The air strikes were launched in order to significantly weaken and damage the United States military and naval strength in the Asia-Pacific region. The Japanese had also co-ordinated their attacks on Pearl Harbour with their invasions of American and European colonies in the Asia-Pacific region. The Americans and the British had some intelligence of impending Japanese attacks yet had not been able to stop them. The Americans had sent warnings to Pearl Harbour after the attacks had started, whilst the British had sent the battleship Prince of Wales and the old battlecruiser Repulse to protect Singapore.

In the immediate aftermath of the Pearl Harbour attack the United States government of course declared war on Japan itself. The United States did not however concentrate all of its full industrial, military, and naval might against the Japanese, instead the British and the American governments decided to make the defeat of Nazi Germany their priority. The American public supported that decision after Adolf Hitler declared war on the United States.

Meanwhile the Pearl Harbour had left the United States Navy severely weakened, though the survival of its aircraft carriers meant that not everything was lost, and the ability to counterattack the Japanese. The United States Navy though was in the process of breaking the Japanese naval codes, which would provide invaluable intelligence that allowed the Americans to concentrate their remaining forces to devastating affect at Midway in June 1942. Britain by virtue of the Japanese attacks upon its Asian colonies was also fighting in the war against Japan. Had the over-stretched Royal Navy been able to send any aircraft carriers, cruisers, and destroyers then the Prince of Wales, and the Repulse might have survived. As it was these ships had inadequate protection from Japanese air strikes.

To begin with the aftermath of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour witnessed an unprecedented period of Japanese military and naval success. The American, Australian, British, Dutch, and Indian forces in the Asia-Pacific region were incapable of resisting Japanese advances. Burma, the Dutch East Indies, Hong Kong, Malaya, the Philippines, and Singapore all fell to the Japanese. For a time it even seemed that the Japanese posed a serious threat to India as well as Australia.

For the Japanese it seemed that their air force, army, and navy were unstoppable in the period between December 1941 through to the end of May 1942. They had easily conquered American and European colonies in the Asia-Pacific region as well as severely damaging the United States Navy. The loss of the Prince of Wales and the Repulse were a major blow to the Royal Navy, whilst the fall of Singapore was and still remains the worst military defeat in British history.

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