Pearl Harbor

Tojo FDR

Oahu Information Known as "The Gathering Place“, is the third largest of the Hawaiian Islands and most populous of the islands in the State of Hawaii. The state capital Honolulu is located on the southeast coast. It has a total land area of 596.7 square miles. (Nashville is 473 square miles) Hawaii is the most isolated population center on the face of the earth. Hawaii is 2,390 miles from California; 3,850 miles from Japan.

Background Japan needed resources. Things such as oil, iron, fuel, steel, and rubber were needed due to lack of resources on their own island. They continued to attack China and Indochina to find new resources. The United States and FDR condemned the attacks and placed embargos on Japan.

Background The transfer of the U.S. Pacific Fleet from its previous base in San Diego to its new base in Pearl Harbor was seen by the Japanese military as the U.S. asserting itself for potential conflict between the two countries.

Japan Prepares to Attack Preliminary planning for an attack at Pearl Harbor, to protect this move into the "Southern Resource Area" (the Japanese term for the East Indies and Southeast Asia generally), had begun in very early 1941, under Admiral Yamamoto. Over the next several months, pilots trained, equipment was adapted, and intelligence gathered.

American Response By late 1941, U.S. Pacific bases and facilities had been on alert on multiple occasions, and hostilities between the U.S. and Japan were expected by many observers. U.S. officials doubted Pearl Harbor would be the first target in a war with Japan, but rather the Philippines, due to its threat to sea lanes to the south and the erroneous belief Japan could not mount more than one major naval operation at a time.

American Response There has been ongoing controversy due to allegations by conspiracy theorists of advance knowledge of the attack by some in the Roosevelt administration which was purposefully ignored in order to gain public and Congressional support for the U.S. entering WWII on the side of the British Empire.

The Attack On November 26, 1941, a Japanese fleet consisting of a strike force of six aircraft carriers departed from northern Japan en route to a position to the north of Hawaii to launch its aircraft to attack Pearl Harbor. The minesweeper USS Condor spotted a midget submarine outside the harbor entrance and alerted destroyer USS Ward. Hours later, Ward fired America's first shots in the Pacific theater of WWII when she attacked and sank a midget submarine.

Japan Attacks Five midget submarines had been assigned to torpedo U.S. ships after the bombing started. None of these returned, and only four have since been found. Of the ten sailors aboard, nine died; the only survivor, Kazuo Sakamaki, was captured, becoming the first Japanese prisoner of war.

Japan Attacks 405 aircraft were to be used in the attacks. 360 were used for the two waves of attack and 48 served defensive combat air patrols, including nine fighters from the first wave. The first wave was to be the primary attack, while the second wave was to complete whatever remained unfinished.

Japan Attacks The first wave contained the bulk of the armament needed to attack capital ships, using mostly torpedoes. The airmen were ordered to attack the highest value targets (battleships and aircraft carriers), and if either were not present, any other high value ships (cruisers and destroyers).

Japan Attacks Dive bombers were to attack ground targets. Fighters were ordered to destroy as many parked aircraft as possible to ensure they did not get into the air to counterattack the bombers, especially in the first wave. When the fighters' fuel got low, they were to refuel at the aircraft carriers and return to combat. Fighters were to serve CAP duties where needed, especially over US airfields.

Aftermath Though the attack was notable for its large-scale destruction, the damage was not significant in terms of American fuel storage, maintenance and intelligence capabilities. Had Japan destroyed the American carriers, the U.S. would have sustained significant damage to the Pacific Fleet's ability to conduct offensive operations for a year or so

Salvage After a systematic search for survivors, formal salvage operations began. Around Pearl Harbor, divers from the Navy, the Naval Shipyard, and civilian contractors began work on the ships which could be refloated. They patched holes, cleared debris, and pumped water out of ships. Navy divers worked inside the damaged ships. Within six months, five battleships and two cruisers were patched or refloated so they could be sent to shipyards in Pearl and on the mainland for extensive repair.

Salvage Intensive salvage operations continued for another year. The Utah and Arizona were too heavily damaged for salvage, though much of their armament and equipment was removed and restored for use aboard other vessels. Today, the two hulls remain where they were sunk. Divers logged in 20,000 hours under water with zero visibility. They worked in water with heavy oil, dangerous debris, decomposing bodies, and unexploded ordnance.

FDR’s Pearl Harbor Speech http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_on_Pearl_Harbor