25 Days of History: December 7th

Remembering the Japanese military maneuver that launched the United States into World War II

Saturday, December 7th, 2019 @ 07:37 (7:37am)

Photograph of Battleship Row taken from a Japanese plane at the beginning of the attack. The explosion in the center is a torpedo strike on USS West Virginia. Two attacking Japanese planes can be seen: one over USS Neosho and one over the Naval Yard. Official U.S. Navy photograph NH 50930

Attack on Pearl Harbor

The now infamous attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise preemptive military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States (a neutral country at the time) against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Hawaii on Sunday morning, December 7, 1941. The surprise attack led to the United States' formal entry into World War II the very next day.

Motive Behind the Planned Attack

Japan intended the attack as a preventive action to keep the United States Pacific Fleet from interfering with its planned military actions in Southeast Asia against overseas territories of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and the United States. Over the course of seven hours there were coordinated Japanese attacks on the U.S.-held Philippines, Guam and Wake Island and on the British Empire in Malaya, Singapore, and Hong Kong.

Route followed by the Japanese fleet to Pearl Harbor and back [Public Domain Image]

Day of Attack and U.S. Declaration of War Day After

The attack commenced at 7:48 a.m. Hawaiian Time (18:18 GMT). The base was attacked by 353 Imperial Japanese aircraft consisting of fighters, level and dive bombers, and torpedo bombers in two waves, and launched from six separate aircraft carriers. All eight U.S. Navy battleships were damaged; four were sunk. Every battleship except for the USS Arizona were later raised, and six even returned to service and additionally fought in the war.

Three cruisers, three destroyers, an anti-aircraft training ship, and one minelayer ship were also sank or severely damaged by the Japanese. A total of 188 U.S. aircraft were destroyed as well. 2,403 Americans were killed and 1,178 others were wounded. Critically important base installations such as the power station, dry dock, shipyard, maintenance, fuel and torpedo storage facilities, as well as the submarine piers and headquarters building (also the intelligence station Hypo) were not part of the attack designations and therefore remained undamaged. Japanese losses were comparably extremely light, recorded as only 29 aircraft and five midget submarines lost, and 64 servicemen killed. A single Japanese sailor, Kazuo Sakamaki, was captured.

Japan formally announced a declaration of war on the United States later that day, but the declaration was not delivered until the following day on December 8th in Tokyo. Congress formally declared war on the Empire of Japan on December 8th, 1941 in response to the country's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor the prior day. On December 11th, Germany and Italy each declared war on the U.S., which responded with a declaration of war against Germany and Italy the same exact day.

From left: A naval photographer captures the morning of the attack from two views, the first photo from the shore and second photo of the naval yard after recent torpedo strikes. Third photo: West Virginia was sunk by six torpedoes and two bombs during the attack. Fourth photo: Arizona during the attack. Photo Credits: Public Domain

Infamy

There were numerous historical precedents for the unannounced military action by Japan, but the lack of any formal warning, particularly while peace negotiations were still apparently ongoing, led President Franklin D. Roosevelt to proclaim December 7, 1941, "a date which will live in infamy" in his speech addressing the attack. Since the incursion occurred without a declaration of war and without explicit warning, the attack on Pearl Harbor was later judged in the Tokyo Trials to be a war crime.