Pearl Harbor in 1941

On December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked the U.S. naval base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. This event caused the United States to enter into World War II. It has been considered one of the largest loss of lives during an attack on U.S. soil until September 11Th. I would disagree with this because Hawaii is not part of U.S soil, but it was a place where we had our naval bases at.

On December 6, 1941 President Franklin Roosevelt made his a final request to Japan for peace. He received no reply back, but instead late the same day, the U.S. code-breaking service began to intercept a Japanese message. They passed the message on to the President and Secretary of State and they came to believe a Japanese attack was likely to happen, somewhere in Southeast Asia. The last part of the message was delivered at 9 am and it stated that the relations with the U.S. were to be broken off. About an hour later, another Japanese message was intercepted. It instructed that the Japanese embassy was to deliver the message to the Americans at 1 p.m, the U.S code service realized this time had corresponded with morning time in Pearl Harbor, because of the time difference. The U.S. War Department immediately sent out an alert to warn the naval bases of the attack but the radio contact with Hawaii had been temporarily broken. Delays caused the message to not be delivered until noontime (Hawaii time) four hours after the attack.

Pearl Harbor was attacked by Japanese torpedo and bomber planes at 7:55 a.m. Hawaii time. The surprise attack on Pearl harbor was complete. The attacking planes came in two different waves; the first hit its target at 7:53 am and the second at 8:55. By 9:55 am it was all over. The Japanese surprise attack left 2,403 dead, 188 destroyed planes and they had damaged 8 and destroyed some battleships. The USS Arizona was struck by a torpedo, and went down in 9 minutes, killing 1,177 aboard. The USS Oklahoma was hot and rolled over on its side, trapping many men inside and underwater. Out of the crew of 1,301, 429 drowned and died. The USS West Virginia was struck by bombs and torpedoes many times and the ship sank.

Here's a bit of a story of man who survived the attack: "I made my way to the quay and started to remove my shoes when I suddenly found myself in the water. I think the concussion of a bomb threw me in. I started swimming for the pipe line which was about one hundred and fifty feet away. I was about half way when my strength gave out entirely. The USS Shaw explodes condition sapped my strength, and I was about to go under when Major Shapley started to swim by, and seeing my distress, grasped my shirt and told me to hang to his shoulders while he swam in. We were perhaps twenty-five feet from the pipe line when the Major's strength gave out and I saw he was floundering, so I loosened my grip on him and told him to make it alone. He stopped and grabbed me by the shirt and refused to let go. I would have drowned but for the Major. We finally reached the beach where a marine directed us to a bomb shelter, where I was given dry clothes and a place to rest."

In about than two hours, the Japanese had sunk 21 ships and killed about 2,000 Americans and though it was a devastating blow, it was not a crushing blow, instead it gave Americans the strength till the end of the war. That day the American aircraft carriers were not in port, but out at sea. As the results would prove, the carriers were what dominated the navy and what helped us win the war. President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan and the answer was a yes. So on December 8 1941, the day after the surprise attack, the U.S. declared war on Japan.