Attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise, pre-emptive 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, just before 08:00, on
Sunday morning, December 7, 1941. The attack led to the United States' formal entry
into World War II the next day. 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.
The attack started at 7:48 a.m. The base was attacked by 353 Imperial Japanese
aircraft (including fighters, level and dive bombers, and torpedo bombers) in two
waves, launched from six aircraft carriers. All eight U.S. Navy battleships were
damaged, with four sunk. All but USS Arizona were later raised, and six were returned
to service and went on to fight in the war. The Japanese also sank or damaged three
cruisers, three destroyers, an anti-aircraft training ship, and one minelayer. 188 U.S.
aircraft were destroyed; 2,403 Americans were killed and 1,178 others were wounded.
Important base installations such as the power station, dry dock, shipyard,
maintenance, and fuel and torpedo storage facilities, as well as the submarine piers
and headquarters building (also home of the intelligence section) were not attacked.
Japanese losses were light: 29 aircraft and five midget submarines lost, and 64
servicemen killed. One Japanese sailor, Kazuo Sakamaki, was captured. Japan
announced a declaration of war on the United States later that day (December 8 in
Tokyo), but the declaration was not delivered until the following day. The following
day, December 8, Congress declared war on Japan. On December 11, Germany and
Italy each declared war on the U.S., which responded with a declaration of war against
Germany and Italy.
The Japanese attack had several major aims. First, it intended to destroy
important American fleet units, thereby preventing the Pacific Fleet from interfering
with Japanese conquest of the Dutch East Indies and Malaya and to enable Japan to
conquer Southeast Asia without interference. Second, it was hoped to buy time for
Japan to consolidate its position and increase its naval strength before shipbuilding
authorized by the 1940 Vinson-Walsh Act erased any chance of victory. Third, to
deliver a blow to America's ability to mobilize its forces in the Pacific, battleships were
chosen as the main targets, since they were the prestige ships of any navy at the time.
Finally, it was hoped that the attack would undermine American morale such that the
U.S. government would drop its demands contrary to Japanese interests, and would
seek a compromise peace with Japan.
The attack on Pearl Harbor united a divided nation as almost nothing else could
have done. Overnight he united the Americans against Japan and probably made
possible the position of unconditional surrender taken by the Allied Forces. Relations
between the United States and Japan had deteriorated rapidly in recent times. When
Roosevelt imposed an embargo on exports of critical materials to Japan, the worst was
expected. To the extent that the embargo became tougher, the Japanese had become
more desperate, feeling that their deserved place in the world was at stake. Therefore,
some historians believe that the attack on Pearl Harbor condemned the Empire of
Japan to defeat since he awoke the "sleeping giant", since, regardless of whether the
fuel tanks or shipyards had been destroyed, or that the aircraft carriers had been
caught in port and sunk, the industrial capacity of the United States, Once mobilized, it
was able to provide a large amount of resources in both the Pacific and Atlantic
settings. The perception of the treacherous nature of the attack on Pearl Harbor also
aroused fears of sabotage or espionage about Americans of Japanese descent and was
a factor in the subsequent confinement of the Japanese in the United States.
The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor had only a small military impact due to the
failed attempt by the Japanese Navy to sink the US aircraft carriers, but even if the
aircraft carriers had been sunk, it had not seriously helped the Empire of Japan. The
Hawaiian Islands are located in the center of the Pacific and contain fuel tanks for the
US fleet that were not attacked. Having destroyed those containers has long delayed
meaning in the US military operations in the Pacific, as they had to rebuild and replace
everything lost from California. A very important mistake, because it did not destroy
American logistics
