The Attack on Pearl Harbor
The Noise at Dawn
It was a Sunday morning. Many sailors were still sleeping in their quarters, aboard their ships.
Some were sleeping on land.
At 7:02 a.m. at the Opana Radar Station on Oahu, privates Joseph Lockhard & George Elliott
saw something on their screen. It looked like a lot of planes flying toward them. Opana's was
the only radar turned on just then, and it was on only for training. The other radar stations had
been turned off. It was standard procedure.
Following standard procedure, Lockhard and Elliott reported what they saw. (Click here for an
eyewitness account of the attack.) The commanding officer on duty knew that a squadron of
American planes was due in from California about the same time. Reasoning that what
Lockhard and Elliott saw was that squadron of American planes, the commanding officer told
the two privates not to worry.
What they didn't know and what nobody in America knew was that Japanese planes had taken
off at 6 a.m. from aircraft carriers 230 miles away. What nobody in America thought was
possible was happening: The Japanese were attacking Pearl harbor.
At 7:55, the Japanese attacked with deadly force. The first wave of 183 planes dropped bombs
and fired bullets at the almost defenseless American ships in Pearl Harbor and planes at three
nearby airfields. A second wave of 167 planes followed about an hour later. American sailors
fought back, struggling to get their planes off the ground and fire their guns at targets they
couldn't quite see.
A fleet of midget submarines was also part of the Japanese attack. These subs dropped deadly
torpedoes, which had been modified with wooden fins to run their course in the shallow waters
of Pearl Harbor.
The Damage
When the attack was finished, 21 of the 96 ships at anchor had been sunk and others had been
severely damaged. Of the 394 planes at Hickam, Wheeler, and Bellows airfields, 188 were
destroyed and 159 were damaged. The death total was 2,403 (including 68 civilians). The
wounded total was 1,178.
Eight battleships were damaged in the attack, along with three destroyers and four other
smaller ships. Among the battleship casualties:
• The USS Arizona was struck by a torpedo, which hit a gun magazine. The ship went
down in 9 minutes, killing 1,177 aboard.
• The USS Oklahoma rolled over on its side, pinning many men inside and underwater.
Some were rescued; many were not. Of the crew of 1,301, 429 died.
• The USS West Virginia was struck numerous times by both torpedoes and bombs. It
sank.
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• The USS Nevada was struck numerous times by both torpedoes and bombs. After the
first wave, the Nevada tried to get out to sea through the narrow channel leading into the
harbor. The Nevada had almost made it when the second wave of Japanese planes
attacked. The planes tried to sink the Nevada and block the channel, but the Nevada
chose to beach itself instead.
Two other smaller ships, the Shaw and the Oglala, were badly damaged. (The Oglala
capsized.) The Vestal was beached. The Utah, which had been a target ship for the U.S.
military, was itself sunk in the attack.
The Japanese attack force lost 29 planes and a handful of midget submarines.
The Result
In a little more than two hours, the Japanese had sunk 21 ships and killed more than 2,000
Americans. It was a devastating blow.
However, the American aircraft carriers were not in port. They were out to sea. As later results
would prove, the aircraft carrier was the dominant ship in the navy. By not sinking the
American carriers, the Japanese left the American left fleet largely intact. Of the 21 ships that
were sunk on December 7, 1941, all but three were eventually refitted and sailed again under
the American flag during the war.
When U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan the day
after the attack, the answer was a resounding yes. An American that had been deeply divided
over how much aid to give the Allies was not united in a common purpose: make the Japanese
pay for their attack and rid the world of Nazism and Fascism.
Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto, who had planned the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, had
studied at Harvard University and knew well the temperament and capabilities of the
American people. He had warned others in the Japanese government that for the Pearl Harbor
attack to succeed, it must be a crushing blow.
The attack was devastating, yes, but it wasn't a crushing blow. Moreover, it gave the American
soldiers and their families a rallying cry that carried them through to the end of the war:
"Remember Pearl Harbor." http://www.socialstudiesforkids.com/subjects/pearlharbor.htm
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More Facts
• The attack took place on December 7, 1941.
• Although the aerial attack was very successful, the submarines failed to finish off any wounded
ship inside the harbor.
• The attack's success surprised the Japanese as much as the Americans.
• The last part of the decoded Japanese message stated that U.S. relations were to be severed.
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• The Japanese attack force was under the command of Admiral Nagumo.
• Japanese force consisted of six carriers with 423 planes.
• At 6 a.m. the first Japanese attack wave of 83 planes took off.
• Nickname for Pearl Harbor is "Gibraltar of the Pacific."
• Eighteen U.S. ships were hit.
• President Franklin D. Roosevelt said, "December 7, 1941, a date which will live in infamy," in
reference to the attack.
• Three prime targets escaped damage, the U.S. Pacific Fleet aircraft carriers, the Lexington,
Enterprise and Saratoga. They were not in the port when the attack took place.
• Another target, the base fuel tanks also escaped damage.
• Casualties included 2,335 servicemen and 68 civilians.
• 1178 people were wounded.
• The day after the attack the U.S. and Britain declared war on Japan.
• Pearl Harbor is the Naval Base for the U.S. Pacific Fleet.
• Pearl Harbor is the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet.
• Pearl Harbor has 10 square miles of navigable water.
• The harbor is on the southern coast of Oahu.
• The harbor is artificially improved.
• The attack was the climax of a decade of worsening relations between the U.S. and militaristic
Japan.
• A U.S. embargo on necessary supplies for war prompted the attack on Pearl Harbor.
• The Japanese Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku planned the attack with great care.
• All of the planes on the Japanese ships were fully fueled and armed.
• The Japanese planes took off about 90 minutes from Pearl Harbor.
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• The president at the time of the attack was Franklin D. Roosevelt.
• The attack brought the United States into World War II.
• The Japanese fleet had 30 ships.
• The Japanese were interested in the Hawaiian Islands since the islands were annexed by the
U.S. in 1898.
• An admiral said, "leaving aside the unspeakable treachery of it, the Japanese did a fine job."
• Japanese suffered just small losses.
• The attack crippled the United States fleet.
• The Japanese deceived the U.S. by saying false statements and expressed interest in continued
peace.
• Americans think of the attack as very dishonorable.
• The attack was planned weeks in advance.
• The main reason for the attack was over economic issues.
• Because of the unpreparedness of the U.S. military, Admiral Husband Kimmel and General
Walter Short were relieved of duty.
• The attack severely crippled the U.S. naval and air strength in the Pacific.
• Of the eight battleships, all but the Arizona and Oklahoma were eventually repaired and
returned to service.
• On December 8, 1941, Congress declared war on Japan with only one vote against it. The vote
against it was of Representative Jeannette Rankin of Montana, who had also voted against U.S.
entry into World War I.
• Once the fleet was out of action, Japan would be able to conquest a great area.
• A U.S. Army private who noticed the large flight of planes on his radar screen was told to
ignore them because a flight of B-17s from the continental U.S. was expected at the time.
• More than 180 U.S. aircraft were destroyed.
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• During the attack the USS Arizona sank with a loss of more than 1,100 men.
• A white concrete and steel structure now spans the hull of the sunken ship as a memorial.
• The memorial was dedicated on May 30, 1962.
• U.S. officials had been aware that an attack by Japan was probable, but did not know the time
or place it would occur.
• Pearl Harbor was not in the state of high alert when the attack started, Anti-Aircraft guns were
left unmanned.
• The Americans were taken completely by surprise.
• The main targets for the first wave were the airfield and battleships.
• The second wave targets were other ships and shipyard facilities.
• The air raid lasted until about 9:45 a.m.
http://www.erikanderson.net/pearlharbor/facts.html
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