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A Small Strike With Huge Consequences: The Doolittle Raid That Changed WWII in the Pacific

Khalid Elhassan March 12, 2025 14 min

Doolittle - A B-25 takes off from the USS Hornet, en route to Tokyo — A B-25 takes off from the USS Hornet, en route to Tokyo. US Army

12. A Desperate Need to Hit Back

Doolittle - Aftermath of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor — Aftermath of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor – the Battleship USS West Virginia sunk and burning, the battleship USS Tennessee in the background. History on the Net

America’s leadership realized that it was vital for the US to hit back – and be seen to hit back – at Japan, and soon. It would take time before sufficient forces were gathered to take the offensive. Until then, however, couldn’t American warplanes at least bomb Japan? Indeed, on December 21^st, 1941, just two weeks after Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt told the Joint Chiefs of Staff that Japan should be bombed as soon as possible to boost public morale. The problem though was just how to bomb Japan? The US Navy had bombers that could be launched from aircraft carriers, but their range was short. So carriers would have to come within two hundred or so miles of Japan, putting them within range of Japanese land-based bombers. The risk to scarce carriers – the linchpin of America’s war effort in the Pacific – was too high for what was ultimately a symbolic strike.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.