(Dec. 7, 1941),
surprise aerial attack on the
U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor on Oahu Island, Hawaii, by
the Japanese that
precipitated the entry of the United States into World War II. The attack
climaxed a decade of worsening relations between the United States and Japan.
Japan’s invasion of China in 1937, its subsequent alliance with the Axis powers
(Germany and Italy) in 1940, and its occupation of French Indochina in July 1941
prompted the United States to respond that same month by freezing Japanese
assets in the United States and declaring an embargo on petroleum shipments and
other vital war materials to Japan. By late 1941 the United States had severed
practically all commercial and financial relations with Japan. Though Japan
continued to negotiate with the United States up to the day of the Pearl Harbor
attack, the government of Prime Minister Tōjō Hideki decided on war.
Adm.
Yamamoto Isoroku, the commander in chief of Japan’s
Combined Fleet, had planned the attack against the U.S. Pacific Fleet with great
care. Once the U.S. fleet was out of action, the way for the unhindered Japanese
conquest of all of Southeast Asia and the Indonesian Archipelago would be open.
On November 26 a Japanese fleet, under Vice Adm. Nagumo Chuichi and including 6
aircraft carriers, 2 battleships, 3 cruisers, and 11 destroyers, sailed to a
point some 275 miles (440 km) north of Hawaii. From there, about 360 planes in
total were launched.
The first Japanese dive bomber appeared over Pearl
Harbor at 7:55 am (local time). It was part of a first wave of nearly 200
aircraft, including torpedo planes, bombers, and fighters. The reconnaissance at
Pearl Harbor had been lax; a U.S. Army private who noticed this large flight of
planes on his radar screen was told to ignore them, since a flight of B-17s from
the United States was expected at that time. The anchored ships in the harbour
made perfect targets for the Japanese bombers, and since it was Sunday morning
(a time chosen by the Japanese for maximum surprise) they were not fully manned.
Similarly, the U.S. military aircraft were lined up on the airfields of the
Naval Air Station on Ford Island and adjoining Wheeler and Hickam Fields to
guard against sabotage, and many were destroyed on the ground by Japanese
strafing. Most of the damage to the battleships was inflicted in the first 30
minutes of the assault. The
Arizona was completely destroyed and the Oklahoma capsized. The California,
Nevada, and West Virginia sank in shallow water. Three other battleships, three
cruisers, three destroyers, and other vessels were also damaged. More than 180
aircraft were destroyed. U.S. military casualties totaled more than 3,400,
including more than 2,300 killed. The Japanese lost from 29 to 60 planes, five
midget submarines, perhaps one or two fleet submarines, and fewer than 100 men.
The Pearl Harbor attack severely crippled
U.S. naval and air strength in the
Pacific. However, the three aircraft carriers attached to the Pacific Fleet were
not at Pearl Harbor at the time and thus escaped. Of the eight battleships, all
but the Arizona and Oklahoma were eventually repaired and returned to service,
and the Japanese failed to destroy the important oil storage facilities on the
island. The “date which will live in infamy,” as U.S. Pres.
Franklin D. Roosevelt termed it,
unified the U.S. public and swept away any earlier support for neutrality. On
December 8 Congress declared war on Japan with only one dissenting vote (Rep.
Jeannette Rankin of Montana, who had also voted against U.S. entry into World
War I).
The extent of the disaster and
the unpreparedness of the U.S. military provoked considerable criticism. Adm.
Husband Kimmel and Gen. Walter Short, the Navy and Army commanders on Oahu, were
relieved of duty, and official investigations were begun at once. Some
historians and others went so far as to accuse President Roosevelt of having
invited the attack (or at least done nothing to stop it) in order to bring the
United States into the war against the Axis. However, later investigations
indicated that, while U.S. officials had been aware that an attack by Japan was
probable, they had no knowledge of the time or place at which it would occur.
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