Pearl Harbor: A Surprise Attack on America
On December 7,
1941, the U.S. Naval base Pearl Harbor in Hawaii was under air attack by
Japanese fighter planes. Japan sent 353 planes in a surprise raid on Pearl
Harbor that resulted in 2,334 U.S. servicemen casualties and 1,143 wounded.
Before Pearl Harbor
September 1940.
The U.S. placed an embargo on Japan by prohibiting exports of steel, scrap
iron, and aviation fuel, due to Japan’s takeover of northern French Indochina.
April 1941. The
Japanese signed a neutrality treaty with the Soviet Union to help prevent an
attack from that direction if they were to go to war with Britain or the U.S.
while taking a bigger bite out of Southeast Asia.
June 1941 through
the end of July 1941. Japan occupied southern Indochina. Two days later, the
U.S., Britain, and the Netherlands froze Japanese assets. This prevented Japan
from buying oil, which would, in time, cripple its army and make its navy and
air force completely useless.
Toward the end of
1941. With the Soviets seemingly on the verge of defeat by the Axis powers,
Japan seized the opportunity to try to take the oil resources of Southeast
Asia. The U.S. wanted to stop Japanese expansion but the American people were
not willing to go to war to stop it. The U.S. demanded that Japan withdraw from
China and Indochina, but would have settled for a token withdrawal and a
promise not to take more territory.
Prior to December
1941, Japan pursued two simultaneous courses: try to get the oil embargo lifted
on terms that would still let them take the territory they wanted, and…to
prepare for war.
After becoming
Japan’s premier in mid-October, General Hideki Tojo secretly set November 29 as
the last day on which Japan would accept a settlement without war.
The Japanese
military was asked to devise a war plan. They proposed to sweep into Burma,
Malaya, the East Indies, and the Philippines, in addition to establishing a
defensive perimeter in the central and southwest Pacific. They expected the
U.S. to declare war but not to be willing to fight long or hard enough to win.
Their greatest concern was that the U.S. Pacific Fleet, based in Pearl Harbor
could foil their plans. As insurance, the Japanese navy undertook to cripple
the Pacific Fleet by a surprise air attack.
Foreshadows of Attack
The U.S. had
broken the Japanese diplomatic code and knew an attack was imminent. A warning
had been sent from Washington, but it arrived too late. Early warning radar was
new technology. Japanese planes were spotted by radar before the attack, but
they were assumed to be a flight of American B-17s due in from the West Coast.
The Attack
On December 7th,
1941, on an otherwise peaceful Sunday morning on a beautiful Hawaiian island,
the first wave of Japanese airplanes left six aircraft carriers and struck
Pearl Harbor a few minutes before 8AM local time.
In two waves of
terror lasting two long hours, they killed or wounded over 3,500 Americans and
sank or badly damaged 18 ships—including all 8 battleships of the Pacific Fleet—and
over 350 destroyed or damaged aircraft. At least 1,177 lives were lost when the
Battleship U.S.S. Arizona exploded and subsequently sank.
However, they did
not sink any of our Pacific aircraft carriers and they left most of the fuel
that was needed to win the war in the Pacific.
In one stroke, the
Japanese navy scored a brilliant success—and assured their ultimate defeat. The
Japanese attack brought the U.S. into the war on December 8—and brought it in
the war determined to fight to the finish.
(adapted from
Pearl Habor.org 2001)
