"Air Raid! Pearl Harbor! This Is No Drill!" These words, broadcast at 7:58, Sunday morning, December 7, 1941, shattered the peace and security of the United States. By 8 a.m., two American battleships were dealt fatal blows and hundreds of U.S. sailors were killed.
The Japanese Empire, using six aircraft carriers within 300 miles of the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, launched waves of 353 torpedo planes, dive bombers, and fighters for 35 minutes against U.S. soldiers, sailors, and airmen who had just started their Sunday morning routine. The element of surprise of the “sneak attack” was stunning.
Most of the men were on the battleship Arizona when the first bombs and torpedoes began to rip it apart. Some 1,177 were killed. The Oklahoma was the next to last in line on Battleship Row and probably the first to be struck. A few minutes after 8 o’clock, it rolled over completely, destroyed by three, huge torpedoes in its hull.
Next in line were the Tennessee and West Virginia, which were also hit hard, though hundreds of sailors were brought topside and saved. The California was the southernmost ship and the least prepared for war. Its magazine was targeted by the swarming Japanese Zeros and it quickly settled into the mud.
Within two hours — as thick, black smoke billowed from the harbor like a volcano — Japanese torpedoes, high explosives and incendiary devices sank or damaged 112 U.S. ships, including eight battleships, and 188 U.S. aircraft were destroyed. By 9:45 a.m., after a second attack, the Japanese airplanes returned to their carriers; 29 did not make it as they fell prey to American antiaircraft guns firing back.
2,402 American Soldiers Killed at Pearl Harbor
The attack killed less than 100 Japanese, but 2,402 American soldiers died. Some 70 civilians perished, as did 48 Honolulu residents. Another 1,282 U.S. citizens were injured. And at least 350 men were killed and 300 wounded by a single bomb at Hickam Army Air Field, an Air Corps post on the island of Oahu.
Japan declared war on Britain and the United States, while President Franklin Roosevelt mobilized all U.S. forces at a time when Japanese officials in Washington were still negotiating with Secretary of State Cordell Hull on lifting U.S. sanctions imposed on Japan after its continuing aggression against China.
Although the attack shocked the American people, it had been brewing for years. Japanese-American relations had been deteriorating since 1931, when Japan occupied Manchuria in northern China. In the next decade, the conflict intensified into a full-scale war between Japan and China.
In 1940, the United States imposed trade sanctions on Japan, which then signed the Tripartite Pact with Germany and Italy, becoming the third element in the alliance of Axis powers fighting the war in Europe. But Japan continued to negotiate with America for trade concessions.
Japan's anger at the economic sanctions imposed on Tokyo in response to its occupation of Manchuria and war against China prompted its declaration of war. Japanese military forces also sought to expand their military and economic domination of Asia. To do so with impunity, they had to destroy the American naval presence in the Pacific Ocean.
FDR: “A Date Which Will Live in Infamy”
The following day, President Franklin Roosevelt addressed the nation by radio, saying, "Yesterday, December 7th, 1941 — a date which will live in infamy — the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.
"The attack yesterday on the Hawaiian islands has caused severe damage to American naval and military forces. I regret to tell you that very many American lives have been lost. In addition, American ships have been reported torpedoed on the high seas between San Francisco and Honolulu.
"Yesterday, the Japanese government also launched an attack against Malaya.
"Last night, Japanese forces attacked Hong Kong.
"Last night, Japanese forces attacked Guam.
"Last night, Japanese forces attacked the Philippine Islands.
"Last night, the Japanese attacked Wake Island.
"And this morning, the Japanese attacked Midway Island.
"Japan has, therefore, undertaken a surprise offensive extending throughout the Pacific area. The facts of yesterday and today speak for themselves.
"As commander in chief of the Army and Navy, I have directed that all measures be taken for our defense. But always will our whole nation remember the character of the onslaught against us.
"No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory.
"With confidence in our armed forces, with the unbounding determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph — so help us God.
"I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, December 7th, 1941, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese Empire."
U.S. Declared War on Axis Powers
The U.S. Congress formally declared war on Japan hours later. And four days later, after Germany and Italy, the two other Axis powers, declared war on the United States, America declared war on them.
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a victory for Japan and allowed it to launch a full-scale invasion of Southeast Asia. But it failed to destroy U.S. aircraft carriers, ended the U.S. policy of isolationism, and united an outraged America behind President Roosevelt and the war effort.
“The war came as a great relief,” wrote Time magazine, “like a reverse earthquake, that in one terrible jerk shook everything disjointed, distorted, askew back into place. Japanese bombs had finally brought national unity to the U.S.” In the next four years, the United States battled Japan, Nazi Germany and Italy until it achieved victory in World War II in 1945.
SOURCES:
Iguchi, Takeo. Demystifying Pearl Harbor: A New Perspective From Japan. 2010.
Toland, John. Infamy: Pearl Harbor and its Aftermath. 1986.
John Kirshon - John Kirshon is a journalist/editor with more than 25 years of experience at the Associated Press, The New York Times and CBS News. He was ...
