Tragic Day: Japan's Attack On Pearl Harbor

The US and Britain were planning a pre-war military strategy to deter Japan. The US was making their front at Pearl Harbor, the naval base in Hawaii, while Britian made their’s Singapore. So the Japan thought bombing Pearl Harbor would one, eliminate one of their fronts, and two, get revenge on the US for not selling them any steel, oil, and other supplies. They aimed to destroy their airforce and the Navy’s

The United States was completely unaware of the long-planned attack on them, and according to an article called Remember Pearl Harbor, because the fleet was so bottled up in the port it made it an easy target for a successful attack. The Japanese’s plan completely revolved on a surprise attack, if any ships or planes were spotted the plan would have not gone so smoothly. The Japanese planed for around 8 months what they would do and how they would do it. They had some problems, because of the shallow waters around Pearl Harbor the Japanese thought that torpedoes would not be successful so they created 16-inch battleship bombs and wooden fins on their torpedo’s to help with a more “successful” attack. Admiral Halsey thought that congress was to blame for not providing the right funding for adequate protection, like alarm systems or warring systems. Washington did not think that Pearl Harbor would be attacked, and they did not expect the Japanese because they did not really have a good or outstanding military background. So because of the complete surprise of the attack, and so much of the fleet being there that day, the Japanese were able to be so

Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, is located near the center of the Pacific Ocean, roughly two thousand miles from the U.S. mainland and about four thousand miles from Japan. No one believed that the Japanese would start a war with an attack on the distant islands of Hawaii. American intelligence believed that an attack by the Japanese would likely take place in one of the nearby European colonies in the South Pacific, for example, the Dutch East Indies, Singapore or Indochina. Due to the American military leaders not expecting an attack so close to home, the naval facilities at Pearl Harbor were quite undefended. This was an aspect in the Japanese strategy that they took into consideration, Pearl Harbor was an irresistibly easy

but they were unsure of when the attack would happen, and did not know that

“Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt was warned in a memo from naval intelligence that Tokyo's military and spy network was focused on Hawaii,”

The film“Tora! Tora! Tora!” depicted somewhat of a bird’s eye view of the events that transpired prior to the notorious bombing attack on Pearl Harbor. It did so by presenting back and forth scenarios of the planning within respective nations’ troops and more or less the negotiations that contained a lot of tension between the Japanese and the Americans. The film started off with the introduction of the admirals that were assigned for each nation Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto for the Japanese Navy and Admiral Husband E. Kimmel to be in command the United States Pacific Fleet located in Pearl Harbor. Due to the Axis Alliance of Japan with Germany, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, implies that the focal point of the United States’ Naval operations at Pearl Harbor plays an important role and must first be destroyed for the Japanese to further maximize their power in the Pacific. The Japanese were well prepared with their excellent torpedo tactics that they have been relentlessly practicing to gamble for the shallow Pearl Harbor. Meanwhile, In Washington, Secretary of State Cordell Hull and Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson propose the cooling of strategic relations with Japan after the bargain, however, some of the U. S. military fear inevitable assault, they were right to fear such. This was probably what provoked them to develop their “operation magic” wherein they used their latest technology to crack the Japanese codes to get an idea of their plans. Meanwhile, at Pearl Harbor, Gen.

What happened during this battle? The Japanese really practiced and prepared carefully for their attack on Pearl Harbor.

The attack was a very well thought out and very well executed plan, at exactly 7:53 AM the first wave of attackers came in planes dropping bombs and firing their machine guns. There was 167 planes in the first wave. The attack went on for maybe 30 minutes to 45 before the second wave came. There was also small submarines that the Japanese used. The second wave came at 8:55 AM

On November 26, 1941, the Japanese Task Force comprised of six aircraft carriers. A support force, which included two battleships, three cruisers, nine destroyers, three submarines, escorted it and eight oil supply ships, began their trek to Hawaii. They must travel four thousand miles across open sea and remain undetected by the UNITED STATES Forces. (Wisniewski 20) The UNITED STATES Military knew a surprise attack by Japan was possible and they thought they were prepared. Adm. Husband E. Kimmel and Lt. Gen. Walter C. Short, the commanders of the UNITED STATES Naval and Army forces in Hawaii, respectively, had regularly scheduled training exercises and had taken many precautions to avert disaster. (Pearl Harbor’s History, Filmstrip)

    The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was “A date that will live in infamy as President FDR declared it but not only was this an effect on american citizens, it was also a huge effect on Japanese citizens as well.

They had also issued radar equipment able to detect planes up to 100 miles away, in darkness, storm or daylight and advised that war was imminent and reconnaissance should be undertaken. They had no idea the war had already begun and in 11 days time America would be on the forefront of a Japanese attack.

On November 26, 1941, 6:00 am, the task force sailed to pearl harbor, staying undetected. There was no sun, moon nor stars so the weather was in their favor until the morning they launched their attack, which made navigation difficult. On December 2, they received the message, giving them authorization to attack their prey. By that time the Japanese government was convinced that war was

While all of the citizens of Pearl Harbor were going through their daily lives the Japanese were planning the deliberate attack. The Japanese were spying on them and planning out where they were going to be so that they could bomb the place. “The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise, but Japan and the United States had been edging toward war for decades.” (History.com) And since it was being planned that meant that it was deliberate. And

At 7:55 AM on Sunday, December 7, 1941, hundreds of Japanese warplanes, launched from aircraft carriers far out at sea, attacked the American Pacific fleet anchored at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The attack took a terrible toll: eight battleships, including the USS Arizona, three light cruisers, three destroyers and four other naval vessels were either sunk or damaged. One hundred and sixty-four American aircraft were also destroyed. Most hadn’t even gotten off the ground. And 2,403 Americans, servicemen and civilians, were dead. Nothing like this had ever happened to the United States of America before.

In January 1941, reports were received that Japan might attack Pearl Harbor but military officials ignored these reports. They considered attacks on the Philippines and other European countries to be more likely, underestimating Japan’s ability to conceal preparations for such an operation. Due to the success of the cryptanalysis machine called, Magic, American leaders started breaking Japanese military operational codes. The codes that were deciphered showed Japan was likely to take some type of military action (Irive). At that time, Japan had only a 12-month supply of petroleum to fuel its economy and war operations left. So the U.S. anticipated Japan would act quickly! The only questions that could not be answered were when and where (Woods). Pearl Harbor had been a major naval base since before 1898. In early