are extremely complex situations in which all the elements: the nature of the job, the characteristics of the employee, the structure of the organization/ organizational sub-unit as well as the methods and aims of supervision are extremely diverse and/or fluid. And, as a response, have emerged, a wide variety of innovative HR practices. The first element common is the need for innovation and experimentation, which are required in order to cope with the change in the sector as workforce around the world, has undergone a serious transformation. Changing demographic patterns, income levels, aspirations & expectations have given rise to a more demanding & aware work force. Let’s take the example of a BPO where in order to retain employees, industry is adopting new and innovative ways. The following example helps us to understand how the industry is attracting people. â€Å"MSR works for four days every week and gets to put her feet up for the rest of the week. MSR is part of a 20-member team at a leading BPO, WNS Global Services. While the company claimed every employee followed a five-day week, an insider said that the new four-day system has been introduced as a pilot project for an US insurance firm. The insurer apparently offers a similar option to its call centre employees in the US. Workers opting for the four-day system get a normal weekend off and another holiday mid-week. However, they have to work for 11 hours on normal workdays compared to nine hours that their colleagues following a usual week put in. The pay is no different either. MSR says that she finds this comfortable as she is in the office for most of the day or night. It does not make much of a difference if she stays on for another couple of hours making it 11 hours a day. But she is happy to have a full day off that gives her more time to be with her family. † Just like above mentioned example many BPOs are following various innovative practices in the form of new HR incentives. They have tried many incentives such as encouraging people to get their family to work in the same place or creating recreational opportunities. A senior professor of organizational behavior at XLRI, India observed that after a point, money would not matter and personal life becomes very important. Companies are trying to reduce the gap between official life and personal life. They are trying to take care of employees’ personal life as much as possible. That is why the employers are trying to make the organization a fun workplace, offering facilities like gym, sauna and games. Some companies also arrange to take care of errands such as paying electricity and telephone bills to help the employees reducing their personal work loads. Let’s look at some of the issues calling for more innovative human resource practices: 1. Technology, Change and Resistance to Change. Needless to say, one big player is Technology. Hard technology created alienation amongst workers and it continues to do so in softer avatars. The introduction of amazing new technologies have increased the speed at which other organizations will copy your best practices so it is necessary to speed up the rate of innovation in everything in business. In short, innovation is the last remaining competitive advantage in business — and HR and recruiting are not exempt from this fact. Perhaps this quote will illustrate the speed in which companies are required to innovate: â€Å"Innovation is what is at the foundation of the U. S. economy. Just to give you a simple example of my company†¦ about 90 percent of December revenue comes from products which were not there in January. That sort of innovation, which is a total turnover of our revenue every year, is indicative of what innovation means to us. You miss a cycle of innovation, your revenue disappears. † — Craig Barrett, CEO of Intel Witness the sustained employee- resistance, covert or overt, to technology introduction. In earlier decades, workers resisted mechanization for fear of job-loss. These days, computerization efforts are given the boot as it requires new learning. Again witness the very high implementation – failure rates of what were once thought of as panacea for all organizational ills: Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. What actually failed was the proper integration of the Human layer with the Technological one. And now the flipside- Technology helps organizations co-ordinate the complex task of human resource management. Human Resource Management solutions (HRMS) are available in flexible, web- based modules like: — Employee Performance Management (including eAppraisal, Trainning & Development, Goal allocation & Tracking, Multi- Rater Feedback, Performance Linked Bonus etc. ). A lot of companies / HR consultants get custom software built for the purpose on Oracle, but the functionality is similar, which filters and web support etc. Some of the software that support various HR Functions are : Instant HR Software 2. 0. 94 (Manage human resources, personnel records, leave and benefits. , ERP Flex – HR 1 (Manage detailed information of your employees, various evaluations, and trainings. ), The Garuda Preference Profile 2. 1 (Analyze, describe, and measure essential competences, statistics and job-requirements. ) etc. — Human Capital Management including Employee Database (HRIS), Employee Self- Services, Payroll Manager, Online Compensation Planning etc. ) — eRecruitment ( incl uding Recruitment portal, Transfer Management etc. ) — Strategic HR Tools (including Organization Alignment, Succession Planning, Manpower Planning, Leadership Effectiveness Surveys, and Employee Satisfaction Surveys etc. 2. The Gen-Y gauntlet: ‘Challenge me; Develop me; Pay me’ All across the world, and especially in demographically young countries like India, the workforce has come to share certain common features: young age, high levels of intelligence as well as education, a comfortable upbringing, very high aspirational levels and high mobility ( not only physical but also emotional). Coupled these with a relative indifference towards hierarchy, bureaucracy, titles and bonuses and the HR manager has a serious retention and motivation problem at hand as these young people are different. Their motivation, their technical sophistication, and their demand for respect and responsibility are leaving many company executives to wonder: â€Å"What should we do with Generation Y? It’s clear that harnessing the power of these young people is an issue many companies have started to address. Generation Y is innovative and creative. They seek to make a difference and want to produce something worthwhile. Companies that don’t find a way to harness that energy very quickly are likely going to lose out. Generation Y is also impatient; they expect speed and change and won’t tolerate situations that don’t make sense to them. Technology advancements are in part responsible for the generation’s sense of urgency. This generation is connected 24/7. Their exuberant, impatient style may be frustrating to older executives who dismiss Generation Y as inexperienced. At work, Generation Y thrives on flexibility, having space to explore, and the opportunity to pursue new challenges. They expect to be respected for their ideas and insights from Day One, and they think face time and corporate politics are a waste of time. They’d also like to stay with one company – if that company offers them ongoing opportunities to grow and learn new things. So HR practitioners should adopt some practical steps to consider toward change. Start by determining the company’s need for Generation Y talent over the next three to five years, and don’t forget to anticipate the retirement of Baby Boomers or the shortage of Generation Xers. Try to assess the workplace relative to what Generation Yers want: long-term career development, multiple experiences within a single company, flexibility, sense of purpose and meaning in work, respect, and open communication. Finally, develop a generational change plan with the support of senior leaders in the company and pay particular attention to communicating the plan’s purpose and details so that people feel comfortable with the changes. 3. The ‘Creating a Great Place to Work’ Contest. Yes. Like Reality Shows on TV, this new contest has also entered HRM- space in India. Every self – respecting organization wants to be on the bandwagon (or at least seen to be on it). HR managers take this issue seriously as the quality of the workplace impacts directly on issues of customer service and productivity. The connection to customer service has been shown in numerous studies. A famous 1998 study published in the Harvard Business Review article â€Å"The Employee-Customer-Profit Chain at Sears† showed that an increase in employee satisfaction at a store resulted in an increase in customer satisfaction, which in turn resulted in higher profitability for the store. There have been similar studies in the hospital industry, showing that improvements in workplace environments result in better patient satisfaction. A Financial Services & Insurance / Morgan Stanley company of United States takes care of its work environment in order to increase productivity and retain employees. Employees at this investment bank are cared for with benefits that include two on-site restaurants, two health clubs, a medical clinic, dry cleaner, and back-up child care services – one of many initiatives set-up to promote better work/life balance. But what really keeps employees here is the sense among them that they are all seen as people first, not just employees. Phrases such as â€Å"we hire nice people†, and â€Å"talent is more important than specific skill† indicate that managers at Morgan Stanley are willing to invest in people to help them grow and learn, and thus create a career for themselves. This is not the only company there are various company all over the world which are focusing on this very issue of work life. Witness the following initiatives: Sasken’s ‘People First’ policy: shifting focus from consumer to employees; Marriott Hotels’ ‘Guarantee of Fair Treatment’ (GIFT); SCOPE’s (Standard Chartered Operations Co. ‘Switch Jobs Without Quitting’ (SJWQ); Godrej Consumer Products’ Policy on Sexual Harassment (POSH); Sapient Community Outreach Programme (SAPPORT); Sasken’s ‘Hibernation Leave’ concept etc. Thus organization need to understand that mere talk about creating a â€Å"customer- centric† organization is not enough y ou need to provide a working example of how it’s done. Now that we have seen few issues which are very important in today’s scenario to be taken care of let us see few examples of the companies that are following innovative practices in their organizations. The below mentioned examples give a view that companies are following across the world innovative practices that can help them to retain, develop and motivate their people. 7 creative ways that leading companies use to maximize the power of people. 1. Support and Accountability for New recruits at Trilogy Software Trilogy Software, inc among the world’s largest privately held software companies pushes the responsibility of grooming new hires into the organization on their sponsors. As a result, if the new hires make the grade, the sponsors are paid $ 1,000 bonus. If the new hires fail, the sponsors are required to pay $4,000. As most sponsors hold stock options worth millions of dollars so the penalisation does not mean much to them. However, what happens is those who fail examine why their recruit failed and take steps to avoid those mistakes. 2. Jeff Taylor, Founder and CEO of Monster on the importance of having a good time with employees. â€Å"We have a full breakfast bar at our company. We bring in 500 bagels and fresh cut fruit in the morning. We have a gym with a trainer. We have parties once a quarter, where we invite the employees to come and have a good time. † 3. Practice what CEO of SAS, Dr. James Goodnight calls â€Å"Management by Loitering† â€Å"It’s just to be seen walking around and talking to people, and finding out what they’re working on and basically being approachable. You know a lot of things that don’t really come up through the management ranks and some times you find out some very interesting things that people are working on. . 4. Larry Page on automating Performance Tracking at Google. â€Å"We did a simple thing that in retrospect was brilliant: We wrote a program that asks every engineer what they did every week. It sends them an email on Monday, and concatenates the emails together in a document that everyone can read. And it then sends that out to everyone and shames those who did not answer by putting him or her on the top of the list. It has run reliably every week since we started, so forever week of our company’s history we have a record of what everyone did. It’s good for performance reviews, and if you’re joining a project team, in five minutes you can read what your team members did last week or months. † 5. Andy Taylor, Enterprise Rent a Car on Relentless Customer Focus â€Å"So we decided that we had to add some metrics to our customer satisfaction. We created a measurement called ESQi, which is the Enterprise Service Quality index. It’s a statistically valid sample of customers’ opinions taken monthly, at every one of our branches. The customer gets called seven to ten days following the close of the rental. We have an outside company to collect the data, and there are basically two questions. The first asks about the customer’s satisfaction level, with five answers ranging from â€Å"completely satisfied† to â€Å"completely dissatisfied†, and the second asks how likely he would be to return to Enterprise. Beginning in 1996 we told all employees, if you’re not at corporate average or above on your ESQi, your not getting promoted. And all of a sudden, customer satisfaction went to the top of the list. The ESQi has given us a greater sense of urgency and I would consider that the greatest change that has occurred here. The process enables us to go from being a nearly $2 billion business in 1994 to a $7 billion-plus business today. † 6. Staying in touch at Walmart â€Å"At retail giant Walmart, every Monday, members of the senior executive team head out to Walmart stores around the world, where they talk with managers, employees and customers. To ensure that they get a complete picture, they also pay a few visits to competitor’s stores. On Thursday evening, they return to corporate headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas, armed with new insights about the market and their people. There, they discuss what they’ve seen and heard, thus allowing the organization to modify its strategies. On Saturday thousands of store managers participate in a videoconference and the senior team shares their observations and provides direction for the coming week. Come Monday, They’re on the road again. 7. Take Employee Feedback like IBM IBM held a three-day discussion via the corporate intranet to debate and discuss about the company’s values, the nature of the organisation and what it stood for. The forum dubbed â€Å"ValuesJam† attracted about 50,000 of IBM’s employees and elicited about 10,000 comments about the proposed values. Thus we can see how little innovation in your practices can enhance not only your employee performance but also your organization performance. Basics are always the same, the only thing we can do is bring or use innovative ways to improve your working and efficiency of your employees. References http://www. deloitte. com/dtt/cda/doc/content/us_consulting_hc_dbrief_150606. pdf http://www. specht. com. au/michael/2007/05/16/gen-y-in-the-workforce/ http://resources. greatplacetowork. com/article/pdf/levering_web. pdf http://www. citehr. com AUTHOR – SHALIKA GRACE PHILLIPS, ASSISTANT POFESSOR, LAL BAHADUR SHASTRI INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT AND TECHNOLOGY, BAREILLY.

CheckPoint: Conflict

Conflict is an inevitable part of life whether it is in relationships, socially, or between nations. Most conflicts arise from differing points of view on actions or goals and how they are handled can lead to a ceasefire or the breakup of one’s relationships. Conflict resolution skills are needed when navigating the stormy waters of conflict. How one perceives the goals and intentions of others can lead to misconceptions. When an individual or group perceives another’s intentions are harmful conflict will arise. It is human nature to believe that one’s group is different or better than another group. Forming an â€Å"in-group bias† will lead one to look for evidence to support one’s negative opinions of others. Stereotyping is often behind negative opinions and misconceptions that lead to conflicts. Perceptions are the way a person thinks or views another so, perceptions would factor greatly into conflicts. A negative mirror-image perception will cause one to over exaggerate the differences often held by parties in conflict; for example, each party may view itself as ethical and peaceable and the other as wicked and hostile. Viewing others in this light will only inflame the controversy and lead to more conflict. Learning how to view conflict differently can bring about peaceable solutions. Certain methods must be employed for reconciliation to occur. Exposure and close proximity will lead to learning more about the other person. A better understanding helps to foster closeness and common interest. If one is around someone regularly, one will learn how to get along with the other person. When parties whom are at odds with each other work together on a common goal, they each learn to develop comradeship. Cooperation can facilitate in conflict resolution as well. Communicating effectively in conflict is huge in learning to resolve issues and have reconciliation. Negotiations when resolving conflicts should include bargaining, mediation and coming to an understanding with each other. If you cannot communicate with someone properly, this will lead to more conflict.

Participles and Perfect Verb Tenses

Participles and Perfect Verb Tenses Participles and Perfect Verb Tenses Participles and Perfect Verb Tenses By Maeve Maddox Some comments I received on the post about the forms of the irregular verb drink indicate that not everyone is clear as to how participles are used to form verb tenses that use the helping verbs has, have and had. Heres a review. Participles are verb forms, but they are incomplete. In order to function as real verbs, they must be used with helping verbs. English has two participles: the present participle and the past participle. The present participle always ends in -ing: jumping, skiing, writing, drinking, sighing, etc. The past participle usually ends in -ed, as in called, climbed, interrogated, and studied. Many verbs, however, have past participles that do not end in -ed. Some, for example, end in -en: write/wrote/(have) written bite/bit/(have) bitten take/took/(have) taken Some end in -t: mean/meant/(have) meant creep/crept/(have) crept sleep/slept/(have) slept Many irregular verbs, like drink, have distinctive past participle forms: drink/drank/(have) drunk go/went/(have) gone am-is/was/(have) been slay/slew/(have) slain Participles have numerous uses, but right now Im just looking at how they are used to form the following verb tenses: present perfect past perfect present perfect progressive past perfect progressive Present Perfect The present perfect tense is used to describe a) an action that happened at an indefinite time in the past b) an action that that began in the past and continues in the present The helping verbs used with the past participle to form the present perfect tense are has and have: The House of Windsor has ruled England since 1917. My sister has tried every kind of shampoo on the market. We have written to them numerous times without receiving an answer. Past Perfect Tense The past perfect tense is used to describe an action that took place in the past before another past action. The helping verb used with the past participle to form the past perfect is had: Before reinforcements arrived, the enemy had captured most of the men. Present Perfect Progressive The present perfect progressive describes an action that began in the past, continues in the present, and may continue into the future. The present participle is used with the helping verbs has been and have been to form the present perfect progressive: I have been thinking about going to France one more time. Charlie has been trying to make the team for two years now. We have been sitting in the park for hours. The teachers have been meeting after school to plan the new schedules. Past Perfect Progressive The past perfect progressive describes a past, ongoing action that was completed before some other past action. The present participle is used with the helping verbs had been to form the past perfect progressive: When the accident occurred, she had been talking on her cell phone. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Grammar category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:15 Terms for Those Who Tell the Future60 Synonyms for â€Å"Trip†What’s the Best Way to Refer to a Romantic Partner?

Workplace Internet Abuse essays

Workplace Internet Abuse essays The technological explosion of the past few decades have taken society to heights never before dreamed possible. Today, Internet savvy users have the ability to manage stock portfolios, purchase travel, chat with friends and shop world wide all from the comfort of their computer. The Internet has become an entire society with social, professional and recreational aspects to its use. In recent years the topic of use has moved to the forefront as people become more expert in Internet navigation and have begun to rely on it more than ever before(Young, 2005). As with any positive element of life there is also a down side. Internet abuse at work is on the rise. Years ago people were disciplined at work if they had too many personal phone calls, however, today, an employee can get on the Internet and surf it without alerting everyone in the office. This costs the company time and money in lost employee production. To further complicate matters, many businesses need to have Internet access to perform their company duties, therefore the employees have to be trusted to use it for work purposes and wait to get home to play(Young, 2005). While there are constantly evolving spy programs with which supervisors can check the sites that an employee visited the company must also remain respectful of the employees privacy unless given reason to believe that employee is defying company policy regarding Internet use. The time has come to develop ethical responses to the workplace abuse of the Internet that will protect the integrity and productivity of the company while at the same time showing respect to those who work there. Recent research has reported that the average office employee spends an hour a day on the Internet for personal use. This can include stock trading, vacation booking, shopping or emailing friends. The latest estimates regarding the cost to companies caused by personal Internet use by employees is more than $35 million eac...

NOWAK - Surname Meaning and Origin

NOWAK - Surname Meaning and Origin The Polish surname Nowak means new guy in town, from the Polish root nowy (Czech novà ½), meaning new. The Nowak surname was also occasionally bestowed on one who converted to Christianity (a new man). Nowak is the most common surname in Poland, and is also very common in other Slavic countries, especially the Czech Republic, where Novk tops the list of most common surnames. Novak is also the most common surname in Slovenia, and the sixth most common  surname in Croatia. Nowak was also sometimes Anglicized as Novak, so it can be difficult to count solely on spelling to determine the surnames origins. Surname Origin:  Polish Alternate Surname Spellings: NOVAK, NOWIK, NOVIK, NOVACEK, NOVKOVIC, NOWACZYK   Similar to  NOWAKOWSKI Where do People with the Surname NOWAK Live? According to WorldNames publicprofiler, individuals with the Nowak last name are found in the greatest numbers in Poland, followed by Germany and Austria. The greatest concentration of individuals with the Nowak surname are found in south and central Poland, especially the voivodeships (provinces)  of Wielkopolskie, Swietokrzyskie, Malopolskie, Slaskie and Lubuskie.  The Polish-specific surname distribution map on  moikrewni.pl calculates the population distribution of surnames down to the district level, identifying over 205,000 people with the Nowak surname living in Poland, with the majority found in PoznaÅ„, followed by  Krakà ³w, Warszawa,  Ã… Ãƒ ³dÃ… º,  WrocÅ‚aw, Sosnowiec,  BÄ™dzin and Katowice.   The Novak surname is found in the greatest density in Slovenia, according to Forebears, followed by the Czech Republic, Croatia and Slovakia. It is also about twice as common in the United States as compared to Nowak. Famous People with the Surname NOWAK or NOVAK Bob Novak - American  TV talk show personalityKim Novak - American film actressJan Nowak-JezioraÅ„ski - Polish journalist and WWII hero (he added Nowak as a noms de guerre)Lisa Marie Nowak - former American astronaut Genealogy Resources for the Surname NOWAK Nowak Family Genealogy ForumSearch this popular genealogy forum for the Nowak surname to find others who might be researching your ancestors, or post your own Nowak surname query. FamilySearch - NOWAK GenealogyAccess over 840,000 free historical records and lineage-linked family trees posted for the Nowak surname and its variations on this free genealogy website hosted by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. DistantCousin.com - NOWAK Genealogy Family HistoryExplore free databases and genealogy links for the last name Nowak. NOWAK Surname Family Mailing ListRootsWeb hosts a free mailing list for researchers of the Nowak surname. They also have one for Novak. Browse or search the archive, or subscribe to submit your own Nowak or Novak query. The Nowak Genealogy and Family Tree PageBrowse genealogy records and links to genealogical and historical records for individuals with the Polish surname Nowak from the website of Genealogy Today. Polish Genealogy Databases OnlineSearch for information on Nowak ancestors in this collection of Polish genealogy databases and indexes from Poland, the United States and other countries. Looking for the meaning of a given name? Check out First Name Meanings Cant find your last name listed? Suggest a surname to be added to the Glossary of Surname Meanings Origins. - References: Surname Meanings Origins Cottle, Basil. Penguin Dictionary of Surnames. Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1967. Menk, Lars. A Dictionary of German Jewish Surnames. Bergenfield, NJ: Avotaynu, 2005. Beider, Alexander. A Dictionary of Jewish Surnames from Galicia.  Bergenfield, NJ:  Avotaynu, 2004. Hanks, Patrick and Flavia Hodges. A Dictionary of Surnames. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989. Hanks, Patrick. Dictionary of American Family Names. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. Hoffman, William F. Polish Surnames: Origins and Meanings.  Chicago:  Polish Genealogical Society, 1993. Rymut, Kazimierz. Nazwiska Polakow.  Wroclaw: Zaklad Narodowy im. Ossolinskich - Wydawnictwo, 1991. Smith, Elsdon C. American Surnames. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1997. Back to Glossary of Surname Meanings Origins

E-Business Systems Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

E-Business Systems - Essay Example The mission statement of Reebok includes two very significant aspects; Through online retailing Reebok is indeed trying to reach nearer the customer and igniting the passion for more purchases. Listening to the requirements of the time and IT era, Reebok has indeed put in lot of successful efforts to make the online retailing site more customer friendly. Reebok has earned a name for itself in the field of sporting goods and sponsorships, therefore to maintain the leading brand identity requires investments with adaptive and corrective actions at crucial junctures. E-business is just one such step. It can be safely said that, 'Information is power! It is an asset that can help overcome the glorious uncertainties and opens new avenues for doing business. Marketing, plays a crucial role in this entire business process. For an effective marketing strategy psychological needs of the customer(s) are to be kept in mind. These needs must be met in order for a person to be persuaded to purchase a product or service. E-business is no exception. Here the website visitor is persuaded to close the deal successfully by following a five step strategy. This can be done with building trust and confidence by meeting the psychological marketing needs of that visitor and potential customer while escorting that visitor through the selection and purchasing process. These five levels of the sales process are the core components that will move a website viewer from visitor to customer or client. The five levels are; Marketing/Prospecting to the Target Market and Audience: Prospecting is the result of marketing. It's the delivery of targeted qualified traffic to the company's virtual storefront. This can be achieved by search engine optimization, pay per clicks, or advertisements that draw people to the company's site. Once they are there it is the job and responsibility of the company to deliver its Unique Selling Proposition (USP). Though Reebok doesn't appear to be making frantic efforts towards attracting the audience from all around, but once they are in the virtual store, there's lot for the customer to have a look at, different varieties, technologies that are being used in designing the shoes, video bites of sporting personalities etc. Building Credibility and Trust - (viewer needs this to move forward): In a brick and mortar business trust is built by human interaction. Greeting a person when they walk in the door or physically helping them find something that they are looking for, helps in business propositions. For a virtual store the company is supposed to make sure that the site appears to be trustworthy, it has a professional appearance. The company is also supposed to know how long does it take to open the web-page How easy is it navigating through (i.e. user friendly links and

Case Analysis Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 3

Analysis - Case Study Example Even more importantly, however, is the fact that a business will face innumerable set-backs, and passion is required to keep up drive in the face of failure. 3. Though this can often lead entrepreneurs down the wrong path, perhaps someone should have thought to ask why no one was monetizing these sporting events in ANY way. Furthermore, if people get to watch professional sports on TV, will they pay for amateur sport commentary? People tend to be very unwilling to pay for media that is usually ad supported. 4. I think that the basic business model of YouCastr was flawed, which means saving it would have taken a basic re-thinking of how things were done. One possibility: monetize through inserting ads in the broadcast, more like other traditional sports media. 1. There are a number of reasons that this company was successful – one of which was certainly a bit of luck – they hit on a formula that people didn’t just like, but loved. They never would have had the chance to get lucky, however, without persistence – persistence that came from a love of what they do. Their love for game making was apparent – doing it first as a hobby, entering into contests, and then making a remarkable 51 relatively unsuccessful games before the launch of angry birds. 2. Part of it is good design – the game features bright, funny characters that are enjoyable to play with, a funny name, and game play that encourages people to play frequently and not put it down. More important, however, is probably that people picked it up and made it go â€Å"viral† – it was at the right place at the right time, and tickled people to the point that they showed their friends. 3. I think that, given something I was enjoying doing, I definitely would have been able to hang in there. The trick is that one must realize that rejection and

Chapter 1 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Chapter 1 - Assignment Example For academic purposes, there are two major types of data that will be gathered, which have summarised in the table below. After gathering as much data as possible, the second stage is to put the data to use. As noted already, data always come in a raw state, which has to be used in a refined way. Once the recruiter refines the data gathered, it becomes information. The recruitment process therefore requires the recruiter to know information to process. Because information is a refined version of data, the information the recruiter will process is often not as many as the data. At this point therefore, it is not expected that a lot of information will be processed as most of the data might be fused into the other to serve the same purpose. There are five major types of information the recruiter will process, which have been outlined as follows. Subject based information: here, data such as most preferred subject, occupational preferences and hobbies pursued are processed to know which students have the level of high quality expected to create a positive impact at Indiana State University. Skill based information: such data as academic skills and competences, and social interaction skills are processed to get the best skill based information about students from Indiana to know which of them come up on tops for the required level. Of all the above, there are some knowledge that the recruiter would infer from information. For the purpose that Indiana State University wants to achieve, there are two major types of knowledge that the recruiter may infer. The first of this is knowledge on how to place students in course or subject areas. The second type of knowledge is how to pair students to achieve the best of social interaction outcomes. In effect, academic and social knowledge are the most relevant to infer from the information

Walt Disney Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Walt Disney - Assignment Example The vision of Disney was to become the leading laboratory for media convergence and the alliance could facilitate Disney to achieve this vision by adopting the strategies which Jobs had adopted at Apple and Pixar such as boundary-busting energy and industry-shaking. Moreover, Disney is a nimble company and accepts innovative ideas however; still the company’s stock was about at the same level as it was decade ago. Therefore, alliance may influence the strategies of Disney more effective and it may help the company to make its future vision more realistic. How and to what extent is Disney’s new product planning initiatives likely to benefit from Job’s successes at Apple Computer? Jobs mentioned that he was lucky to have grown up with the industry and it actually helped to get successful at Apple and Pixar. Jobs’ successes at Apple Computer made the people to consider Jobs best at launching new products. The entrepreneurial zeal, industry knowledge, sheer ch arisma and intensity of Jobs can help Disney to pursue its new product planning initiatives more effectively. The secret weapon of Jobs to meld technical vision with a gut feel for what regular consumers want and then market in ways that make people want to be part of it, can help Disney to develop the new products which people want in digital media world.

Midterm Writing Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Midterm Writing Assignment - Essay Example During this period Richard Cobden and John Bright who came from the â€Å"Manchester School†, tried their best to bring about peace and harmony among the people by opposing war and imperialism which was rampant. Therefore, the term â€Å"Manchesterism† stood for the spreading of peace and goodwill among all people at all levels. Captain Alfred Dreyfus, who was a Jew, became an artillery officer in the French army because of his dedication and skill. In October 1894, he was sent for training which suddenly came to a grinding halt when he was accused of handing over military secrets to the German Embassy in Paris. He was promptly arrested and accused of treason. There was no evidence or conclusive significance that Dreyfus was in any way involved, but yet he was convicted because the Army thought that they may be blamed for lending support to a Jewish officer. The Dreyfus Affair became a political scandal. The word â€Å"Eugenics† is taken from the Greek root which meant "good" and "generation" or "origin†. During the late eighteenth century it was used to denote â€Å"Science† of hereditary or good breeding. Gregor Mendel who worked with the cross breeding of pea plants, made popular the concept of genes ushering research in the field of genetics. One strand of genetic research trailed off into the realms of social history which in the beginning of the twentieth century came to be popularly known as â€Å"Eugenics†. During the 1840’s, Britain was going through a heavy crisis period. They were faced with a lot of economic problems and working class unrest. Investments and rail-road building took their toll as there was widespread famine in Ireland and Britain faced some of its most miserable days. Hence, this period was called the â€Å"Hungry 40’s†. Barriers or restrictions that are imposed on foreign competitors would certainly hamper trade relations between countries

Business Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 15

Business Law - Essay Example One can say that barrister’s line of work does not involve management and administration of legal work related to personal or company clients. Their practice involves representing their clients in case in front of judge, and jury to advocate. The law society of England and Wales define barristers as legal professionals â€Å"who are instructed by the solicitors and have little or no legal contact with the client† (The-Law-Society, 2010) Solicitors are also type of lawyers however their line of work is more related to work in Magistrates and County Courts. Advocacy is small part of their line of work and they are more involved in dealing with commercial and personal dealings that involve legal work, corporate matters, land, and other possessions work. The law society defines Solicitors as legal professionals â€Å"who advice on all kind of legal matters, from buying a home to selling of a corporation†(The-Law-Society, 2010) There are many differences between solicitors and barristers; however at the same time it is hard to define them separately. Many times their professions cross line and overlap each other’s work. It can be said that barristers are types of lawyers who only represent their client in the courts or in front of jury; they are normally instructed by the solicitors rather than the client. Their line of work mostly involves advocacy. On the other hand Solicitors are the type of lawyers who can be involve in many legal aspects such as preparing a case, advising, drafting legal work, and basically doing daily management of a legal case. (David and Brierley, 1978) Other differences could be minor and can be as many as 7-10. For instance one of the differences is that a Barrister will have a specialized knowledge and practice of one aspect of legal system, and Solicitor’s practice will be more related to general knowledge of legal system. (Zander, 2007) One easy way of defining these professions separately

Midterm Writing Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Midterm Writing Assignment - Essay Example During this period Richard Cobden and John Bright who came from the â€Å"Manchester School†, tried their best to bring about peace and harmony among the people by opposing war and imperialism which was rampant. Therefore, the term â€Å"Manchesterism† stood for the spreading of peace and goodwill among all people at all levels. Captain Alfred Dreyfus, who was a Jew, became an artillery officer in the French army because of his dedication and skill. In October 1894, he was sent for training which suddenly came to a grinding halt when he was accused of handing over military secrets to the German Embassy in Paris. He was promptly arrested and accused of treason. There was no evidence or conclusive significance that Dreyfus was in any way involved, but yet he was convicted because the Army thought that they may be blamed for lending support to a Jewish officer. The Dreyfus Affair became a political scandal. The word â€Å"Eugenics† is taken from the Greek root which meant "good" and "generation" or "origin†. During the late eighteenth century it was used to denote â€Å"Science† of hereditary or good breeding. Gregor Mendel who worked with the cross breeding of pea plants, made popular the concept of genes ushering research in the field of genetics. One strand of genetic research trailed off into the realms of social history which in the beginning of the twentieth century came to be popularly known as â€Å"Eugenics†. During the 1840’s, Britain was going through a heavy crisis period. They were faced with a lot of economic problems and working class unrest. Investments and rail-road building took their toll as there was widespread famine in Ireland and Britain faced some of its most miserable days. Hence, this period was called the â€Å"Hungry 40’s†. Barriers or restrictions that are imposed on foreign competitors would certainly hamper trade relations between countries

Customer Retention in BizTech Company Coursework

Customer Retention in BizTech Company - Coursework Example Along with measuring your business traffic and conversion, success also relies on customer retention to complete the big picture. You may be getting attention and turning visitors into paying customers, but are you able to keep them around month after month? Or are they leaving after one experience or one transaction? If you want to build a sustainable and scalable business, you need to cut down on churn, the rate at which people are discarding your products and services. To do so, calculating your customer retention is the first step in this process. First, retention refers to a certain point in the customer lifecycle and it can be measured monthly, quarterly, or annually depending on the business. Know this time period because it is an important factor in your calculations. Second, there are two different ways to calculate retention: 1. Customer Retention Rate (CRR) 2. Dollar Retention Rate (DRR)

Ethical Dimensions of Preparing Two Financial Reports Essay Example for Free

Ethical Dimensions of Preparing Two Financial Reports Essay Ethical dimensions of financial accounting with respect to keeping of two sets of records, one for internal purposes only and the other for internal taxation purposes. Financial accounting, as stated by Garrison, is concerned with providing information those people outside an organization. This includes preparation of financial reports showing the company’s past financial performance which will be the basis for additional investments for stockholders, capacity to pay off loans for creditors or banks, imposing correct government taxes as mandated by law, etc. Financial reports, therefore, should be done accurately and with utmost truthfulness to avoid misconstruction due to omission or misstatement as stated in the International Federation of Accountants Code of Ethics. However, there are some who do not conform to this Code. Some companies practice preparation of two sets of financial reports at the end of the fiscal year, one for internal purpose and the other to be used and submitted for internal taxation purpose. Usually, if the company would like to attract additional investments from its stockholders, incomes are bloated. On the other hand, to avoid paying high taxes or even pay no taxes at all, financial statements are manipulated to reflect a lower or negative net income, which will be the basis for the computation of the taxes to be paid by the company. Whether for stockholders or for taxation, I strongly condemn such practice. This does not only violate the Code of Ethics of IFAC, such practice, if done continually, could even be a start of the eventual downfall of any company due to loss of its credibility and integrity. Thus, there exist major financial scandals that lead to collapse of business giants like what happened to ENRON. Further, leaders of the company may suffer from huge penalties or even jail terms, if found guilty of violating the code. Sadly, our country’s system on taxation and how the government use, or should I say, misuse collected taxes opens a lot of controversies and issues, which is being used by some companies to justify the practice of preparing a different financial report for taxation purpose. Corruption and issues on tax evasion by big companies are only a few examples why some companies validate this act. Corporate governance, as they say, should start first with the government, ethical behavior should be practiced first by our government leaders. This is the main campaign of incumbent President PNoy. The Code of Ethics on Integrity Rules states: â€Å"A member must not make, prepare, or certify, or permit or direct another person to make, prepare or certify, any statement which the member knows, believes or ought to

The Objective Of Financial Reporting And Qualitative Characteristics And Constraints Accounting Essay

The Objective Of Financial Reporting And Qualitative Characteristics And Constraints Accounting Essay 1 Introduction The U.S. Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), namely the Boards, jointly published a Discussion Paper and received 179 responses. The Exposure Draft was created from the Boards redeliberations regarding issues being raised by respondents. The Boards published this common Exposure Draft for the public to comment and it is the Boards broader conceptual framework. The Boards are considering their frameworks: to provide standards that are consistent, converge their standards, to develop a general and enhanced conceptual framework. The Boards decided that a reconsideration of concepts would not be efficient because many aspects of the frameworks are consistent and do not need fundamental revision. The Boards are focused on improving and converging their existing frameworks. The conceptual framework for financial reporting established by the Board displays the concepts that underlie financial reporting. This conceptual framework consists of 2 chapters: the objective of financial reporting and qualitative characteristics and constraints of decision useful financial reporting information useful financial reporting information. 2 Chapter 1: The Objective of Financial Reporting This conceptual framework establishes the objective of general purpose financial reporting by business entities in the private sector, which is the foundation of the framework. The objective of general purpose financial reporting is to provide financial information to current capital provides to make decisions. This information might also be useful to users who are not capital providers. The general purpose financial reporting develops superior reporting standards to help in the efficient functioning of economies and the efficient allocation of resources in capital markets. General purpose financial reporting focuses on an extensive range of users needs that lack the ability to obtain financial information needed from the entity. It should be broad enough to comprehend information for the various users. Therefore, the financial report is where they depend on to acquire information. Diverse users may require different information which might go beyond the scope of general purpose financial reporting. The financial reports are prepared from the entitys perspective (deemed to have substance on its own, spate from that of its owners), instead of the entitys capital providers. An entity attains economic resources (its assets) from capital providers in exchange for claims to those resources (its liabilities and equity). Capital providers include Equity investors Equity investors normally invest economic resources in an entity expecting to receive a return on, as well as a return of, the resources invested in. Hence, equity investors are concerned with the amount, timing, uncertainty of an entitys future cash flows and the entitys competence in generating those cash flows which affects the prices of their equity interests. Furthermore, they are concerned with the performance of directors and management of the entity in discharging their responsibility to make efficient and profitable use of the assets invested. Lenders Lenders usually expect to receive a return in the form of interest, repayments of borrowings, and increases in the prices of debt securities. Lenders have similar interests as the equity investors. Other creditors Other creditors provide resources because of their relationship with the entity, instead of a capital provider; no primary relationship. Employee salary or compensation Suppliers extended credit Customer prepay for goods and services Managers responsible for preparing financial reports Capital providers make decisions through useful information provided in financial reporting by particular entity. Financial reporting usefulness in assessing cash flow prospects depends on the entitys current cash resources and the ability to generate sufficient cash to reimburse its capital providers. Besides, financial reporting usefulness in assessing stewardship includes the managements responsibilities to protect the entitys economic resources (assets) from unfavourable effects. Management is also liable for safeguarding the assets of the entity which conforms to the laws, regulations and contractual provisions; thus, the importance of managements performance in the decision usefulness. The general purpose financial reporting is limited to information which does not reflect pertinent information from other sources that should be considered by the users. Financial reporting information is based on estimates, judgements, and models of the financial effects on an entity of transactions and other events in which, is only ideal for preparers and standard setters to strive. Achieving the frameworks vision of ideal financial reporting to the fullest will be difficult in the short term because of technical infeasibility and cost constrains. Financial reporting should include information about: the economic resources of an entity (assets), the claims of the entity are (liabilities and equity), the effects of transaction and any events or circumstances that can affect the entitys resources and claims and provide useful information about the ability of entity to generate its cash flow and how well the entity meets its management responsibilities. The usefulness of financial reporting to the users: Provide useful information about the amount, timing, and uncertainty of future cash flow To identify the entitys financial strengths and weaknesses (especially for capital providers) To indicate the potential of entitys cash flow for its economic resources and claims To identify the effectiveness of the entitys management responsibilities To assess availabilities of the entitys nature and quantity of the resources for the use in its operation To estimate the values of the entity. The quantitative measures and other information regarding the changes in entitys economics resources and claims in the financial report can help the users to assess the amount, timing, and uncertainty of its cash flow; and indicate the effectiveness of management responsibilities. Furthermore, the entity must provide a positive return on its economic resources in order to generate net cash inflows; and return the earning to its investors. Other information like variability of returns, past financial performance, and managements ability can be used to assess the entitys future financial performance. The information regarding the accrual accounting in financial reporting can better provide the users to assess the entitys past financial performance and future prospects in generating net cash inflows without obtaining additional capital from its investors. The entitys cash flow performance in financial reporting assist the investors to understand the entitys business model and operation through assessing how the entity obtains and spends cash. Information about its borrowing, repayment of borrowing, cash dividends and other distribution to investors, as well as the factors of entitys liquidity and solvency, can also assist the investors to determine the entitys cash flow accounting. Besides, information about the changes of entitys resources and claims not resulting from financial performance may assist the investors to differentiate the changes that are results of the entitys financial performance and those that are not. The information of management explanation should be included in financial reporting to assist users for a better understanding about management decision in any events and circumstances that have affected or may affect the entitys financial performance. It is because the internal parties know about the entitys performance than the external users. 3 Chapter 2: Qualitative Characteristics and Constraints of Decision-Useful Financial Reporting Information Fundamental qualitative characteristics distinguish useful financial reporting information from information that is not useful or is misleading. For information to be useful, it must have two fundamental qualitative characteristics: Relevance capable of making a difference in the decisions made by users as capital providers. Information is relevant when it has predictive value, confirmatory value, or both. Predictive value information that is assists the capitals providers to form their own expectations about the future. Confirmatory value information that confirms or changes past or present expectations based on previous evaluations. IASB said that information is relevant when it influences the economic decisions of users by helping them evaluate past, present or future events or confirming, or correcting, their past evaluation. FASB believes that to be relevant, accounting information must be capable of making a difference in a decision by helping users to form predictions about the outcome of past, present, and future events or to confirm or correct expectations. Since some users may have been obtaining information elsewhere other than financial reporting, and emphasizes the relevance of information in their decisions, relevant information does not really make a difference in the past or in the future. Any information that might be able to make a difference is said to be relevant. Faithful representation depiction of an economic phenomenon is complete, neutral, and free from material error. Complete includes all information that is necessary for faithful representation of economic phenomena. Neutrality information which is bias free. Freedom from error estimation of the economic phenomena is based on the appropriate inputs and each input must reflect the best available information. Relevance is concern with the connection between economic phenomena with the decisions of capital providers and not their depictions, therefore should be consider first. Then, the faithful representation is applied to determine which depictions of economic phenomenon best corresponds to the relevant phenomenon. Enhancing qualitative characteristics improves the decision usefulness of financial reporting information that is relevant and faithfully represented. They are used to distinguish more-useful information from less-useful information. The enhancing qualitative characteristics are comparability, verifiability, timeliness, and understandability. Comparability Comparability is the quality of information that enables users to identify similarities and the differences between two sets of economic phenomena. Since the essence of decision making is to select between alternatives, the information is more useful if it can be compared with similar information about the other entities and with similar information about the same entity for some other period. Comparability should not be confused with uniformity. Overemphasizing on uniformity may reduce comparability by making unlike things look alike. The IASB Framework actually discusses comparability as a qualitative characteristic which is equally important as relevance and faithfully representation. However, FASB concludes that comparability is an enhancing qualitative characteristic because regardless of how comparable the information may be, it will not be useful if it is irrelevant to users decisions and does not faithfully represent the economic phenomena. Verifiability A quality of information that helps to assure users that information faithfully represents the economic phenomena that it purports to represent. If the information is verifiable, the knowledgeable and independent observers could come to the general consensus. The verifiability of the information focuses on whether the recognition or measurement method is correctly applied. Verification can either be direct or indirect. An amount or other representation itself verified such as by counting cash or observing marketable securities and their quoted prices are called direct verification. An example of verifying the carrying amount of inventory by checking the inputs (quantities and costs) and recalculating the ending inventory using the same cost flow assumption (accounting convention or methodology average cost and first-in, first-out) is indirect verification. IASB Framework does not include verifiability as an explicit aspect, yet FASB does. FASB observed that some of the information which is faithfully represented may not necessarily be verifiable. Therefore, if the information is verifiable, it is generally more useful. Thus, FASB concluded that verifiability is an enhancing qualitative characteristic. Timeliness Timeliness means having information available to decision makers before it loses its capacity to influence decisions. A lack of timeliness can rob information of its potential usefulness. The IASB Framework discusses timeliness separately, as a constraint that could rob information of relevance. However, FASB concluded that reporting information in a timely manner can enhance both the relevance and faithful representation of the information since information can be reported in a timely manner but has no relevance, or information delayed in reporting remains its relevance. Understandability Understandability is the quality of information that enables users to comprehend its meaning. When the information is classified, characterized, and presented clearly and concisely, the understandability will be enhanced. Although the reporting information has to be understandable, the users of the financial report should also review and analyze the information with reasonable diligence as the users are assumed to have a reasonable knowledge of business and economic activities and to be able to read the financial report. Enhancing qualitative characteristics should improve the usefulness of financial information and should be maximized to the extent possible. However, if the information is irrelevant or not faithfully represented, the enhancing qualitative characteristics cannot make that information useful for decision. Besides, the application of the enhancing qualitative characteristics is an iterative process which does not follow the prescribed order. In addition, FASB considered whether some other qualitative characteristics should be added, such as transparency, true and fair view, credibility, internal consistency, and high quality. FASB concluded that it would be redundant if transparency is added as one of the qualitative characteristics. True and fair view is not a qualitative characteristic itself, but it should result from applying the qualitative characteristics. FASB concluded that it should be the goal to achieve high quality to which financial reporting and standard setters aspire. By adherence to the objective and qualitative characteristics of financial reporting information, the goal can be achieved. Therefore, the characteristics mentioned in not added as the qualitative characteristics of the financial reporting information. In a nutshell, the qualitative characteristics of financial reporting information in this draft can be categorized into fundamental qualitative characteristics and enhancing qualitative characteristics as shown in the following: Figure 1 Compared to the conceptual framework issued by the Malaysian Accounting Standard Board (MASB) in 2007, most of the qualitative characteristics are identical to the characteristic discussed in this draft. However, the most distinctive aspect which can be found is MASB did not categorize the qualitative characteristics into fundamental and enhancing qualitative characteristics. The qualitative characteristics concluded by MASB are shown in the figure below. Figure 2 MASB concluded that the relevance of information is affected by its nature and materiality while FASB discusses materiality under the constraints of financial reporting. MASB provides that the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of the financial statements could be influenced when the omission or misstatement of the information is material. Thus, materiality provides a threshold or cut-off point rather than being a primary qualitative characteristic which information must have for it to be useful. Besides, MASB also discussed about substance over form and prudence under the characteristic of reliability. MASB provides that if information is to represent faithfully the transactions and other events that it purports to represent, it is necessary that they are accounted for and presented in accordance with their substance and economic reality and not merely their legal form. However, FASB did not identify substance over form as a component of faithful representation as it would be redundant to do so. In addition, FASB did not conclude prudence as a qualitative characteristic because it might conflict with the quality of neutrality. MASB discussed the characteristic of timeliness as a constraint on relevant and reliable information. If there is undue delay in the reporting of information it may lose its relevance. Management may need to balance the relative merits of timely reporting and the provision of reliable information. However, FASB concluded timeliness as an enhancing qualitative characteristic of the financial reporting information. There should be a balance between the qualitative characteristic as the IASB Framework says: In practice a balancing, or trade-off, between qualitative characteristics is often necessary. Generally the aim is to achieve an appropriate balance among the characteristics in order to meet the objective of financial statements. The relative importance of the characteristics in different cases is a matter of professional judgments. The information provided by financial reporting is limited by materiality and the cost of providing. Materiality Materiality depends on the nature and amount of the item judged in the particular circumstance of its omission or misstatement. It is important to consider the materiality of information because material omissions or misstatements will cause information to contain error, making it biased and incomplete. However, it is hard to specify a uniform quantitative threshold at which the information is material. Concepts Statement 2 and IASB Framework define materiality similarly but discuss materiality it differently. IASB describes materiality as an aspect of relevance and does not indicate that it has a relationship to other qualitative characteristics. On the other hand, Concepts Statement 2 provides that materiality should be considered together with qualitative characteristics (not only relevance). Thus, the Boards conclude that materiality is pertinent to all of the other qualitative characteristics. Cost The Boards emphasized the balance between the benefits of financial reporting information and the cost of providing and using it. Costs of providing information: Cost of collecting and processing Cost of verifying Cost of disseminating Cost of analysis and interpretation Cost resulted from omission of decision-useful information Benefits of financial reporting information: More efficient functioning of capital market Lower cost of capital Improved access to capital market Favourable effect on public relations Better management decisions However, the major problem for the standard setters in conducting rigorous cost-benefit analyses is the difficulty in qualifying the benefits of a certain reporting requirement. Besides, it is also difficult to obtain complete, quantitative information about the initial and ongoing cost of a requirement and impose them. Nevertheless, standard seekers should take into account both benefits and costs of proposed financial reporting requirements. There are 3 constraints of financial reporting information mentioned by the MASB: Balance between benefit and cost As mentioned in FASB, cost is one of the constraints of financial reporting information and the Boards emphasizes on the balance between the benefits of financial reporting information and the cost of providing and using it. Balance between qualitative characteristic MASB provides that, In practice a balancing or trade-off, between qualitative characteristics is often necessary. The relative importance of the characteristics in different cases is a matter of professional judgments. The FASB also mentions, In assessing whether the benefits of reporting information are likely to justify the costs, it is necessary to consider whether one or more qualitative characteristics might be scarified to some degree to reduce cost. Timeliness MASB mentioned that a constraint which is not mentioned in the conceptual framework of FASB; timeliness. MASB provides that if there is undue delay in the reporting of information it may lose its relevance. To provide information on a timely basis it may often be necessary to report before all aspects of a transaction or other event are known. On the other hand, if reporting is delayed until all aspects are known, the information may be highly reliable but of little use to users who have had to make decisions in the interim. Management may need to balance the timely reporting and the provision of reliable information.

gattom Importance of the Automobile in The Great Gatsby Essay

The Importance of the Automobile in The Great Gatsby    F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby was written about a time of gaiety for a certain set of people. One of the major thematic aspects of the book is driving and the automobile. At the time the book was written the car had begun its establishment as a national institution. This is apparent in one of the central events in the book. Tom's unfaithfulness first comes to light from a car accident in Santa Barbara. He misguides the car and the misdirection of his life is made glaringly evident. The automobile affected Fitzgerald and it influenced the writing in The Great Gatsby. Driving is equated with living. Nick Carraway, describing their ill-fated trip from New York in Chapter Seven of The Great Gatsby says, "...we drove on toward death..."(143) This is both literal and metaphorical. They were driving toward the horrific scene of Myrtle's death. The entire novel deals with living, which is a movement toward death. Driving becomes a metaphor for living. Automotive transport becomes the rhetoric for describing everything. Even nature is related to automobiles. Nick describes the season in terms of elements associated with cars. "Already it was deep summer on roadhouse roofs and in front of wayside garages where new red gas-pumps sat in pools of light..."(25). For these people driving is about the new way of getting around quickly and living life fully. No one is exempt from being touched by the influence of cars. Fitzgerald incorporates the automotive metaphor into every aspect of his novel. This is especially evident when Fitzgerald describes people. Often the basic terminology used is automotive related. Daisy describes Tom as a "great big hulking physical specim... ...ed" that draws the automobile metaphor into it. It is the hit and run style of living that makes The Great Gatsby such a wonderful book, and Fitzgerald's continuous use of cars helps to keep this a vivid image. Works Cited Berman, Ronald. The Great Gatsby and Modern Times. Urbana: U of Illinois P, 1994. Dillon, Andrew. "The Great Gatsby: The Vitality of Illusion." Arizona Quarterly 44.1 (1988): 49-61. Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York. New York.: Scribner., 1995. Godden, Richard. "The Great Gatsby: Glamor on the Turn." Journal of American Studies 16.3 (1982): 343-371. Mizener, Arthur, ed. F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1963. Trilling, Lionel. "F. Scott Fitzgerald." Critical Essays on Scott Fitzgerald's "Great Gatsby." Ed. Scott Donaldson. Boston: Hall, 1984. 13-20.

Pearl Harbor: A Day of Infamy By Chris Smith World War II

Pearl Harbor: A Day of Infamy By Chris Smith World War II altered the face of American history forever. This being a war the United States was greatly against and never wanted to enter, They were thrust into the war by a brutal attack from the Japanese on a Navel base located in the pacific ocean on the island Oahu in what is called Pearl Harbor. This attack on the base was a direct attack against the United States and gave America no choice but to enter the war they were originally so opposed to, or were they? Did the American government know that the Japanese were planning an attack?Did the United States allow the Japanese kill and wound several thousand Americans and sink and damage several naval ships all for a reason to enter a war our President longed to be a part of? Those questions along with several more have been raised by authors and thinkers throughout history. These questions along with several more will be examined in depth throughout this writing. The thesis of this pa per is as follows, â€Å"On December 7, 1941 The United States of America changed forever with Japan’s surprise attacks on the U. S.Navel base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. These attacks thrust the United States into the middle of the Second World War and raised many questions and conspiracies pertaining to prior knowledge of the attacks and the plans that the Japanese executed. † First, the anticipation of war will be discussed and the events leading to attack. Secondly, the process that the Japanese went through will be discussed, from the year of planning to the secretive launch of their â€Å"striking force† also their already obvious aggression displayed by the invasion of China.Another crucial piece to this puzzle is the Tripartite pact signed by Japan to make them apart of the â€Å"Axis powers†. Also the Japanese fleet and how they were utilized and coordinated in this attack will play a vital part in this description of this devastating attack. Finall y the question will be addressed of whether we were aware of the attacks in advance and discuss the conspiracy theories surrounding this hot button issue in World War II history. Tensions between Japan and the United States increased greatly at the start of the military oriented  Showa era, as Japanese nationalists and military leaders used escalating influence over government policy, accepting the creation of a  Greater East Asia alliance  as part of Japan's alleged â€Å"divine right†Ã‚  to unify all of Asia under  Emperor Showa's rule,  threatening the already-established American, French, British, and Dutch colonies located in Asia. †[i] Throughout the 1930s, Japan's increasing expansion policies got them into conflicts with its neighbors, Russia and China[ii] .In March of 1933, Japan removed itself from the  League of Nations  because of international displease for its desire to conquer Manchuria  and for their plans to establish the  Manchukuo  puppet government. On January 15, 1936, Japan also removed representatives from the  Second London Naval Disarmament Conference[iii]  because the United States and Great Britain did not want to grant the  Imperial Japanese Navy  (IJN) parity with their navies. [iv] A  second war  between the Japanese and Chinese started with the  Marco Polo Bridge Incident  in July 1937[v].Japan's attack on China was looked down upon by the United States and the majority of the members of the League of Nations including Britain, France, Australia, and the Netherlands. The crimes of the Japanese during the conflict such as the Rape of Nanking[vi], definitely made relations with the rest of the world very strained. These states had several interests, as well as formal colonies, in the East  and  Southeast Asia. Japan's new power and its urge to use it raised great concerns, which threatened the control they had in Asia.In July of 1939, the United States got rid of its 1911 commerc ial treaty with Japan, but this effort failed to stop Japan from continuing the war in China, or from signing the  Tripartite Pact  in 1940 with  Hitler’s Germany  and Italy, officially forming the  Axis Powers. Japan took full advantage of Germany’s war in Europe to better its progress in the Far East. The Tripartite Pact promised each of the nations that had signed would have assistance if attacked by any country then considered neutral. This stipulation was directed at the United States, and gave Japan more power on the political stage.The Tripartite Pact now posed a great threat to the United States on both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Hitler and Mussolini threatening on the Atlantic Ocean, and the Japanese on the Pacific Ocean. The Roosevelt administration felt the  American lifestyle  would be threatened if Europe and the Far East were to come under control of a dictatorship. Roosevelt pledged to help the British and the Chinese; he loaned both money and  materials  to both countries and promised that America aid would be enough to promise their survival of war. Giving this aid would start to move the United States from a neutral country to a country preparing for war.On October 8, 1940, Admiral  James O. Richardson, who was the commander of the Pacific Fleet, forced a confrontation with President Roosevelt, resending his messages from previous transmissions to  Chief of Naval Operations  Admiral  Harold R. Stark  and to  Secretary of the Navy  Frank Knox, that Pearl Harbor was the be best place for his ships to be located. Roosevelt told Richardson that having that fleet in Pearl Harbor was a â€Å"restraining influence† on the Japanese. Richardson asked the president if the United States was going to war. [vii] In Richardson's retelling of the account the president responded: At least as early as October 8, 1940, President Roosevelt believed that affairs had reached such a state that the United S tates would be come involved in a war with Japan. †¦ ‘that if the Japanese attacked Thailand, or the Kra Peninsula, or the Dutch East Indies we would not enter the war, that if they even attacked the Philippines he doubted whether we would enter the war, but that they (the Japanese) could not always avoid making mistakes and that as the war continued and that area of operations expanded sooner of later they would make a mistake and we would enter the war. †¦ â€Å". [viii] In 1940, Japanese troops moved into northern  Indochina. The invasion of Indochina, along with the Tripartite Pact, their war in China, increasing troops, and Japan's leaving the League of Nations made the U. S. embargo metal that was being shipped to Japan and to tighten down its foreign policy actions towards the Japanese and shut down the  Panama Canal  to Japanese ships. In 1941, Japanese troops invaded southern Indochina.On July 26 1941 the United States answered by freezing most Japane se assets in the United States and, then on August 1 1941, placed embargos on all of the oil and gas exports to Japan. Oil was the most important resource imported to Japan; at the time more than 80 percent of Japan's oil imports came from the United States. To make sure they had oil, and several other vital resources, the Japanese had long been looking for other places for their supplies, specifically in the  Dutch East Indies.The Navy was sure any plan of action to seize the Dutch East Indies would bring the United States into the war and were very skeptical when it came time to agree with the other factions' plans for the invasion. The complete United States oil embargo changed to the naval view to support the expansion toward support for the invasion of the Dutch East Indies and capture of all of the oil fields there. After the embargoes and the freezing of all assets, the Ambassador of Japan in Washington and the secretary of State Cordell Hull had multiple meetings to try an d find a solution to the Japanese-American problems.No solution could be found because of three major problems which were Japan's alliance to Germany and Italy through the Tripartite Pact; Japan wanted total control and responsibility for Southeast Asia; and Japan refused to leave China. Feeling the strain from the U. S. embargoes, Japan developed a sense of urgency, they either had to agree to Washington's demands and return to normal trade, or use force to gain access to resources that were available throughout the Pacific.Deciding that agreeing to Washington’s demands was unacceptable The Japanese decided to prepare for war with the United States, and seeing the opportunity of the forward basing of the  US Pacific Fleet  at Pearl Harbor, the Japanese began to plan in early 1941 for an attack on Pearl Harbor. For the next several months, planning a simultaneous attack on Pearl Harbor and invasion of British and Dutch colonies in the South Pacific occupied most of the Ja panese’ time and attention.The Pearl Harbor attack planning came from the Japanese predicting that the United States would be drawn into the war after the Japanese attacked Malaya and Singapore. The intent of a strike on Pearl Harbor was to negate the American navy in the Pacific, in turn removing it from dictating operations against American, British, and Dutch colonies in the South Pacific. Planning in the beginning had seen a battle between the two powers would take place in Japanese waters after the United States Navel Fleet traveled across the Pacific Ocean, which would come under attack by submarines and other forces all the way across.The United States Fleet would be beaten in a climactic battle. A surprise attack presented a difficult problem for two major reasons. First, the United States Pacific Fleet was a major force, and they would not be a pushover to defeat or sneak up on. Second, for an air attack, Pearl Harbor's shallow waters made the use of standard  air- dropped torpedoes  useless. On the bright side, the isolation of the island of Hawaii meant that a surprise attack could not be stopped or countered quickly by forces stationed in the continental United States.A lot of Japan’s naval officers were very impressed with the British  Operation: Judgement, where twenty one old and outdated  Fairey Swordfish  crippled half of the  Regia Marina. Admiral Yamamoto went as far as sending a delegation to Italy, which decided that a version of Cunningham's strike on a much larger scale could force the United States Pacific Fleet to have to return to bases in California, which would give the Japanese time to put a â€Å"barrier† defense in place to defend the Japanese control of the Dutch East Indies.The delegation returned from Italy with information on how the Cunningham engineers devised shallow-running torpedoes. Japan’s navel planners were without a doubt influenced by Admiral  Togo's surprise attack that was executed on the Pacific Fleet of Russia  at Port Arthur in 1905, and also they were influenced by U. S. Admiral  Harry Yarnell's work in the 1932 joint Army-Navy exercises, which was used to simulate an invasion of the island of Hawaii. Yarnell, as the leader of the force that was attacking the island, placed his aircraft carriers northwest f Oahu and simulated an air attack. The umpires of the exercises noted that Yarnell's aircraft were able to impose serious â€Å"damage† on the defending team, who for 24 hours after the attack were not able to find his team. In a letter that was written on January 7, 1941 Yamamoto finally delivered a somewhat rough draft of his plan to  Koshiro Oikawa, then Navy Minister, who he also asked that he be made Commander in Chief of the air fleet to carry out the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.A couple of weeks later in another letter, this time sent to  Takijiro Onishi, chief of staff of the Eleventh Air Fleet, Yamamoto asked Onishi to study the actual ability successfully carrying out an attack against the American base. After speaking with  Kosei Maeda originally, an expert on aerial torpedo warfare, and being told that harbor's shallow waters made an attack of this nature very close to impossible; Onsihi then sought the advice of Commander  and planner Minoru Genda.Once Genda studied the original plan issued by Yamamoto, Genda said: â€Å"the plan is difficult but not impossible†. During the next couple weeks, Genda made some changes to Yamamoto's rough draft of the attack, stressing the importance of the attack being executed early in the morning and in complete secrecy, using an aircraft carrier fleet and many different types of bombing. [ix]Although bombing the United States Pacific Fleet while they were anchored in Pearl Harbor would be a surprise, it also had two large flaws: The ships that would be targeted would be sunk or damaged in the shallow water waters of the harbor, which would mean that they could possibly be salvaged and possibly returned to duty (as six of the eight battleships eventually were); and most of the crews would be able to live through the attack, since the majority would be on leave  which means they would be on shore or that most could be easily rescued from the harbor after the attack took place.Despite these concerns, Yamamoto and Genda pressed ahead. By April of 1941, the plan to attack Pearl Harbor began to be referred to as  Operation Z, named after the famous Z signal given by Admiral Togo at Tsushima. Throughout the summer of 1941 leading up to the attack, pilots were training in secret near  Kagoshima City  on the Japanese island of  Kyushu. Genda chose this location because the geography and infrastructure of Kagoshima City presented almost all of the same problems bombers would have to overcome during the attack on Pearl Harbor.In training, each flight crew navigated over the 5000-foot mountain behind Kagoshima City and dropp ed into the city, maneuvering around buildings before descending to an altitude of 25 feet at the oceans edge. Bombardiers dropped torpedoes at some 300 yards away. The skimming of the water did not fix the problem of torpedoes hitting the ocean floor in the shallow waters of Pearl Harbor. Japanese engineers developed modifications allowing successful shallow water drops. The engineers work turned out to be a heavily modified version of theType 91 torpedo,  which turned out to inflict most of the damage to ships during the attack.Japanese weapon engineers also developed special  armor-piercing bombs  with fitted fins and release shackles to 14 and 16  inch naval shells. These were able to pierce the more lightly armored decks of the older battleships still in service. On November 26, 1941, a Japanese  Striking Force of six aircraft carriers (Akagi, Kaga,  Soryu,  Hiryu,  Shokaku, and  Zuikaku) left Japan  heading  to a predetermined position that was northwest of Hawaii, with the intention to launch its planes to execute the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.A total of 408 aircraft were supposed to be used in the attack: 360 for the two attack waves, 48 on defensive  combat air patrol  (CAP), including nine fighters that would serve double duty on CAP and the first attack wave. The first wave was going to be the major attack, with the second wave serving as a way to finish whatever objectives remained to be completed. The first wave featured the majority of the weapons to attack  capital ships; mainly the specially adapted  Type 91  aerial torpedoes  that we discussed earlier. x]  The attack crews were told to pick the highest value targets such as battleships and  aircraft carriers or, if they were not available, any other high profile ships like cruisers and destroyers. The dive bombers  were ordered to attack ground targets. Fighter pilots were told to strafe and destroy as many grounded aircraft as possible to make sur e they did not get into the air to attack the bombers, specifically during the first wave. When the planes fuel got low they were ordered to return to the aircraft carriers to refuel, then immediately return to the attack.Fighters were ordered to serve CAP duties when needed, especially over the US airfields where the United States planes were grounded. Before the attack began, two aircrafts  were launched from cruisers were sent to scout and gain information over Oahu and report on the composition of the fleet and their exact location. Another four planes scouted the area between the Japanese carrier force in order to prevent the task force from being caught by a surprise counterattack. [xi] The attack on Pearl Harbor actually took place before any formal declaration of war was made by Japan, but it was not the Admiral’s intention to do this.He originally stated that the attack should not take place until at least thirty minutes after Japan had formally notified the United States that negotiations for peace had come to a close. [xii]  The Japanese tried to play by the rules of war while still making the attack a surprise, but the attack began before the notice could be delivered and translated. Japan sent the 5,000-word declairation of war (commonly called the â€Å"14-Part Message†) in two sections to the  Japanese Embassy in Washington, but translating the message took too long for it to be delivered in time. In fact, U. S. code breakers had already deciphered and translated most of the message hours before he was scheduled to deliver it. ). The final part of the â€Å"14 Part Message† is what some call the actual declaration of war. While it did not declare war nor did it end diplomatic relations, it was viewed by a large number of senior U. S government officials as a very strong indication that negotiations were likely done  and that war was going to erupt at any moment.A declaration of war from Japan was printed on the front page of Japan's newspapers in the evening edition of December 8,  but it was not delivered to the United States government until the day after the attack had already taken place. â€Å"The first attack wave consisted of 183 planes that were launched north of Oahu, led by Commander Mitsuo Fuchida. It included: ? 1st Group  (targets: battleships and aircraft carriers) ? 50  Nakajima B5N  Kate  bombers armed with 800  kg (1760  lb)  armor piercing bombs, organized in four sections ? 40 B5N bombers armed with  Type 91 torpedoes, also in four sections ? nd Group  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ (targets:  Ford Island  and  Wheeler Field) ? 54  Aichi D3A  Val  dive bombers armed with 550  lb (249  kg)  general purpose bombs ? 3rd Group  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ (targets: aircraft at Ford Island, Hickam Field, Wheeler Field, Barber’s Point, Kaneohe) ? 45  Mitsubishi A6M  Zeke  fighters for air control and  strafing ? Six planes failed to launch due to technical difficulti es. †[xiii] â€Å"The second wave was 171 planes: 54 B5Ns, 81 D3As, and 36 A6Ms, led by Lieutenant  Shigekazu Shimazaki. Four of the planes failed to launch because of technical difficulties.This wave and its targets comprised: ? 1st Group  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ 54 B5Ns armed with 550  lb (249  kg) and 132  lb (60  kg) general purpose bombs ? 27 B5Ns – aircraft and hangars on Kaneohe, Ford Island, and Barbers Point ? 27 B5Ns – hangars and aircraft on Hickam Field ? 2nd Group  (targets: aircraft carriers and cruisers) ? 81 D3As armed with 550  lb (249  kg) general purpose bombs, in four sections ? 3rd Group  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ (targets: aircraft at Ford Island, Hickam Field, Wheeler Field, Barber’s Point, Kaneohe) ? 36 A6Ms for defense and strafing†[xiv] The United States suffered great losses; all eight U. S. Navy battleships were damaged, with four being sunk. Of the eight damaged six were raised, repaired and returned to service later in the war. The Japanese also sank or damaged three cruisers, three  destroyers, an anti-aircraft training ship,  and one  minelayer. 188 U. S. aircraft were destroyed; 2,402 Americans were killed  and 1,282 wounded. The power station, shipyard, maintenance, and fuel and torpedo storage facilities, as well as the submarine piers and headquarters building (also home of the  intelligence section) were not attacked. [xv] â€Å"Japanese losses were light: 29 aircraft and five  midget submarines  lost, and 65 servicemen killed or wounded. One Japanese sailor  was captured. †[xvi] â€Å"After the attack, 15  Medals of Honor, 51  Navy Crosses, 53  Silver Stars, four  Navy and Marine Corps Medals, one  Distinguished Flying Cross, four  Distinguished Service Crosses, one Distinguished Service Medal, and three  Bronze Star Medals  were awarded to the American military men who served in combat at Pearl Harbor. [xvii]  Also, a special award, the  Pearl Harbor Commem orative Medal, was later made and given to all military veterans of the attack. The day following the attack, Roosevelt gave his now famous  Infamy Speech  to a  Joint Session of Congress, calling for a  declaration of war on the Empire of Japan. Congress granted this request in less than an hour. On December 11 1941 Germany and Italy, honoring the Tripartite Pact, declared war on the United States. The United States Congress issued a declaration of war later the same day against Germany and Italy.Britain declared war on the Japanese some nine hours before the United States did, mostly because of the Japanese attacks on Malaya, Singapore and Hong Kong, and also due to the promise that Winston Churchill made to declare war â€Å"within the hour† if the Japanese executed an attack against the United States. The attack was a huge shock to the Allies in the Pacific Theater. More losses made the setback even more alarming. Japan  attacked the Philippines just a few short   hours later but because of the time difference, it was December 8 in the Philippines.Just a few days after the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, the  Prince of Wales  and  Repulse,  which were two British ships, were sunk  off the coast of  Malaya, British Prime Minister  Winston Churchill  later said: â€Å"In all the war I never received a more direct shock. As I turned and twisted in bed the full horror of the news sank in upon me. There were no British or American capital ships in the  Indian Ocean  or the  Pacific  except the American survivors of Pearl Harbor who were hastening back to California.Over this vast expanse of waters Japan was supreme and we everywhere were weak and naked†. [xviii] During the rest of the war, Pearl Harbor was very often used with  American propaganda to promote the war. Another huge reaction by America because of the attacks on Pearl Harbor was that most of the Japanese American residents and citizens were reloca ted to Japanese-American internment  camps. Just a few short hours after the attack, hundreds of Japanese American leaders were arrested and brought to high-security camps that like  Sand Island  and Kilauea Military Camp  located in Hawaii.Later, over 110,000 Japanese Americans, this includes United States citizens, were yanked from their homes and transferred to these high security internment camps in California, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, Wyoming, Colorado, and Arkansas. [xix] As was discussed previously discussed, was America aware of the plans of the attack? Several theorists don’t accept the view that Pearl Harbor was a complete surprise and these theorists always make clear that Roosevelt wanted, though did not say so officially, the U. S. to play a part in the war against Germany.A basic grip of the political situation of 1941 displays reasonable evidence Roosevelt invited, allowed, or even knew of the Pearl Harbor attack. Military historian and novelist  Thomas Fleming  poses the argument that President Roosevelt himself, had wished that Germany or Japan would make the first blow, but did not expect the United States to be hit as hard as it was in the attack on Pearl Harbor. [xx] In closing I feel that the United States was aware of this devastating attack and that my thesis of â€Å"On December 7, 1941 The United States of America changed forever with Japan’s surprise attacks on the U.S. Navel base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. These attacks thrust the United States into the middle of the Second World War and raised many questions and conspiracies pertaining to prior knowledge of the attacks and the plans that the Japanese executed. † was well covered through out duration of this research. ———————– [i] The effort to establish the Imperial Way (kodo) had begun with the  Second Sino-Japanese War  (called  sei sen, or â€Å"holy war†, by Japan). Bix, Herbert,  Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan, 2001, p. 326-327. [ii] Japan had fought the  First Sino-Japanese War  with China in 1894-95 and the Russo-Japanese War  with Russia in 1904-05; Japan's imperialist ambitions had a hand in precipitating both conflicts. [iii] The Second London Naval Disarmament Conference opened in  London,  United Kingdom  on 9 December 1935. It resulted in the  Second London Naval Treaty  which was signed on 25 March 1936. [iv] Lester H. Brune and Richard Dean Burns,  Chronological History of U.S. Foreign Relations: 1932-1988, 2003, p. 504. [v] The  Marco Polo Bridge Incident was a  battle  between the  Republic of China's National Revolutionary Army  and the  Imperial Japanese Army, often used as the marker for the start of the  Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) [vi] The Rape of Nanking was a  mass murder, and  war rape  that occurred during the six-week period following the Japanese  capture  of the city of  Nanking, the former capital of the  Republic of China, on December 13, 1937 during the  Second Sino-Japanese War. vii] Joint Congressional Hearings on the Pearl Harbor Attack, Part 40, Page 506, â€Å"Conclusions Restated With Supporting Evidence† [viii] Richardson, â€Å"On the Treadmill†, pp. 425, 434. And as recounted in Baker, â€Å"Human Smoke†, p. 239 [ix] Prange, Gordon,  At Dawn We Slept, Penguin Books, p. 25-27 [x] Peattie, Mark R. (2001),  Sunburst: The Rise of Japanese Naval Air Power, 1909–1941, Naval Institute Press [xi] Tony DiGiulian. â€Å"Order of Battle – Pearl Harbor – December 7, 1941†. Navweaps. com. Retrieved 2012-02-17. [xii] Calvocoressi  et al. ,  The Penguin History of the Second World War, p. 52 [xiii] Prange. p. 102 [xiv] Prange. p. 102 [xv] â€Å"Full Pearl Harbor casualty list†. Usswestvirginia. org. Retrieved 2012-02-17. [xvi] â€Å"Full Pearl Harbor casualty list†. Usswes tvirginia. org. Retrieved 2012-02-17. [xvii] Prange. p. 454 [xviii]   Churchill, Winston; Martin Gilbert (2001),  Ã¢â‚¬Å"December 1941†,  The Churchill War Papers: The Ever-Widening War,  Volume 3: 1941, London, New York: W. W. Norton, p 1593–1594, [xix] Prange. p. 632 [xx]   Fleming, Thomas (2001-06-10). â€Å"Pearl Harbor Hype†. History News Network. Retrieved 2012-02-21. Bibliography: Primary:Burtness, Paul, and Warren Ober. â€Å"President Roosevelt, Admiral Stark, and the Unsent Warning to Pearl Harbor: A Research Note.. †Ã‚  Australian Journal of Politics & History;. 57. no. 4 (2011): 580-88. http://web. ebscohost. com. proxy. ohiolink. edu:9099/ehost/detail? vid=4&hid=113&[email  protected]&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ==, Retrieved 2012-02-21 â€Å"Attack At Pearl Harbor, 1941, – the Japanese View† EyeWitness to History, www. eyewitnesstohistory. com (2001). Retrieved 2012-03-01 Harriet Moore, (U. S. Army Nurse Corps 2nd Lt . , interview by Erica Warren, â€Å"Army nurse recalls attack on Pearl Harbor,†Ã‚  North County Times, December 7, 2003, January 31, 2012, http://www. nctimes. com/news/local/article_85b4ea10-e9c2-5af7-8e74-deddc726aa5b. html. Conn, Stetson; Fairchild, Byron; Engelman, Rose C. (2000),  Ã¢â‚¬Å"7 – The Attack on Pearl Harbor†,  Guarding the United States and Its Outposts, Washington D. C. : Center of Military History United States Army â€Å"Damage to United States Naval Forces and Installations as a Result of the Attack†,  Report of the Joint Committee on the Investigation of the Pearl Harbor Attack, Washington D.C. : United States Government Printing Office, 1946, retrieved 2012-02-08 US Navy Report of Japanese Raid on Pearl Harbor, United States National Archives, Modern Military Branch, 1942 Churchill, Winston; Martin Gilbert (2001),  Ã¢â‚¬Å"December 1941†,  The Churchill War Papers: The Ever-Widening War,  Volume 3: 1941, London, New York: W. W. Norton, p 1593–1594, Joint Congressional Hearings on the Pearl Harbor Attack, Part 40, Page 506, â€Å"Conclusions Restated With Supporting Evidence† Secondary Bix, Herbert,  Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan, 2001, p. 326-327. Prange, Gordon.At Dawn We Slept: The Untold Story of Pearl Harbor. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1981. Fleming, Thomas (2001-06-10). â€Å"Pearl Harbor Hype†. History News Network. Retrieved 2012-02-21. Richardson, â€Å"On the Treadmill†, pp. 425, 434. And as recounted in Baker, â€Å"Human Smoke† Peattie, Mark R. (2001),  Sunburst: The Rise of Japanese Naval Air Power, 1909–1941, Naval Institute Press Calvocoressi  et al. ,  The Penguin History of the Second World War, p. 952 Tony DiGiulian. â€Å"Order of Battle – Pearl Harbor – December 7, 1941†. Navweaps. com. Retrieved 2012-02-17. Pearl Harbor: A Day of Infamy By Chris Smith World War II Pearl Harbor: A Day of Infamy By Chris Smith World War II altered the face of American history forever. This being a war the United States was greatly against and never wanted to enter, They were thrust into the war by a brutal attack from the Japanese on a Navel base located in the pacific ocean on the island Oahu in what is called Pearl Harbor. This attack on the base was a direct attack against the United States and gave America no choice but to enter the war they were originally so opposed to, or were they? Did the American government know that the Japanese were planning an attack?Did the United States allow the Japanese kill and wound several thousand Americans and sink and damage several naval ships all for a reason to enter a war our President longed to be a part of? Those questions along with several more have been raised by authors and thinkers throughout history. These questions along with several more will be examined in depth throughout this writing. The thesis of this pa per is as follows, â€Å"On December 7, 1941 The United States of America changed forever with Japan’s surprise attacks on the U. S.Navel base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. These attacks thrust the United States into the middle of the Second World War and raised many questions and conspiracies pertaining to prior knowledge of the attacks and the plans that the Japanese executed. † First, the anticipation of war will be discussed and the events leading to attack. Secondly, the process that the Japanese went through will be discussed, from the year of planning to the secretive launch of their â€Å"striking force† also their already obvious aggression displayed by the invasion of China.Another crucial piece to this puzzle is the Tripartite pact signed by Japan to make them apart of the â€Å"Axis powers†. Also the Japanese fleet and how they were utilized and coordinated in this attack will play a vital part in this description of this devastating attack. Finall y the question will be addressed of whether we were aware of the attacks in advance and discuss the conspiracy theories surrounding this hot button issue in World War II history. Tensions between Japan and the United States increased greatly at the start of the military oriented  Showa era, as Japanese nationalists and military leaders used escalating influence over government policy, accepting the creation of a  Greater East Asia alliance  as part of Japan's alleged â€Å"divine right†Ã‚  to unify all of Asia under  Emperor Showa's rule,  threatening the already-established American, French, British, and Dutch colonies located in Asia. †[i] Throughout the 1930s, Japan's increasing expansion policies got them into conflicts with its neighbors, Russia and China[ii] .In March of 1933, Japan removed itself from the  League of Nations  because of international displease for its desire to conquer Manchuria  and for their plans to establish the  Manchukuo  puppet government. On January 15, 1936, Japan also removed representatives from the  Second London Naval Disarmament Conference[iii]  because the United States and Great Britain did not want to grant the  Imperial Japanese Navy  (IJN) parity with their navies. [iv] A  second war  between the Japanese and Chinese started with the  Marco Polo Bridge Incident  in July 1937[v].Japan's attack on China was looked down upon by the United States and the majority of the members of the League of Nations including Britain, France, Australia, and the Netherlands. The crimes of the Japanese during the conflict such as the Rape of Nanking[vi], definitely made relations with the rest of the world very strained. These states had several interests, as well as formal colonies, in the East  and  Southeast Asia. Japan's new power and its urge to use it raised great concerns, which threatened the control they had in Asia.In July of 1939, the United States got rid of its 1911 commerc ial treaty with Japan, but this effort failed to stop Japan from continuing the war in China, or from signing the  Tripartite Pact  in 1940 with  Hitler’s Germany  and Italy, officially forming the  Axis Powers. Japan took full advantage of Germany’s war in Europe to better its progress in the Far East. The Tripartite Pact promised each of the nations that had signed would have assistance if attacked by any country then considered neutral. This stipulation was directed at the United States, and gave Japan more power on the political stage.The Tripartite Pact now posed a great threat to the United States on both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Hitler and Mussolini threatening on the Atlantic Ocean, and the Japanese on the Pacific Ocean. The Roosevelt administration felt the  American lifestyle  would be threatened if Europe and the Far East were to come under control of a dictatorship. Roosevelt pledged to help the British and the Chinese; he loaned both money and  materials  to both countries and promised that America aid would be enough to promise their survival of war. Giving this aid would start to move the United States from a neutral country to a country preparing for war.On October 8, 1940, Admiral  James O. Richardson, who was the commander of the Pacific Fleet, forced a confrontation with President Roosevelt, resending his messages from previous transmissions to  Chief of Naval Operations  Admiral  Harold R. Stark  and to  Secretary of the Navy  Frank Knox, that Pearl Harbor was the be best place for his ships to be located. Roosevelt told Richardson that having that fleet in Pearl Harbor was a â€Å"restraining influence† on the Japanese. Richardson asked the president if the United States was going to war. [vii] In Richardson's retelling of the account the president responded: At least as early as October 8, 1940, President Roosevelt believed that affairs had reached such a state that the United S tates would be come involved in a war with Japan. †¦ ‘that if the Japanese attacked Thailand, or the Kra Peninsula, or the Dutch East Indies we would not enter the war, that if they even attacked the Philippines he doubted whether we would enter the war, but that they (the Japanese) could not always avoid making mistakes and that as the war continued and that area of operations expanded sooner of later they would make a mistake and we would enter the war. †¦ â€Å". [viii] In 1940, Japanese troops moved into northern  Indochina. The invasion of Indochina, along with the Tripartite Pact, their war in China, increasing troops, and Japan's leaving the League of Nations made the U. S. embargo metal that was being shipped to Japan and to tighten down its foreign policy actions towards the Japanese and shut down the  Panama Canal  to Japanese ships. In 1941, Japanese troops invaded southern Indochina.On July 26 1941 the United States answered by freezing most Japane se assets in the United States and, then on August 1 1941, placed embargos on all of the oil and gas exports to Japan. Oil was the most important resource imported to Japan; at the time more than 80 percent of Japan's oil imports came from the United States. To make sure they had oil, and several other vital resources, the Japanese had long been looking for other places for their supplies, specifically in the  Dutch East Indies.The Navy was sure any plan of action to seize the Dutch East Indies would bring the United States into the war and were very skeptical when it came time to agree with the other factions' plans for the invasion. The complete United States oil embargo changed to the naval view to support the expansion toward support for the invasion of the Dutch East Indies and capture of all of the oil fields there. After the embargoes and the freezing of all assets, the Ambassador of Japan in Washington and the secretary of State Cordell Hull had multiple meetings to try an d find a solution to the Japanese-American problems.No solution could be found because of three major problems which were Japan's alliance to Germany and Italy through the Tripartite Pact; Japan wanted total control and responsibility for Southeast Asia; and Japan refused to leave China. Feeling the strain from the U. S. embargoes, Japan developed a sense of urgency, they either had to agree to Washington's demands and return to normal trade, or use force to gain access to resources that were available throughout the Pacific.Deciding that agreeing to Washington’s demands was unacceptable The Japanese decided to prepare for war with the United States, and seeing the opportunity of the forward basing of the  US Pacific Fleet  at Pearl Harbor, the Japanese began to plan in early 1941 for an attack on Pearl Harbor. For the next several months, planning a simultaneous attack on Pearl Harbor and invasion of British and Dutch colonies in the South Pacific occupied most of the Ja panese’ time and attention.The Pearl Harbor attack planning came from the Japanese predicting that the United States would be drawn into the war after the Japanese attacked Malaya and Singapore. The intent of a strike on Pearl Harbor was to negate the American navy in the Pacific, in turn removing it from dictating operations against American, British, and Dutch colonies in the South Pacific. Planning in the beginning had seen a battle between the two powers would take place in Japanese waters after the United States Navel Fleet traveled across the Pacific Ocean, which would come under attack by submarines and other forces all the way across.The United States Fleet would be beaten in a climactic battle. A surprise attack presented a difficult problem for two major reasons. First, the United States Pacific Fleet was a major force, and they would not be a pushover to defeat or sneak up on. Second, for an air attack, Pearl Harbor's shallow waters made the use of standard  air- dropped torpedoes  useless. On the bright side, the isolation of the island of Hawaii meant that a surprise attack could not be stopped or countered quickly by forces stationed in the continental United States.A lot of Japan’s naval officers were very impressed with the British  Operation: Judgement, where twenty one old and outdated  Fairey Swordfish  crippled half of the  Regia Marina. Admiral Yamamoto went as far as sending a delegation to Italy, which decided that a version of Cunningham's strike on a much larger scale could force the United States Pacific Fleet to have to return to bases in California, which would give the Japanese time to put a â€Å"barrier† defense in place to defend the Japanese control of the Dutch East Indies.The delegation returned from Italy with information on how the Cunningham engineers devised shallow-running torpedoes. Japan’s navel planners were without a doubt influenced by Admiral  Togo's surprise attack that was executed on the Pacific Fleet of Russia  at Port Arthur in 1905, and also they were influenced by U. S. Admiral  Harry Yarnell's work in the 1932 joint Army-Navy exercises, which was used to simulate an invasion of the island of Hawaii. Yarnell, as the leader of the force that was attacking the island, placed his aircraft carriers northwest f Oahu and simulated an air attack. The umpires of the exercises noted that Yarnell's aircraft were able to impose serious â€Å"damage† on the defending team, who for 24 hours after the attack were not able to find his team. In a letter that was written on January 7, 1941 Yamamoto finally delivered a somewhat rough draft of his plan to  Koshiro Oikawa, then Navy Minister, who he also asked that he be made Commander in Chief of the air fleet to carry out the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.A couple of weeks later in another letter, this time sent to  Takijiro Onishi, chief of staff of the Eleventh Air Fleet, Yamamoto asked Onishi to study the actual ability successfully carrying out an attack against the American base. After speaking with  Kosei Maeda originally, an expert on aerial torpedo warfare, and being told that harbor's shallow waters made an attack of this nature very close to impossible; Onsihi then sought the advice of Commander  and planner Minoru Genda.Once Genda studied the original plan issued by Yamamoto, Genda said: â€Å"the plan is difficult but not impossible†. During the next couple weeks, Genda made some changes to Yamamoto's rough draft of the attack, stressing the importance of the attack being executed early in the morning and in complete secrecy, using an aircraft carrier fleet and many different types of bombing. [ix]Although bombing the United States Pacific Fleet while they were anchored in Pearl Harbor would be a surprise, it also had two large flaws: The ships that would be targeted would be sunk or damaged in the shallow water waters of the harbor, which would mean that they could possibly be salvaged and possibly returned to duty (as six of the eight battleships eventually were); and most of the crews would be able to live through the attack, since the majority would be on leave  which means they would be on shore or that most could be easily rescued from the harbor after the attack took place.Despite these concerns, Yamamoto and Genda pressed ahead. By April of 1941, the plan to attack Pearl Harbor began to be referred to as  Operation Z, named after the famous Z signal given by Admiral Togo at Tsushima. Throughout the summer of 1941 leading up to the attack, pilots were training in secret near  Kagoshima City  on the Japanese island of  Kyushu. Genda chose this location because the geography and infrastructure of Kagoshima City presented almost all of the same problems bombers would have to overcome during the attack on Pearl Harbor.In training, each flight crew navigated over the 5000-foot mountain behind Kagoshima City and dropp ed into the city, maneuvering around buildings before descending to an altitude of 25 feet at the oceans edge. Bombardiers dropped torpedoes at some 300 yards away. The skimming of the water did not fix the problem of torpedoes hitting the ocean floor in the shallow waters of Pearl Harbor. Japanese engineers developed modifications allowing successful shallow water drops. The engineers work turned out to be a heavily modified version of theType 91 torpedo,  which turned out to inflict most of the damage to ships during the attack.Japanese weapon engineers also developed special  armor-piercing bombs  with fitted fins and release shackles to 14 and 16  inch naval shells. These were able to pierce the more lightly armored decks of the older battleships still in service. On November 26, 1941, a Japanese  Striking Force of six aircraft carriers (Akagi, Kaga,  Soryu,  Hiryu,  Shokaku, and  Zuikaku) left Japan  heading  to a predetermined position that was northwest of Hawaii, with the intention to launch its planes to execute the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.A total of 408 aircraft were supposed to be used in the attack: 360 for the two attack waves, 48 on defensive  combat air patrol  (CAP), including nine fighters that would serve double duty on CAP and the first attack wave. The first wave was going to be the major attack, with the second wave serving as a way to finish whatever objectives remained to be completed. The first wave featured the majority of the weapons to attack  capital ships; mainly the specially adapted  Type 91  aerial torpedoes  that we discussed earlier. x]  The attack crews were told to pick the highest value targets such as battleships and  aircraft carriers or, if they were not available, any other high profile ships like cruisers and destroyers. The dive bombers  were ordered to attack ground targets. Fighter pilots were told to strafe and destroy as many grounded aircraft as possible to make sur e they did not get into the air to attack the bombers, specifically during the first wave. When the planes fuel got low they were ordered to return to the aircraft carriers to refuel, then immediately return to the attack.Fighters were ordered to serve CAP duties when needed, especially over the US airfields where the United States planes were grounded. Before the attack began, two aircrafts  were launched from cruisers were sent to scout and gain information over Oahu and report on the composition of the fleet and their exact location. Another four planes scouted the area between the Japanese carrier force in order to prevent the task force from being caught by a surprise counterattack. [xi] The attack on Pearl Harbor actually took place before any formal declaration of war was made by Japan, but it was not the Admiral’s intention to do this.He originally stated that the attack should not take place until at least thirty minutes after Japan had formally notified the United States that negotiations for peace had come to a close. [xii]  The Japanese tried to play by the rules of war while still making the attack a surprise, but the attack began before the notice could be delivered and translated. Japan sent the 5,000-word declairation of war (commonly called the â€Å"14-Part Message†) in two sections to the  Japanese Embassy in Washington, but translating the message took too long for it to be delivered in time. In fact, U. S. code breakers had already deciphered and translated most of the message hours before he was scheduled to deliver it. ). The final part of the â€Å"14 Part Message† is what some call the actual declaration of war. While it did not declare war nor did it end diplomatic relations, it was viewed by a large number of senior U. S government officials as a very strong indication that negotiations were likely done  and that war was going to erupt at any moment.A declaration of war from Japan was printed on the front page of Japan's newspapers in the evening edition of December 8,  but it was not delivered to the United States government until the day after the attack had already taken place. â€Å"The first attack wave consisted of 183 planes that were launched north of Oahu, led by Commander Mitsuo Fuchida. It included: ? 1st Group  (targets: battleships and aircraft carriers) ? 50  Nakajima B5N  Kate  bombers armed with 800  kg (1760  lb)  armor piercing bombs, organized in four sections ? 40 B5N bombers armed with  Type 91 torpedoes, also in four sections ? nd Group  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ (targets:  Ford Island  and  Wheeler Field) ? 54  Aichi D3A  Val  dive bombers armed with 550  lb (249  kg)  general purpose bombs ? 3rd Group  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ (targets: aircraft at Ford Island, Hickam Field, Wheeler Field, Barber’s Point, Kaneohe) ? 45  Mitsubishi A6M  Zeke  fighters for air control and  strafing ? Six planes failed to launch due to technical difficulti es. †[xiii] â€Å"The second wave was 171 planes: 54 B5Ns, 81 D3As, and 36 A6Ms, led by Lieutenant  Shigekazu Shimazaki. Four of the planes failed to launch because of technical difficulties.This wave and its targets comprised: ? 1st Group  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ 54 B5Ns armed with 550  lb (249  kg) and 132  lb (60  kg) general purpose bombs ? 27 B5Ns – aircraft and hangars on Kaneohe, Ford Island, and Barbers Point ? 27 B5Ns – hangars and aircraft on Hickam Field ? 2nd Group  (targets: aircraft carriers and cruisers) ? 81 D3As armed with 550  lb (249  kg) general purpose bombs, in four sections ? 3rd Group  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ (targets: aircraft at Ford Island, Hickam Field, Wheeler Field, Barber’s Point, Kaneohe) ? 36 A6Ms for defense and strafing†[xiv] The United States suffered great losses; all eight U. S. Navy battleships were damaged, with four being sunk. Of the eight damaged six were raised, repaired and returned to service later in the war. The Japanese also sank or damaged three cruisers, three  destroyers, an anti-aircraft training ship,  and one  minelayer. 188 U. S. aircraft were destroyed; 2,402 Americans were killed  and 1,282 wounded. The power station, shipyard, maintenance, and fuel and torpedo storage facilities, as well as the submarine piers and headquarters building (also home of the  intelligence section) were not attacked. [xv] â€Å"Japanese losses were light: 29 aircraft and five  midget submarines  lost, and 65 servicemen killed or wounded. One Japanese sailor  was captured. †[xvi] â€Å"After the attack, 15  Medals of Honor, 51  Navy Crosses, 53  Silver Stars, four  Navy and Marine Corps Medals, one  Distinguished Flying Cross, four  Distinguished Service Crosses, one Distinguished Service Medal, and three  Bronze Star Medals  were awarded to the American military men who served in combat at Pearl Harbor. [xvii]  Also, a special award, the  Pearl Harbor Commem orative Medal, was later made and given to all military veterans of the attack. The day following the attack, Roosevelt gave his now famous  Infamy Speech  to a  Joint Session of Congress, calling for a  declaration of war on the Empire of Japan. Congress granted this request in less than an hour. On December 11 1941 Germany and Italy, honoring the Tripartite Pact, declared war on the United States. The United States Congress issued a declaration of war later the same day against Germany and Italy.Britain declared war on the Japanese some nine hours before the United States did, mostly because of the Japanese attacks on Malaya, Singapore and Hong Kong, and also due to the promise that Winston Churchill made to declare war â€Å"within the hour† if the Japanese executed an attack against the United States. The attack was a huge shock to the Allies in the Pacific Theater. More losses made the setback even more alarming. Japan  attacked the Philippines just a few short   hours later but because of the time difference, it was December 8 in the Philippines.Just a few days after the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, the  Prince of Wales  and  Repulse,  which were two British ships, were sunk  off the coast of  Malaya, British Prime Minister  Winston Churchill  later said: â€Å"In all the war I never received a more direct shock. As I turned and twisted in bed the full horror of the news sank in upon me. There were no British or American capital ships in the  Indian Ocean  or the  Pacific  except the American survivors of Pearl Harbor who were hastening back to California.Over this vast expanse of waters Japan was supreme and we everywhere were weak and naked†. [xviii] During the rest of the war, Pearl Harbor was very often used with  American propaganda to promote the war. Another huge reaction by America because of the attacks on Pearl Harbor was that most of the Japanese American residents and citizens were reloca ted to Japanese-American internment  camps. Just a few short hours after the attack, hundreds of Japanese American leaders were arrested and brought to high-security camps that like  Sand Island  and Kilauea Military Camp  located in Hawaii.Later, over 110,000 Japanese Americans, this includes United States citizens, were yanked from their homes and transferred to these high security internment camps in California, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, Wyoming, Colorado, and Arkansas. [xix] As was discussed previously discussed, was America aware of the plans of the attack? Several theorists don’t accept the view that Pearl Harbor was a complete surprise and these theorists always make clear that Roosevelt wanted, though did not say so officially, the U. S. to play a part in the war against Germany.A basic grip of the political situation of 1941 displays reasonable evidence Roosevelt invited, allowed, or even knew of the Pearl Harbor attack. Military historian and novelist  Thomas Fleming  poses the argument that President Roosevelt himself, had wished that Germany or Japan would make the first blow, but did not expect the United States to be hit as hard as it was in the attack on Pearl Harbor. [xx] In closing I feel that the United States was aware of this devastating attack and that my thesis of â€Å"On December 7, 1941 The United States of America changed forever with Japan’s surprise attacks on the U.S. Navel base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. These attacks thrust the United States into the middle of the Second World War and raised many questions and conspiracies pertaining to prior knowledge of the attacks and the plans that the Japanese executed. † was well covered through out duration of this research. ———————– [i] The effort to establish the Imperial Way (kodo) had begun with the  Second Sino-Japanese War  (called  sei sen, or â€Å"holy war†, by Japan). Bix, Herbert,  Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan, 2001, p. 326-327. [ii] Japan had fought the  First Sino-Japanese War  with China in 1894-95 and the Russo-Japanese War  with Russia in 1904-05; Japan's imperialist ambitions had a hand in precipitating both conflicts. [iii] The Second London Naval Disarmament Conference opened in  London,  United Kingdom  on 9 December 1935. It resulted in the  Second London Naval Treaty  which was signed on 25 March 1936. [iv] Lester H. Brune and Richard Dean Burns,  Chronological History of U.S. Foreign Relations: 1932-1988, 2003, p. 504. [v] The  Marco Polo Bridge Incident was a  battle  between the  Republic of China's National Revolutionary Army  and the  Imperial Japanese Army, often used as the marker for the start of the  Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) [vi] The Rape of Nanking was a  mass murder, and  war rape  that occurred during the six-week period following the Japanese  capture  of the city of  Nanking, the former capital of the  Republic of China, on December 13, 1937 during the  Second Sino-Japanese War. vii] Joint Congressional Hearings on the Pearl Harbor Attack, Part 40, Page 506, â€Å"Conclusions Restated With Supporting Evidence† [viii] Richardson, â€Å"On the Treadmill†, pp. 425, 434. And as recounted in Baker, â€Å"Human Smoke†, p. 239 [ix] Prange, Gordon,  At Dawn We Slept, Penguin Books, p. 25-27 [x] Peattie, Mark R. (2001),  Sunburst: The Rise of Japanese Naval Air Power, 1909–1941, Naval Institute Press [xi] Tony DiGiulian. â€Å"Order of Battle – Pearl Harbor – December 7, 1941†. Navweaps. com. Retrieved 2012-02-17. [xii] Calvocoressi  et al. ,  The Penguin History of the Second World War, p. 52 [xiii] Prange. p. 102 [xiv] Prange. p. 102 [xv] â€Å"Full Pearl Harbor casualty list†. Usswestvirginia. org. Retrieved 2012-02-17. [xvi] â€Å"Full Pearl Harbor casualty list†. Usswes tvirginia. org. Retrieved 2012-02-17. [xvii] Prange. p. 454 [xviii]   Churchill, Winston; Martin Gilbert (2001),  Ã¢â‚¬Å"December 1941†,  The Churchill War Papers: The Ever-Widening War,  Volume 3: 1941, London, New York: W. W. Norton, p 1593–1594, [xix] Prange. p. 632 [xx]   Fleming, Thomas (2001-06-10). â€Å"Pearl Harbor Hype†. History News Network. Retrieved 2012-02-21. Bibliography: Primary:Burtness, Paul, and Warren Ober. â€Å"President Roosevelt, Admiral Stark, and the Unsent Warning to Pearl Harbor: A Research Note.. †Ã‚  Australian Journal of Politics & History;. 57. no. 4 (2011): 580-88. http://web. ebscohost. com. proxy. ohiolink. edu:9099/ehost/detail? vid=4&hid=113&[email  protected]&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ==, Retrieved 2012-02-21 â€Å"Attack At Pearl Harbor, 1941, – the Japanese View† EyeWitness to History, www. eyewitnesstohistory. com (2001). Retrieved 2012-03-01 Harriet Moore, (U. S. Army Nurse Corps 2nd Lt . , interview by Erica Warren, â€Å"Army nurse recalls attack on Pearl Harbor,†Ã‚  North County Times, December 7, 2003, January 31, 2012, http://www. nctimes. com/news/local/article_85b4ea10-e9c2-5af7-8e74-deddc726aa5b. html. Conn, Stetson; Fairchild, Byron; Engelman, Rose C. (2000),  Ã¢â‚¬Å"7 – The Attack on Pearl Harbor†,  Guarding the United States and Its Outposts, Washington D. C. : Center of Military History United States Army â€Å"Damage to United States Naval Forces and Installations as a Result of the Attack†,  Report of the Joint Committee on the Investigation of the Pearl Harbor Attack, Washington D.C. : United States Government Printing Office, 1946, retrieved 2012-02-08 US Navy Report of Japanese Raid on Pearl Harbor, United States National Archives, Modern Military Branch, 1942 Churchill, Winston; Martin Gilbert (2001),  Ã¢â‚¬Å"December 1941†,  The Churchill War Papers: The Ever-Widening War,  Volume 3: 1941, London, New York: W. W. Norton, p 1593–1594, Joint Congressional Hearings on the Pearl Harbor Attack, Part 40, Page 506, â€Å"Conclusions Restated With Supporting Evidence† Secondary Bix, Herbert,  Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan, 2001, p. 326-327. Prange, Gordon.At Dawn We Slept: The Untold Story of Pearl Harbor. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1981. Fleming, Thomas (2001-06-10). â€Å"Pearl Harbor Hype†. History News Network. Retrieved 2012-02-21. Richardson, â€Å"On the Treadmill†, pp. 425, 434. And as recounted in Baker, â€Å"Human Smoke† Peattie, Mark R. (2001),  Sunburst: The Rise of Japanese Naval Air Power, 1909–1941, Naval Institute Press Calvocoressi  et al. ,  The Penguin History of the Second World War, p. 952 Tony DiGiulian. â€Å"Order of Battle – Pearl Harbor – December 7, 1941†. Navweaps. com. Retrieved 2012-02-17.