“A day that will live in infamy” Pearl Harbor December 7th 1941 “A day that will live in infamy” (FDR, 8th December 1941)

When? Sunday December 7th 1941 at about 8 am

Where? Hawaiian Islands, Oahu, Pearl Harbor Naval base USA Japan Battleship Row Ford Island Pacific Ocean

Who? Imperial Japanese Navy 6 aircraft carriers, numerous other ships plus 441 dive-bombers, torpedo bombers, level bombers, fighters and 4 midget submarines US Pacific Fleet 12 battleships, 40 other ships, 20 submarines and over 400 aircraft plus dry docks, 6 months of fuel oil and a garrison of 20,000 troops

Why? Japan and the USA were rivals in Pacific trade Japan wanted to extend its control over the entire Pacific to develop its trade and become the dominant power in Asia Japan needed raw materials for this expansion and had decided to take them from the British, French, Dutch and American empires. The government in Japan was controlled by the military and they wanted to remove all the western powers from “Japans” area of influence The USA had recently banned trade with Japan The Pacific fleet, based in Hawaii, was the most powerful Japanese rival in the pacific: destroying it would allow the Japanese to make their conquest of Asia

What happened?………... Two waves of attacking planes flew 230 miles from the north east: a completely unexpected direction They targeted “battleship row”, the naval air station on Ford Island, the army air corps base at Hickam field They used bombs, torpedoes and machine guns to attack ships first and then any target of opportunity

What happened?……... Battleship row is destroyed 19 ships damaged, ten of them sunk 9 battleships sunk or damaged, 4 beyond repair 1100 men killed on the USS Arizona alone Battleship row is destroyed

What happened?……….. Ford Island Naval Base was destroyed 349 aircraft were destroyed 2400 servicemen and civilians were killed Ford Island Naval Base was destroyed

Results? The US Pacific fleet was out of action for 6 months No carriers were sunk: they had left Pearl the day before No fuel was destroyed The proposed third attack was never carried out 29 Japanese planes and four submarines were sunk

Results? FDR signing the declaration of war on the 8th of December The US declared war on Japan on the 8th of December Germany and Italy declared war on the US on the 11th of December The US also declared war on Germany and Italy FDR signing the declaration of war on the 8th of December

Results? Answer this question: If you were an American how would you have felt after the attack? Answer this question: How would the Pearl Harbor attack change the US publics view on isolation and the second world war?

What can you use Pearl Harbor for in GCSE? US public outrage: this attack happened whilst the US and Japan were still in peace talks This brought the US into the war with Germany as well as Japan (Axis pact) The attack only delayed the US response for 6 months: by then all the losses had been made up and the US was attacking Japanese forces

Conclusions?………. This is an example of modern technology in WW2. 5500km attack across the ocean would not have happened in WW1 The Germans now, within the space of six months, faced the 2 most powerful nations in the world (USSR/USA) This was a short term victory: Japan had won the first battle but could not win the war

A Final word………. Isoroku Yamamoto Pearl Harbor planner “Well, war has begun at last. In spite of all the noise and cheering we could lose it. One small success at Pearl Harbor is nothing. I fear all we have done is awaken a sleeping giant.”