Japanese Attack On Pearl Harbor

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It all started in the early morning 0748 on December 7, 1941 on the Island of Oahu in the area known as Pearl Harbor where the U.S. Pacific Fleet was harbored. The attack was carried out by 353 Imperial Japanese fighter planes, bombers and torpedo planes in two waves launched from six aircraft carriers. This battle started World War II. It was a very thought out attack that had several major targets and purposes. The Japanese initially intended the attack to be a preventive measure to slow down the U.S Pacific Fleet from interfering with Japans plan to attack Southwest Asia and the United Kingdom. They hoped the attack would buy them time for Japan to reinforce its position and increase its naval power. They also wanted to undermine American …show more content…

About a month before on November 26, 1941 the Japanese deployed six aircraft carriers Akagi, Hiryu, Kaga, Shokaku, Soryu, and Zuikaky departed Northern Japan headed for a position northwest of Hawaii. There were three waves of attacks to be carried out. Only two waves of the plan were actually carried out. The first attack wave was planned for 183 Fighter planes to launch North of Oahu, six failed to launch due to technical difficulties, so only 177 fighter planes were actually launched by Commander Mitsuo Fuchida. The attacks were divided into three groups per wave. The first group was to target the battleships and aircraft carriers. That group consisted of 49 Nakajima B5N Kate Bombers armed with 80kg armor piercing bombs. They were organized into four sections. One section failed to launch. The second set in the first wave was 40 B5N bombers armed with type 91 torpedoes; they were also organized into 4 section. The second group was to target Ford Island and Wheeler field. They had 51 Aichi D3A Val dive bombers armed with 550lb general purpose bombs, of that group three failed to launch. The third group was to target aircraft at Ford Island, Hickam Field, Wheeler Field and Barber’s Point, Kaneohe. They had 43 Mitsubishi A6M “Zero” fighters, two failed to launch. As the First wave approached Oahu it was detected by U.S. Army SCR-270 Radar located at Opana Point. This post was not operational as it had been in training mode for months. So when it was reported they initially presumed it was the scheduled arrival of six B-17 bombers coming in from

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