Pearl Harbor
On December 7, 1941, Eighteen United States ships, and more than two hundred aircraft's were either destroyed or damaged. The battleship Arizona was a total wreck, while the West Virginia and the California lay below the Pacific waters. "Approximately 2,555 servicemen and 68 civilians lost their lives that day in an attack that could have well been prevented."(Linton 12) Consequently Pearl Harbor that day turned into a disaster because of a few mistakes.
While the U.S. watched the struggle in Europe, their relationships with Japan grew steadily worse as time passed. Japan took over Manchuria, began a war with China, and then turned their attention to Indochina and the Indies. After these events the United States position was now obviously clear, they were going to cut Japan off. However Japan's population could not survive without raw materials, a market, and oil. Japan felt that the United States was interfering in their plan to expand into Eastern Europe. "To make all matters worse, on October 17, 1941 Lieutenant-General Hideki Tojo became the new Japanese Prime Minister."(Weintraub 54) Then on November 5, Hideki Tojo revealed the plans for war that he felt was increasingly certain. The leaders in Washington also intercepted messages that indicated a possible attack, but the instructions seemed too vague to even be recognized as something serious.
On Saturday December 6, American radio monitors intercepted a message which made it clear Japan was about to break diplomatic relations with the United States. However, radio communications with Hawaii had been down due to the atmospheric conditions so they decided to send the message by cable instead. Since two or three people made minor mistakes the message was delayed.
While saluting our nations flag at the sound of the Star Spangled Banner Nagumo's fleet had arrived about 230 miles from Oahu unseen and unsuspected by any American. "The first wave consisted of 189 Japanese planes, six carriers, two battleships, three cruisers, several destroyers and tankers all under the command of Japan's Vice Admiral Chuichi."(Gross 71) Japan's first wave reached their targets just before 8:00a.m. finding their targets in neatly arranged rows. An hour and fifty minutes later, the last Japanese plane of 171 from the second wave had left their carriers heading straight for Pearl Harbor.
The attack on Pearl Harbor lasted 110 minutes and in those 110 minutes the United States had suffered the worst Military disaster of its history.
On December 7th, 1941 tragedy struck when Pearl Harbor was attacked by the Japanese. Many ships were sunk during the attack, but one of the most recognizable was the battleship the U.S.S. Arizona. This was one of the ships that was in line in the infamous battleship row. Because of where the U.S.S. Arizona was located it was a sitting duck to dive bombers and torpedo bombers of the Japanese. Once the ship was hit it went down in nine minutes. The sinking of the U.S.S. Arizona caused 1,177 service men to die while on board. The U.S.S. Arizona should also be known for all of its accomplishments during its tenure as a battleship. The Arizona had a very long and prestigious career before it was sunk. During the U.S.S. Arizona's life is served many important functions, from patrolling waters to escorting important people. The loss of the U.S.S. Arizona will forever be remembered as a tragic loss for the United States and its armed forces.
Japanese stood their ground and on December 7,1941.The surprise attack on the Americans that destroyed or damage nearly 20 American naval vessels, including eight battleships, and over 300 airplanes. More than 2,400 Americans died in the attack, including civilians, and another 1,000 people were wounded at Pearl Harbor(document
The Battle of Pearl Harbor was one of the most atrocious events that happened in U.S. history. On December 7, 1941, Japan made a surprise aerial attack on the United States naval base and airfields at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. More than two thousand Americans died and a thousand two hundred were wounded. Eighteen ships were badly damaged, including five battleships. The next day, President Franklin Roosevelt with the support of the Congress, declared war on Japan.
While Japan was greedy for more land and industrial materials, no one believed that the Japanese would start war with America by planning an attack on American soil. Another reason that the United States thought that the attack wouldn’t happen so close was because they were confident that Japan would try and take over the the Dutch East Indies, or French
December 7, 1941 was a day of great tragedy. At 07:48 in the morning the Empire of Japan launched a surprise attack on the United States at the Pearl Harbor naval base in Hawaii. This attacked caused the destruction of seventeen ships and one hundred and eighty eight aircraft as well as killing two thousand four hundred and three Americans. The next day, President Franklin Roosevelt took to the microphone to address congress and the American people. This speech by President Roosevelt was effective in convincing congress to declare war on Japan by using ethos, pathos, and also logos.
The people who needed the information the most, Admiral Kimmel, commander-in-chief us pacific fleet, and General Walter Short, the army commander in Hawaii, were kept out of the loop. Why would the military keep such pertinent information from its leaders in Hawaii? Some would argue they hid the information so the Japanese would not know their code was broken. I wonder if the 2,000+ service men and civilians that died that day would share the same concern. Admiral Kimmel had been complaining about shortages of personnel, planes, and radar for months. General Short did not even know he had a special Army monitoring station on the island, and was not even cleared to see the decrypted messages known as Magic.
Japan wanted the United States to stop sending China supplies, but the United States refused. The United States opposed the expansion of Japan in Asia, so they cut off important exports to Japan. General Hideki Tojo was the Premier of Japan. He and other Japanese leaders did not like the fact that Americans were sending war supplies to China and other countries in Asia. A surprise attack was ordered by Japan on December 7, 1941.
Even before the battle started, America saw his attack coming. Japan had bombed the Dutch harbor in Alaska on the days of June 3rd and 4th. Japan landed there instead of on the islands of Attu and Kiska, in fear the United States might be there. There attacks failed when the plan to get the American fleet from Midway to aid the freshly bombed Dutch harbor. At 0900 hours an American patrol boat spotted the Japanese fleet seven hundred miles from Midway. At that point admiral Soroku Yamamoto’s plans of a sneak attack were over. Admiral fletcher commanded the U.S.S. Yorktown before it was sunk by the Japanese. Then at 0750, japan spots nine enemy (American) planes fifteen miles out. Tones, a Japanese cruiser, opened fire on the American pilots. Almost instantly if an American bomber plane were hit it would explode and go down. The bombers dropped their torpedoes to far from their targets, so the torpedoes didn’t land a single blow to Japan. At 1040 japan sent from Hiryu,...
The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor is a day that will remain infamous in the history of America. Although people know about the attack and remember it, they might not know as in-depth as Walter Lord narrates in his book Day of Infamy. Lord’s Day of Infamy is a vivid recounting of the events that occurred on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Lord articulates the story of Pearl Harbor, not only the actual bombing but also the planning involved on behalf of the Japanese and the aftermath associated with the bombing. Day of Infamy narrates all of the events in Pearl Harbor in a very concise 200 pages and it gives an hour by hour narration of what was occurring. The timeframe for his unfolding of the story is from 3:30 am on December 7, 1941 to 5:30 pm that same evening. At 3:30 most Americans were just lying in bed and relaxing on what seemed to them as just another Sunday morning. Some unlucky soldiers were at their gate post awaiting the arrival of some cargo ships. The soldiers on guard spotted a white light but when they shinned their spotlight on it the white light veered away. The soldiers dismissed it but they had no idea that it could have given them important information as to what Pearl Harbor was to undergo in the next few hours.
Over the year and a half between Pearl Harbor and Midway the United States made headway with various technological and military advantages. One of the most important of which was the code breaking efforts of Commander Joseph J. Rochefort Jr. “Most of the U.S’s information [on Japan] came from Rochefort. R...
1941 December 7th was the day in which will live in infamy and also controversy. The Attack at Pearl Harbor was a surprise attack on the American fleet at the at the navy base in pearl harbor at Hawaii. Japanese attackers us hard and the planes came in waves, the first hit us at 7:53 and the second hit us at 8:55. Nothing but chaos was left. 2,403 dead, 188 planes. But was this attack really a surprise? Did we really know about it before hand? Or did we just really be bombarded with a Japanese surprise attack.
On December 7th, 1941, Japanese aircrafts attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor (Axelrod 148). Before this, the United States had not entered World War II, but this changed everything. The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise, which consisted of two waves. By the end of the day, many United S...
Pearl Harbor is easily one of the most disastrous events that occurred on American soil. It was a deliberate attack against the United States from Japan. Before December 7, 1941 when Pearl Harbor was attacked, America had decided not to get involved in European affairs, which included the beginning of World War II. However, once the United States saw how much Britain and the Soviet Union were suffering from fighting with the Axis Powers (Germany, Italy, and Japan), America felt obligated to help in some way to help without actually entering the war. Weapons, money, and food were sent over seas to help aid them in any way it could. It was very obvious that if America had entered the war, we would join the side of the Allies (Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union). The day after Pearl Harbor, Franklin D. Roosevelt approached congress and asked for a declaration of war against Japan. Pearl Harbor affected many events that occurred in World War II. Not only the United States, but the world was affected that day.
"How secret is secret in a country where years of censorship have trained an inquisitive, alert population in the discreet whisper and the fine art of putting two and two together? And how secret is secret when one's ideas are no longer exclusively one's own?" (At Dawn We Slept, Prange 30) The tragic attack of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 has many events connected to it that lead people to believe that it was no surprise to the United States government. "The attack marked the entrance of Japan into World War II on the side of Germany and Italy, and the entrance of the United States on the allied side." (Microsoft Encyclopedia)
The United States government knew well of Japan’s intent to attack Pearl Harbor well before the occurred. The attack may have been a surprise to Pearl Harbor, but it sure wasn’t to Franklin D. Roosevelt and few select top armed forces advisors of his. An investigation after the attack revealed that the intercepting station received at least forty-three different decoded messages that had clues to the attack. The president had at least four intelligence officers under direct orders from Roosevelt. They had decoded the Japanese code and had been monitoring their communications before the attack. They knew all about news of the planned attack. In 48 hours before the attack, LTC Clifford M. Andrew, was told to burn forty file cabinets of top secret information on Pearl Harbor so no investigation could seek out the truth which was labeled top secret and destroyed.