What Day Did Japan Attack Pearl Harbor – Pearl Harbor is a United States naval base near Honolulu, Hawaii, which was the scene of a devastating surprise attack by Japanese forces on December 7, 1941. Just before 8 a.m. on that Sunday morning, hundreds of Japanese fighter planes descended on the base, where they managed to destroy nearly twenty American destroy or damage naval vessels, including eight battleships, and more than 300 aircraft. More than 2,400 Americans were killed in the attack, including civilians, and another 1,000 people were injured. 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 heading towards war for decades.
What Day Did Japan Attack Pearl Harbor
The United States was particularly dissatisfied with Japan’s increasingly belligerent attitude toward China. The Japanese government believed that the only way to solve its economic and demographic problems was to expand into the territory of its neighboring countries and take over the import market.
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To this end, Japan declared war on China in 1937, resulting in the Nanking Massacre and other atrocities.
US officials responded to this aggression with a series of economic sanctions and trade embargoes. They reasoned that Japan, without access to money and goods, and especially essential supplies such as oil, would have to curb its expansionism.
Instead, the sanctions made the Japanese more determined to hold out. During months of negotiations between Tokyo and Washington, D.C., neither side wanted to budge. It seemed that war was all but inevitable.
Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, is located near the center of the Pacific Ocean, about 2,000 miles from the U.S. mainland and about 4,000 miles from Japan. No one believed that the Japanese would start a war with an attack on the distant islands of Hawaii.
Why Did Japan Attack Pearl Harbor?
Furthermore, American intelligence officials were confident that any Japanese attack would occur in one of the (relatively) nearby European colonies in the South Pacific: the Dutch East Indies, Singapore, or Indochina.
Because U.S. military leaders did not expect an attack so close to home, the naval facilities at Pearl Harbor were relatively undefended. Nearly the entire Pacific Fleet was moored around Ford Island in the harbor, and hundreds of aircraft were pressed into adjacent airfields.
On December 7, 1941, the Japanese army launched a surprise attack on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor. The attack killed 2,403 service members, injured another 1,178, and sank or destroyed six American ships. They also destroyed 169 U.S. Navy and Army Air Corps aircraft.
Japanese torpedo bombers flew just 50 feet above the water as they fired on the American ships in the harbor, while other planes bombarded the decks with bullets and dropped bombs.
Nation Observes 80th Anniversary Of Attack On Pearl Harbor > U.s. Department Of Defense > Defense Department News
A sailor stands among destroyed aircraft at the Ford Island Naval Air Station as he watches the explosion of the USS Shaw.
A sailor takes cover past flaming wreckage hit by dive bombers that had already destroyed Pearl Harbor and Hickam Field at Kaneohe Bay Naval Station.
The battleship USS Arizona was shot into a pile of junk by the Japanese during the sneak attack on December 7 and lies in the mud near Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Three of the dreaded cannons, left, protrude from an almost completely submerged turret. The control tower is leaning over at a dangerous angle.
A cork lifebuoy with a white canvas cover from the battleship USS Arizona after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
How The Japanese Did It
Japanese forces trained for about a year to prepare for the attack. The Japanese strike force – which included six aircraft carriers and 420 aircraft – sailed from Hitokappu Bay in the Kuril Islands, on a 3,500-mile journey to a staging area 370 miles away. off the Hawaiian island of Oahu.
This December 7 file image shows an aerial view of U.S. Pacific Fleet battleships consumed by the flames at Pearl Harbor after 360 Japanese warplanes launched a massive surprise attack.
A damaged B-17C Flying Fortress bomber sits on the tarmac at Hangar Number 5 at Hickam Field, after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
In a flooded dry dock, the destroyer Cassin lies partially submerged and leaning against another destroyer, the Downes. The battleship Pennsylvania, pictured aft, was relatively undamaged.
Pearl Harbor: The Attack, 7 December 1941
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 a Japanese torpedo plane shot down during the December 7 surprise attack and recovered from the bottom of Pearl Harbor, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, January 7, 1942.
Military personnel pay their respects next to the mass grave of 15 officers and others killed in the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. An American flag is draped over the coffins.
May 1942: Men from the Naval Air Station in Kaneohe, Hawaii, place leis on the graves of their comrades who died during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Graves were dug along the Pacific coast. The Ulupa’U crater at Kaneohe Naval Base can be seen in the background.
Do Freedom Of Information Act Files Prove Fdr Had Foreknowledge Of Pearl Harbor?: The Independent Institute
The Japanese plan was simple: destroy the Pacific fleet. That way, the Americans would be unable to fight back as Japanese forces spread across the South Pacific. On December 7, after months of planning and practice, the Japanese launched their attack.
At about 8 a.m., Japanese planes filled the skies over Pearl Harbor. Bombs and bullets rained down on the ships moored below. At 8:10 a.m. an 1,800-pound bomb smashed through the deck of the battleship
And landed in her forward ammunition magazine. The ship exploded and sank with more than 1,000 men trapped inside.
In total, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor crippled or destroyed nearly twenty American ships and more than 300 aircraft. Dry docks and airfields were also destroyed. Most importantly, more than 2,000 people died.
Headlines & Photos: Japan Bombs Pearl Harbor In Hawaii
But the Japanese had failed to paralyze the Pacific Fleet. By the 1940s, battleships were no longer the most important naval vessel: aircraft carriers were, and as luck would have it, all of the Pacific Fleet’s aircraft carriers were away from base by December 7. (Some had returned to the mainland and others were delivering planes to troops on Midway and Wake Islands.)
Furthermore, the attack on Pearl Harbor had left the base’s major land facilities – oil stores, repair shops, shipyards and submarine docks – intact. As a result, the US Navy was able to recover relatively quickly from the attack.
The attack on Pearl Harbor killed 2,403 American personnel, including sailors, soldiers and civilians. In addition, 1,178 people were injured. 129 Japanese soldiers were killed.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt addressed a joint session of the United States Congress on December 8, the day after the crushing attack on Pearl Harbor.
The Attack On Pearl Harbor Was A Surprise Military Strike Conducted By The Imperial Japanese Navy Against The United States Naval Base At Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, On The Morning Of December 7,
“Yesterday, December 7, 1941 – a date that will live in infamy – the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Japanese Empire.”
He went on to say, “No matter how long it takes us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people, in their righteous might, will achieve absolute victory. I believe that I am interpreting the will of Congress and of the people when I assert that we will not only defend ourselves to the utmost, but also be absolutely certain that this act of treason will never again endanger us.”
After the attack on Pearl Harbor, and for the first time in years of discussion and debate, the American people were united in their determination to go to war.
The Japanese had wanted to force the United States into an agreement to lift economic sanctions against them; instead, they had pushed their opponent into a global conflict that ultimately resulted in Japan’s first occupation by a foreign power.
How The Attack On Pearl Harbor Changed History
Did you know? The lone vote against Congress’s declaration of war on Japan came from Representative Jeannette Rankin of Montana. Rankin was a pacifist who had also voted against American 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.
For the second time, Congress responded and declared war on the European powers. More than two years after the start of World War II, the United States was involved in the conflict.
Journey through the “day that will live in infamy” by exploring the details that still surprise us 75 years later, including accounts from experts, military minds and even those who lived through it. Home Quizzes and games History and society Science and technology Biographies Animals and nature Geography and travel Art and culture Money videos
Years Ago, The Japanese Attacked Pearl Harbor
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By mid-1941, the United States had separated everything
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