The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise attack by the Japanese navy on American naval and air bases located in Pearl Harbor, on Sunday morning, December 7, 1941.The attack consisted of two air raids, in which 353 aircraft took part, departing from 6 Japanese aircraft carriers. The attack resulted in the sinking of four US Navy battleships and four more damaged.
The attack was a preventive measure against the United States, aimed at eliminating the American navy, and to gain air supremacy in the Pacific region, to support the subsequent military operations against Burma, Thailand, and Western US possessions in the Pacific Ocean. This goal was achieved only in part, since then modern US surface ships and aircraft carriers were in another location and were not affected.
On that same day, the US declared war on Japan, thereby entering the WWII. Because of the attack, especially because of its nature, public opinion in America changed dramatically from the isolationist position of the mid-1930s to support of direct participation in the hostilities.
Preparing for War
The attack on Pearl Harbor was designed to neutralize the US Pacific Fleet, and therefore ensure Japan’s conquests in Malaya and the Dutch East Indies. The possibility of war between Japan and the United States was an issue with both nations since 1921, although the tension began to grow seriously in 1931, when Japan invaded Manchuria. Over the next decade, Japan continued to expand its influence in China, leading to full-scale war in 1937.
Since December 1937, events such as the Japanese attack on the Panay American warship and the massacre in Nanjing sharply worsened public opinion toward Japan in the West and increased the fear of Japanese expansion. In 1940, Japan invaded French Indochina to control supply routes to China. The United States stopped shipments to Japan of aircraft, metalworking machines and aviation gasoline, which Japan considered a hostile act. In July 1941, after the Japanese expansion into French Indochina and the fall of France to Germany, the US stopped exporting oil to Japan. This, in turn, prompted the Japanese to seize the Dutch East Indies, rich in oil.
In early 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved the Pacific Fleet to Hawaii from San Diego and ordered the buildup of military power in the Philippines in the hope of thwarting Japanese aggression in the Far East. Since the Japanese command believed that any attack on the British colonies in Southeast Asia would lead to the US joining the war, a devastating preemptive strike seemed the only way to avoid interference by the US Navy. Japanese strategists also considered it necessary to invade the Philippines. The American plan of action “War Plan Orange” included the defense of the Philippines by elite US troops.
Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, the commander of the Imperial Fleet of Japan received approval for formal planning and preparation for an attack from the General Staff of the Imperial Navy of Japan. During the next few months, pilots were trained, and equipment and data were collected. Despite these preparations, the plan of attack was not approved by Emperor Hirohito until November 5. Final approval for the attack was not given by the Emperor until December 1.
Pearl Harbor Before the Attack
In early October, two months before the attack, Soviet intelligence informed Moscow that Pearl Harbor would be attacked in 60 days. This information was brought to the attention of Washington by the Kremlin.
In the evening of December 6 in Washington, a Japanese communication was intercepted and deciphered. Even though the document did not explicitly mention the declaration of war, its’ content spoke for itself; but no warning was sent to Hawaii, where the Pacific fleet was based.
The major events of December 7, 1941, took place around Ford Island, in the center of Pearl Harbor. The Naval airfield was located there. At the time of the attack, 7 of the 9 battleships of the US Pacific Fleet were in the “battleship line”.
Attack of the Japanese Navy
On November 26, 1941, the Japanese Imperial Navy, under the command of Vice Admiral Tuichi Nagumo, on the orders of the fleet commander Isoroku Yamamoto, left the base in Heathokpu Bay on the island of modern Kuril and headed toward Pearl Harbor. The Japanese navy included six aircraft carriers, carrying 414 aircraft, including fighters, torpedo bombers, and dive bombers. The carrier escort consisted of two battleships, two heavy battleships, one light cruiser and nine destroyers. In the operation against the US Navy, six submarines also took part in the attack, sending mini-submarines to the attack site, later patrolling around the Hawaiian Islands.
The purpose of the attack on Pearl Harbor was to neutralize the US Pacific fleet to ensure the freedom of action of the Japanese army and navy in southeast Asia. This goal was not achieved. Modern US Navy vessels of the Pacific Fleet, aircraft carriers and submarines, did not suffer any damage.
On the morning of December 7, aircraft from Japanese aircraft carriers attacked airfields on the island and ships anchored in Pearl Harbor. On the chosen day of the attack, Sunday, some of the commanders and personnel of the coastal defense batteries were on leave. Of the 32 coastal defense batteries, only eight opened fire on the attackers.
Losses
As a result of the attack on the base, four battleships, two destroyers, and one minelayer were sunk. Another four battleships, three light cruisers, andone destroyer were damaged. Losses of American aviation amounted to 188 aircraft destroyed, 159 more were seriously damaged. 2,403 Americans were killed and 1,178 injured. The Japanese lost 29 aircraft, and 74 more were damaged. Five submarines were lost due to various causes. Losses in people amounted to 64 personnel killed.
This surprise attack did not take US Navy out of the war in the Pacific as the Japanese had planned. All of the modern US ships survived the attack and were now ready for an all-out war with the Japanese. The US’ larger economy led them to victory in this long and bloody war we call World War II.