World War II was days from starting for the U.S. About 275 miles north of Oahu Island was Pearl Harbor's Doom. There, 6 aircraft carriers, 2 battleships, 3 cruisers, and 11 destroyers waited. The surprise attack that was about to happen was planned by Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto. The aircraft were under Commander Mitsuo Fuchida. From there, 353 planes were released on December 7, 1941 with the infamous Japanese sun on the wing.
7:05 a.m. was the time. A U.S. Army private sees a large group of planes on his radar. A flight of B-17's were expected at the time, so he was told to ignore them. At 7:55 a.m., ignoring the planes would not help.
The attack brought full attention to the eating or sleeping soldiers and civilians. The Japanese had sunk the U.S. Battleships Arizona, California, and West Virginia. The Oklahoma was capsized. Like the eye of a hurricane, silence loomed out for fourty five minutes. Then, a second fleet of planes reeked heavy damage on Maryland, Tennesee, Nevada, and Pennsylvania(Which were in dry dock).
Ten other ships were sunk or damaged, and over 140 aircraft were destroyed. Military casualties totaled more than 3,400, including more than 2,300 killed. Japanese, however only lost 29 planes and 5 midget submarines.
The U.S. Naval and air strength were crippled by the attack. Three aircraft carriers were not at Pearl Harbor that day and escaped damage. The Arizona and Oklahoma were the only battleships(of 8) that could not be repaired and returned to service.
The next day(December 8th, 1941) Japanese also attacked American and British bases at Midway, Wake Island, Guam, Hong Kong, Singapore, and the Phillipines. Congress then declared war on Japan. "A date which will live in infamy" were the words of Franklin Roosevelt that united a nation torn apart by depression. Three days after congress
declared war on Japan, Japan's allies Germany and Italy declared war on the U.S. The United States was now in the second World War.
The attack was a climax on a decade worth of bad relations between the U.S. and Japan. Japan's invasion of China in 1937 and the alliance with Germany and Italy caused the U.S. to freeze Japan assets in the U.S. The U.S. also stopped supplying the petroleum shipments and other war materials. In 1941, the U.S. severed all commercial and financial relations with Japan. Japan negotiated with the U.S. up to the day of the attack.
