Attack on Pearl Harbor
History -- Military history -- List of battles -- World War IIOn the morning of December 7, 1941, planes of the Japanese Navy carried out a surprise assault on the American Navy base and Army air field at Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Hawaii. Eighteen ships were sunk or damaged, and around 2400 Americans lost their lives. The Japanese suffered minimal casualties. This attack has been called the Bombing of Pearl Harbor and the Battle of Pearl Harbor but, most commonly, the Attack on Pearl Harbor or simply Pearl Harbor.
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2 Historical significance 3 Strategic appraisal 4 Aftermath 5 Advance Knowledge Debate 6 Further reading 7 External Links |
Japanese spy Takeo Yoshikawa arrived in Honolulu, Hawaii on March 27, 1941 and began to study the United States Naval fleet stationed at Pearl. Joseph Grew, the U.S. ambassador to Japan, cabled the United States Department of State on November 17, 1941 that Japan had plans to launch an attack against Pearl Harbor, but his cable was ignored. On November 26 a fleet of six aircraft carriers commanded by Japanese Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo left Hitokapu Bay headed for Pearl Harbor under strict radio silence.
The Japanese aircraft carriers were: Akagi, Hiryu, Kaga, Shokaku, Soryu, Zuikaku. Together they had a total of 441 planes, including fighters, torpedo-bombers, dive-bombers, and fighter-bombers. The planes attacked in two waves, and Admiral Nagumo decided to forego a third attack in favor of withdrawing. Of these, 55 were lost during the battle.
The Japanese planes bombed the U.S. Army air base at Hickam Field and the ships anchored in Battleship Row. The American battleship USS Arizona blew up and sank with a loss of over 1100 men, nearly half of the American dead. It became and remains a memorial to those lost that day. Seven other battleships and twelve other ships were sunk or damaged.
This battle, like the Battle of Lexington and Concord had history-altering consequences. It only had a small military impact due to the failure of the Japanese Navy to sink any U.S. carriers, but it firmly drew the United States into World War II and led to the demise of the Japanese Empire and aided in the defeat of Nazi Germany as well. America's ultimate victory in this war and its emergence as a world power has shaped international politics ever since.
The purpose of the attack on Pearl Harbor was to neutralize American naval power in the Pacific. The Japanese wanted license to do as they pleased in the Pacific and Asia, and thought they could get this by eliminating American influence. Specifically, Japan had been embroiled in a war with China which had come to a stalemate after many years of fighting. Japan thought by cutting China off from American (as well as British) aid, China would be weakened, and the stalemate could be broken. Japan also knew that American naval power could not be neutralized indefinitely, but thought that by dealing it a heavy blow at Pearl Harbor, the American Navy could be neutralized long enough for Japan to achieve its objectives in Asia and the Pacific.
In terms of its strategic objectives the attack on Pearl Harbor was, in the short to medium term, a unique and spectacular success which eclipsed the wildest dreams of its planners and has few parallels in the military history of any era. For the next six months, the United States Navy was unable to play any significant role in the Pacific War; with the U.S. Pacific Fleet out of the picture, Japan was free to conquer South-East Asia, the entire South West Pacific and extend its reach far into the Indian Ocean.
In the longer term, however, the Pearl Harbor attack was an unmitigated strategic disaster for Japan. In the first place, one of the main Japanese objectives was the three American aircraft carriers stationed in the Pacific, but these had been dispatched from Pearl Harbor a few days before the attack and escaped unharmed. Putting most of the USN battleships out of commission, was widely regarded -- in both Navies -- as a tremendous success. The U.S. Navy had no choice but to put its faith in aircraft carriers and submarines, and these would prove to be the tools with which the USN first stopped and then reversed the Japanese advance. Loss of the battleships didn't turn out to be as important as most everyone thought before (in Japan) and just after (Japan and the US) the attack.
Furthermore, although the Japanese forces inexplicably did not consider them an important target to go back and destroy, the base also had large fuel oil storage facilities - a successful bombing of them would not only have resulted in massive fires that could have devastated the base itself, but it would have also have crippled much of the Pacific Fleet by robbing them of a major fuel supply and fueling center thousands of miles from the mainland.
Most significantly of all, the Pearl Harbor attack galvanised a divided and half-hearted nation into action as nothing else could have done: overnight, it made the whole of America utterly determined to defeat Japan, and it forever removed any question of a negotiated settlement short of unconditional surrender. Some historians believe that Japan was now doomed to defeat after Pearl Harbor, even if the fuel depots had been destroyed and the carriers were in port and sunk.
In December 8 1941, the U.S. Congress declared war on Japan with only one dissenting vote. Franklin D. Roosevelt both proposed and signed the declaration of war shortly afterward, calling the attack 'a date which will live in infamy'. The U.S. Government quickly began mobilizing its armed forces, started to build up a war economy, and issued a military draft.
A related question is why Nazi Germany declared war on the United States December 11, 1941 immediately following the Japanese attack. Hitler was under no obligation to do so under the terms of the Axis Pact, but did so anyway. This doubly outraged the American public and allowed the United States to greatly step up its support of the United Kingdom, while delaying for some time the U.S. response to the setback in the Pacific.
Despite the perception of this battle as a devastating blow to America, only five ships were permanently lost to the Navy. These were the battleships USS Arizona, USS Oklahoma, the old target ship USS Utah, and the destroyers USS Cassin and USS Downes; much usable material was salvaged from them, including the two aft main turrets from the USS Arizona. Four ships that were sunk during the attack were later raised and returned to duty, including the battleships USS California, USS West Virginia and USS Nevada. Of the 22 Japanese ships that took part in the attack, only one was to survive the war.
In addition, despite the debacle, there were American military personnel who served with distinction in the incident. Probably the most famous is Doris Miller, an African-American sailor who went above and beyond the call of duty during the attack when he took control of an unattended machine gun and used it in defense of the base. He was awarded the Navy Cross.
The attack has been depicted, more (or less) accurately, numerous times on film with the best known examples being:
In 1991, it was rumored that Japan was going to release an official apology to the United States for the attack. The apology did not come in the form many expected, however. The Japanese Foreign Ministry released a statement that said Japan had intended to release a formal declaration of war to the U.S. at 1 P.M., twenty-five minutes before the attacks at Pearl Harbor were scheduled to begin. However, due to various delays, the Japanese ambassador was unable to release the declaration until well after the attacks had begun. For this, the Japanese government apologized.
There has been considerable debate by some ever since December 8, 1941, as to why the United States was caught unaware, how much American officials knew of Japanese plans (given the extensive and fairly successful pre-war American code-breaking efforts directed at Japanese codes) and related topics. Some have argued that various parties (in some theories Roosevelt and other American officials, in others Churchill and the British, in still others all of the above) knew of the attack in advance and let it happen in order to propel America into war. The best current evidence is that although American officials knew that war with Japan was about to break out, nobody in authority expected the war to begin with a strike at Pearl Harbor. There is good evidence in support of contemporary expectations of an attack against Thailand, against Indonesia, against French Indochina, against Pacific Islands not yet controlled by the Japanese, against Russia, ... There is very little evidence of any serious expectation of an attack against Pearl Harbor or the U.S. West Coast.
Overview
The USS Arizona burning after the Japanese attack on Pearl HarborHistorical significance
Strategic appraisal
Aftermath
The surprise attack on Pearl Harbor and the resulting state of war between Japan and the United States were factors in the later Japanese internment in the western United States. Another important factor were the racial views of General John DeWitt, commander of the West Coast Defense District; he invented evidence in support of his recommendation to President Roosevelt that those of Japanese descent be interned.Advance Knowledge Debate
Further reading
Further reading - Alternative Theories
External Links
External Links - Alternative Theories
