Tragic Day: Japan's Attack On Pearl Harbor

74 days after Japan’s attack on the US, President of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt issued the exucutive order no. 9066. The order forced 110,000 Japanese AMeicans were forced to leave their homeds in California, Washington, and Oregon. They were, “sent to 1 of 10 detention camps in desolate parts of the US”. These Japanese Americans charged with a crime against US government. Two-thirds of these Japanese Americans were born in the US, while more than 70% of them were American citizens. President Roosevelt’s action was supported by Congress, and not 1 vote was against this action. It was upheld by the constitution and by the Supreme Court. Deprived of liberty, Japanese Americans were forced into the camps called “relocation centers” that were surrounded by barbed wire and armed soldiers. “Families lived in poorly built, overcrowded, barracks.” The relocation center’s barracks had no running water, heat, privacy, and had to use the public bathrooms. The relocation centers provided medical care, school, and the younger adults could farm, do defense work, go to colledge, or work in the

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

On December 6, President Roosevelt made his final plea to the Japanese Emperor for peace.4 The Japanese did not respond. Later that day the U.S. received and decoded 13 out of 14 messages from Japan. These messages led the U.S. to believe that Japan was on the verge of attacking somewhere in Southeast Asia. On December 7, the U.S. received the final part of the Japanese message that all diplomatic relations were to be severed. Another message was intercepted about an hour later. Due to delays the message could not be forwarded to Pearl Harbor until noon, 4 hours after the attack started. The first attack by Japan consisted of 183 planes, and took off for Pearl Harbor at 6 am. At 7:02 Army operators detected these planes and alerted Pearl Harbor. Pearl Harbor mistook these planes for American B-17’s due from the U.S. West Coast. At 7:15 the second group of Japanese planes took off for Pearl Harbor. At this point Pearl Harbor did not see itself in any danger and did not see an attack coming.5

In japan they had been preparing for an attack like pearl harbor in there own bay. They also had many submarines designed for an attack like pearl harbor.

Before the Pearl Harbor attack in December 1941, the United States citizens and government was concerned about the alliance of Japan with Nazi Germany. It became patriotic to challenge the loyally of Japanese Americans. There were even “scare headlines” in newspapers describing invasions and acts of espionage that had never taken place that reflected the fear on the West Coast and in Hawaii. There was hysteria of the United States citizens and some of the Japanese Americans resisted the new government policy.

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

“A date which will live in infamy” a quote from President Franklin Roosevelt, the president during the attack, infamy means being well known for something bad or having a bad quality. That's exactly what the attack on Pearl Harbor was, it was awful and will be remembered for being very tragic. The attack took place on December 7, 1941. Pearl Harbor was a U.S naval base in Hawaii, more specifically the island of Oahu. The attackers were the Japanese, the American soldiers knew this because when they started flying overhead they could see the “rising sun” flag on the bottom sides of the plane's wings. The attack is a major reason that the U.S entered WWII.

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.

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.

On December 7, 1941 -- the day that will always be commemorated as “the date which will live in infamy” by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt -- the Japanese unexpectedly attacked the United States’ naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. This crippling attack caused many American casualties, and American citizens quickly became filled with fury and abhorrence; the detestation that swallowed the hearts of the American citizens was shown through President Roosevelt’s expeditious appeal to Congress to declare war against Japan. The attack on Pearl Harbor was an unforgettable day in history and directly affected the United States involvement in World War Two and the patriotism of the United States’ citizens.

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