The December 7 1941 Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor was one of the
great defining moments in history. A single carefully-planned and
well-executed stroke removed the United States Navy's battleship
force as a possible threat to the Japanese Empire's southward
expansion. America, unprepared and now considerably weakened, was
abruptly brought into the Second World War as a full combatant.
Eighteen months earlier, President Franklin D. Roosevelt had
transferred the United States Fleet to Pearl Harbor as a presumed
deterrent to Japanese agression. The Japanese military, deeply
engaged in the seemingly endless war it had started against China
in mid-1937, badly needed oil and other raw materials. Commercial
access to these was gradually curtailed as the conquests continued.
In July 1941 the Western powers effectively halted trade with Japan.
From then on, as the desperate Japanese schemed to seize the oil and
mineral-rich East Indies and Southeast Asia, a Pacific war was
virtually inevitable.
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| This is a picture of Pearl Harbor looking southwest, October 30, 1941, prior to the attack. |
The U.S. Fleet's Pearl Harbor base was reachable by an aircraft carrier force, and the Japanese Navy secretly sent one across the Pacific with greater aerial striking power than had ever been seen on the World's oceans. Its planes hit just before 8AM on 7 December. Within a short time five of eight battleships at Pearl Harbor were sunk or sinking, with the rest damaged. Several other ships and most Hawaii-based combat planes were also knocked out and over 2400 Americans were dead. Soon after, Japanese planes eliminated much of the American air force in the Philippines, and a Japanese Army was ashore in Malaya.
These great Japanese successes, achieved without prior diplomatic formalities, shocked and enraged the previously divided American people into a level of purposeful unity hardly seen before or since. For the next five months, until the Battle of the Coral Sea in early May, Japan's far-reaching offensives proceeded untroubled by fruitful opposition. American and Allied morale suffered accordingly. Under normal political circumstances, an accomodation might have been considered.
However, the memory of the "sneak attack" on Pearl Harbor fueled a determination to fight on. Once the Battle of Midway in early June 1942 had eliminated much of Japan's striking power, that same memory stoked a relentless war to reverse her conquests and remove her, and her German and Italian allies, as future threats to World peace.
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Sequence of Events |
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Saturday, December 6 - Washington D.C.
U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt makes a final appeal to the Emperor
of Japan for peace. There is no reply. Late this same day, the U.S.
code-breaking service begins intercepting a 14-part Japanese message
and deciphers the first 13 parts, passing them on to the President
and Secretary of State. The Americans believe a Japanese attack is
imminent, most likely somewhere in Southeast Asia.
Sunday, December 7 - Washington D.C.
The last part of the Japanese message, stating that diplomatic
relations with the U.S. are to be broken off, reaches Washington in
the morning and is decoded at approximately 9 a.m. About an hour
later, another Japanese message is intercepted. It instructs the
Japanese embassy to deliver the main message to the Americans at 1
p.m. The Americans realize this time corresponds with early morning
time in Pearl Harbor, which is several hours behind. The U.S. War
Department then sends out an alert but uses a commercial telegraph
because radio contact with Hawaii is temporarily broken. Delays
prevent the alert from arriving at headquarters in Oahu until
noontime (Hawaii time) four hours after the attack has already begun.
Sunday, December 7 - Islands of Hawaii, near Oahu
The Japanese attack force under the command of Admiral Nagumo,
consisting of six carriers with 423 planes, is about to attack. At 6
a.m., the first attack wave of 183 Japanese planes takes off from the
carriers located 230 miles north of Oahu and heads for the U.S.
Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor.
Pearl Harbor - At 7:02 a.m.
Two Army operators at Oahu's northern shore radar station detect the
Japanese air attack approaching and contact a junior officer who
disregards their reports, thinking they are American B-17 planes
which are expected in from the U.S. west coast.
Near Oahu - At 7:15 a.m.
A second attack wave of 167 planes takes off from the Japanese
carriers and heads for Pearl Harbor.
Pearl Harbor is not on a state on high alert. Senior commanders have
concluded, based on available intelligence, there is no reason to
believe an attack is imminent. Aircraft are therefore left parked
wingtip to wingtip on airfields, anti-aircraft guns are unmanned with
many ammunition boxes kept locked in accordance with peacetime
regulations. There are also no torpedo nets protecting the fleet
anchorage. And since it is Sunday morning, many officers and crewmen
are leisurely ashore.
At 7:53 a.m.
The first Japanese assault wave, with 51 "Val" dive bombers, 40 "Kate"
torpedo bombers, 50 high level bombers and 43 "Zero" fighters,
commences.
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Battleship Row under attack. - U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph |
West Virginia, Oklahoma and California have been torpedoed, as marked by ripples and spreading oil, and the first two are listing to port. Torpedo drop splashes and running tracks are visible at left and center.
White smoke in the distance is from Hickam Field. Grey smoke in the center middle distance is from the torpedoed USS Helena (CL-50), at the Navy Yard's 1010 dock.
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USS Arizona (BB-39) sunk and burning furiously, 7 December 1941. Her
forward magazines had exploded when she was hit by a Japanese bomb.
At left, men on the stern of USS Tennessee (BB-43) are playing fire
hoses on the water to force burning oil away from their ship. |
Escaping damage from the attack are the prime targets, the three U.S. Pacific Fleet aircraft carriers, Lexington, Enterprise and Saratoga, which were not in the port. Also escaping damage are the base fuel tanks.
The casualty list includes 2,335 servicemen and 68 civilians killed, with 1,178 wounded. Included are 1,104 men aboard the Battleship USS Arizona killed after a 1,760-pound air bomb penetrated into the forward magazine causing catastrophic explosions.
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The forward magazine of USS Shaw (DD-373) explodes during the second
Japanese attack wave. To the left of the explosion, Shaw's stern is
visible, at the end of floating drydock YFD-2.
At right is the bow of USS Nevada (BB-36), with a tug alongside
fighting fires. Photographed from Ford Island. |
News of the "sneak attack" is broadcast to the American public via radio bulletins, with many popular Sunday afternoon entertainment programs being interrupted. The news sends a shockwave across the nation and results in a tremendous influx of young volunteers into the U.S. armed forces. The attack also unites the nation behind the President and effectively ends isolationist sentiment in the country.
Monday, December 8
The United States and Britain declare war on Japan with President Roosevelt calling December 7, "a date which will live in infamy..."
Thursday, December 11
Germany and Italy declare war on the United States. The European and Southeast Asian wars have now become a global conflict with the Axis powers; Japan, Germany and Italy, united against America, Britain, France, and their Allies.
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Pictures from December 7, 1941 |
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 USS Maryland (BB-46) alongside the capsized USS Oklahoma (BB-37). The USS West Virginia (BB-48) is burning in the background. |
 Navy personnel on the seaplane ramp at Kaneohe Naval Air Station move a damaged PBY-5 seaplane to safety. |
 The USS Phoenix steams down the Ford Island channel past the USS West Virginia (left) and the USS Arizona (right). |
 Sandbag defense positions at Ford Island. USS Nevada shown beached in the background. |
 Sailors rescue survivor alongside the sunken USS West Virginia. |
 Fire and smoke pour from the battleships USS Arizona (right) and West Viginia (left). |
The forward superstructure and
Number Two 14" gun turret of
the sunken USS Arizona afire after
the attack.
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The Arizona Memorial |
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The USS Arizona Memorial is the final resting place for many of the
ship's 1,177 crewmen who lost their lives on December 7, 1941. The
184-foot-long Memorial structure spanning the mid-portion of the
sunken battleship consists of three main sections: the entry and
assembly rooms; a central area designed for ceremonies and general
observation; and the shrine room, where the names of those killed on
the Arizona are engraved on the marble wall.
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Photographed by Lieutenant Commander Tracy D. Connors, USN (Retired), June 1987. |
Initial recognition came in 1950 when Admiral Arthur Radford, Commander in Chief, Pacific (CINCPAC), ordered that a flagpole be erected over the sunken battleship. On the ninth anniversary of the attack, a commemorative plaque was placed at the base of the flagpole.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who helped achieve Allied victory in Europe during World War II, approved the creation of the Memorial in 1958. Its construction was completed in 1961 with public funds appropriated by Congress and private donations. The Memorial was dedicated in 1962.
As a special tribute to the ship and her lost crew, the United States flag flies from the flagpole, which is attached to the severed mainmast of the sunken battleship. The USS Arizona Memorial has come to commemorate all military personnel killed in the Pearl Harbor attack.
 The "Tears of The Arizona", where oil still seeps from the wreckage. |
 The Wall of Honor: Lists the names of 1,177 men who lost their lives on the USS Arizona. |
 The USS Coral Sea passes by, April of 1963. |
 Sailors and Marines aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Peleliu (LHA 5) render honors to the USS Arizona Memorial and the Battleship Missouri. |
 Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74) passes the USS Arizona Memorial. |
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"Punchbowl National Cemetery" |
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