History Of The Attack On Pearl Harbor – Pearl Harbor is a US naval base near Honolulu, Hawaii, where Japanese forces launched a devastating surprise attack on December 7, 1941. Before 8 a.m. that morning, hundreds of Japanese fighter jets descended on the base, destroying or damaging nearly 20 US naval vessels, including eight battleships, and more than 300 aircraft. The attack killed more than 2,400 Americans, including civilians, and injured another 1,000. The day after the attack, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan.
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise, but Japan and the United States had been building toward war for decades.
History Of The Attack On Pearl Harbor
The United States was particularly unhappy with Japan’s increasingly bellicose attitude toward China. The Japanese government believed that its economic and demographic problems could only be solved by expanding into its neighbor’s territory and taking over its import market.
Japanese Announcement Of The Attack At Pearl Harbor, 1941
To this end, Japan declared war on China in 1937, resulting in the Nanking Massacre and other atrocities.
US officials have responded to this aggression with economic sanctions and trade embargoes. They argued that without access to money and goods, and especially essential resources such as oil, Japan would have to curb its expansion.
Instead, the sanctions made the Japanese more determined to stand their ground. Tokyo and Washington, D.C. During the months-long negotiations between War seemed inevitable.
Pearl Harbor, Hawaii is located near the center of the Pacific Ocean, roughly 2,000 miles from the US mainland and about 4,000 miles from Japan. No one believed that the Japanese would start a war by attacking the remote islands of Hawaii.
How Pearl Harbor Happened
In addition, US intelligence officials were confident that Japanese attacks would take place in one of the (relatively) nearby European colonies in the South Pacific: the Dutch East Indies, Singapore, or Indochina.
Because American military leaders had not anticipated such an imminent attack, the naval facilities at Pearl Harbor were relatively undefended. Almost the entire Pacific Fleet was moored in the harbor around Ford Island, and hundreds of aircraft were forced into neighboring airfields.
On December 7, 1941, the Japanese military launched a surprise attack on the US naval base at Pearl Harbor. The attack left 2,403 soldiers dead, another 1,178 wounded, and six American ships sunk or destroyed. They also destroyed 169 US Navy and Army Air Corps planes.
Japanese torpedo bombers flew only 50 meters above the water as they strafed the American ships in the harbor, while other aircraft pelted and dropped bombs overboard.
Pearl Harbor Facts To Remember About The Day Of Infamy
A sailor stands among wrecked aircraft at Ford Island Naval Air Station as he watches the USS Shaw explode.
A sailor runs for cover past the burning wreckage hit by dive bombers that had already blown up Pearl Harbor and Hickam Field at Naval Station Kaneohe Bay.
The battleship USS Arizona, which the Japanese blew up into a junkyard in a secret raid on December 7, lies in the mud at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Among the weapons of the dreaded nothing, the three on the left protrude from an almost completely sunken tower. The control tower leans at a dangerous angle.
Cork life preserver with white canvas covering from the battleship USS Arizona after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
Th Anniversary Of The Attack On Pearl Harbor: Dorie Miller, War Hero
Japanese forces trained for about a year in preparation for the attack. The Japanese attack force – consisting of six aircraft carriers and 420 aircraft – sailed from Hitokappu Bay in the Kurile Islands on a 3,500-mile journey to a staging area 230 miles away. on the Hawaiian island of Oahu.
This Dec. 7 photo shows an aerial view of U.S. Pacific Fleet battleships engulfed in flames at Pearl Harbor after 360 Japanese warplanes launched a massive surprise attack.
A damaged B-17C Flying Fortress bomber sits on the tarmac near Hangar 5 at Hickam Field after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
In a flooded drydock, the destroyer Cassin lies partially submerged, leaning against another destroyer, the Downes. The battleship Pennsylvania in the background remained relatively undamaged.
Local Japanese Residents Remember The Attack On Pearl Harbor 81 Years Ago
Two soldiers sit on the wreckage of a bomber surrounded by dirt and sandbags at Hickam Field after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Honolulu, Hawaii.
The wreckage of the Japanese torpedo plane shot down during the December 7 surprise attack was released from the bottom of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on January 7, 1942.
Military personnel pay their respects at the mass grave of 15 officers and others who died in the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. An American flag is draped over the coffins.
May 1942: Enlisted men at Kaneohe Naval Air Station, Hawaii, place wreaths at the graves of their comrades who died in the December 7, 1941, Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Graves were dug on the shores of the Pacific Ocean. In the background is the Ulupa’U Crater at Marine Corps Base Kaneohe.
Air Attack On Pearl Harbor Hi Res Stock Photography And Images
The Japanese plan was simple: destroy the Pacific Fleet. Thus, the Americans would not be able to retaliate as Japan’s armed forces spread across the South Pacific. On December 7, after months of planning and practice, the Japanese launched their attack.
Around 8 a.m., Japanese planes filled the sky over Pearl Harbor. Bombs and bullets rained down on the ships moored below. At 8:10 a bomb weighing 1,800 pounds crashed through the deck of the battleship
And landed in the forward ammunition magazine. The ship exploded and sank, trapping more than 1,000 people.
In all, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor crippled or destroyed nearly 20 American ships and more than 300 aircraft. Dry docks and airfields were also destroyed. Most importantly, more than 2,000 people died.
Photos: Pearl Harbor Attack
But the Japanese failed to cripple the Pacific Fleet. By the 1940s, battleships were no longer the most important naval vessels: they were aircraft carriers, and as it happened, all the carriers of the Pacific Fleet were away from the base on 7 December. (Some returned to the mainland, others delivered aircraft to troops at Midway and Wake Islands.)
In addition, the attack on Pearl Harbor left the base’s most important land facilities—oil storage depots, repair shops, shipyards, and submarine docks—intact. As a result, the US Navy was able to recover from the attack relatively quickly.
The attack on Pearl Harbor killed 2,403 Americans, including sailors, soldiers and civilians. In addition, 1,178 people were injured. 129 Japanese soldiers died.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt addresses a joint session of the United States Congress on December 8, the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Today In History, December 7, 1941: Japan Attacked Naval Base In Pearl Harbor, Bringing U.s. Into World War Ii
“Yesterday, December 7, 1941 – a date that will live in infamy – the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by the naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.”
He continued: “No matter how long it may take to defeat this premeditated invasion, the American people will win an absolute victory through the righteous might of the people. I believe I understand the will of Congress and the people when I say that not only will we defend ourselves to the last, but we will be very sure that this form of treason will never again endanger us.”
After the attack on Pearl Harbor, and for the first time in years of debate and controversy, the American people were united in their determination to go to war.
The Japanese wanted to get the United States to agree to lift economic sanctions against them; instead, they pushed their adversary into a global conflict that eventually led to Japan’s first invasion by a foreign power.
Pearl Harbor Drew The Us Not Just Into A War, But Into All Of Asia
Did you know? The lone vote against Congress’s declaration of war against Japan was cast by Representative Jeannette Rankin of Montana. Rankin was a pacifist who also voted against US entry into World War I. “As a woman,” she said, “I cannot go to war, and I refuse to send anyone else.”
On December 8, Congress approved Roosevelt’s declaration of war on Japan. Three days later, Japan’s allies Germany and Italy declared war on the United States.
Congress retaliated for the second time, declaring war on the European powers. More than two years after the start of World War II, the United States entered the conflict.
Travel through the “infamous day” by uncovering details that still surprise us 75 years later, including accounts from experts, military minds and even those who lived through it. Sunday, December 7, 1941, was supposed to be a day of rest for military personnel at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the island of Oahu. But at 7:55 a.m., Japanese fighter jets approached without warning and attacked the U.S. Pacific Fleet or naval ships anchored in the harbor. Thousands of lives would be lost that day.
Uss West Virginia On Fire During Attack On Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941
It was, as then-President Franklin Delano Roosevelt called it, “a date that will live in infamy.”
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the President of the United States at the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor.
The sudden attack on Hawaii – then a US territory
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