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On the morning of December 7, 1941, planes of the Japanese Navy carried
out a surprise assault on the American Navy base and Army air field at Pearl
Harbor, Oahu, Hawaii. Eighteen ships were sunk or damaged, and around 2400
Americans lost their lives. The Japanese suffered minimal casualties. This
attack has been called the Bombing of Pearl Harbor and the Battle of Pearl
Harbor but, most commonly, the Attack on Pearl Harbor or simply Pearl
Harbor.
Overview
On March 27, 1941 Japanese spy Takeo Yoshikawa arrived in Honolulu,
Hawaii and began to study the United States Naval fleet stationed at Pearl.
The Japanese deployed six aircraft carriers for the attack, Akagi, Hiryu,
Kaga, Shokaku, Soryu, Zuikaku, with a total of 441 planes, including
fighters, torpedo-bombers, dive-bombers, and fighter-bombers. Of these, 55
were lost during the battle.
The Japanese planes bombed the US Army air base at Hickam Field and the
ships anchored in Battleship Row. The American battleship USS Arizona blew
up and sank with a loss of over 1100 men, nearly half of the American dead.
Seven other battleships and twelve other ships were sunk or damaged.
Historical significance
This battle, like the Battle of Lexington and Concord had
history-altering consequences. It only had a small military impact due to
the failure of the Japanese Navy to sink any U.S. carriers, but it firmly
drew the United States into World War II and led to the demise of the
Japanese Empire and aided in the defeat of Nazi Germany as well. America's
ultimate victory in this war and its emergence as a world power has shaped
international politics ever since.
Strategic appraisal
The purpose of the attack on Pearl Harbor was to neutralize American
naval power in the Pacific. The Japanese wanted license to do as they
pleased in the Pacific and Asia, and thought they could get this by
eliminating American influence. Specifically, Japan had been embroiled in a
war with China which had come to a stalemate after many years of fighting.
Japan thought by cutting China off from American (as well as British) aid,
China would be weakened, and the stalemate could be broken. Japan also knew
that American naval power could not be neutralized indefinitely, but thought
that by dealing it a heavy blow at Pearl Harbor, the American Navy could be
neutralized long enough for Japan to achieve its objectives in Asia and the
Pacific.
In terms of its strategic objectives the attack on Pearl Harbor was, in
the short to medium term, a unique and spectacular success which eclipsed
the wildest dreams of its planners and has few parallels in the military
history of any era. For the next six months, the United States Navy was
unable to play any significant role in the Pacific War; with the US Pacific
Fleet out of the picture, Japan was free to to conquer South-East Asia, the
entire South West Pacific and extend its reach far into the Indian Ocean.
In the longer term, however, the Pearl Harbor attack was an unmitigated
strategic disaster for Japan. In the first place, the main Japanese target
was the three American aircraft carriers stationed in the Pacific, but these
had been dispatched from Pearl Harbor a few days before the attack and
escaped unharmed. With most of the USN battleships out of commission, the
Navy had no choice but to put its faith in aircraft carriers and submarines,
and these would prove to be the tools with which the USN first stopped and
then reversed the Japanese advance.
Furthermore, although the Japanese forces inexplicably did not consider
them an important target, the base also had large fuel oil storage
facilities - a successful bombing of them would not only have resulted in
massive fires that could have devastated the base, but it would have also
have crippled much of the Pacific Fleet by robbing them of a major fuel
supply and fueling center thousands of miles from the mainland.
Most significantly of all, the Pearl Harbor attack galvanised a divided
and half-hearted nation into action as nothing else could have done:
overnight, it made the whole of America utterly determined to defeat Japan,
and it forever removed any question of a negotiated settlement short of
unconditional surrender.
A related question is why Nazi Germany declared war on the United States
December 11, 1941 immediately following the Japanese attack. This doubly
outraged the American public and allowed the United States to greatly step
up its support of the United Kingdom while recovering from the setback in
the Pacific.
Aftermath
Despite the perception of this battle as a devastating blow to America,
only five ships were permanently lost to the Navy. These were the
battleships USS Arizona, USS Oklahoma, the old target ship USS Utah, and the
destroyers USS Cassin and USS Downes; much usable material was salvaged from
them, including the two aft main turrets from the USS Arizona. Four ships
that were sunk during the attack were later raised and returned to duty,
including the battleships USS California, USS West Virginia and USS Nevada.
Of the 22 Japanese ships that took part in the attack, only one was to
survive the war.
In addition, despite the debacle, there were American personnel who
served with distinction in the incident. The most famous is Doris Miller, an
African-American sailor who went above and beyond the call of duty during
the attack when he took control of an unattended machine gun and used it in
defense of the base. For that, he was awarded the Navy Cross.
The attack has been depicted numerous times on film with the best known
examples being:
- From Here to Eternity
- Tora! Tora! Tora!
- Pearl Harbor
The surprise attack on Pearl Harbor and the resulting state of war
between Japan and the United States were factors in the later Japanese
internment in the western United States.
In 1991, it was rumored that Japan was going to release an official
apology to the United States for the attack. The apology did not come in the
form many expected, however. The Japanese Foreign Ministry released a
statement that said Japan had intended to release a formal declaration of
war to the US at 1 P.M., twenty-five minutes before the attacks at Pearl
Harbor were scheduled to begin. However, due to various delays, the Japanese
ambassador was unable to release the declaration until well after the
attacks had begun. For this, the Japanese government apologized.
Advance Knowledge Debate
There has been considerable debate by some ever since 1941 as to why the
United States was caught unaware, how much American officials knew of
Japanese plans (given the extensive and fairly successful pre-war American
code-breaking efforts directed at Japanese codes) and related topics. Some
people have argued that various parties (in some theories Roosevelt and
other American officials, in others Churchill and the British) knew of the
attack in advance and let it happen in order to propel America into war. The
best current evidence is that although American officials knew that war with
Japan was about to break out, nobody expected a strike at Pearl Harbor.
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