On December 7, 1941-a date which will live in infamy-the United States was suddenly and DELIBERATELY attacked by the naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan. -Franklin Delano Roosevelt, in his address to Congress on December 8, 1941.
The diplomatic relationship between Japan and the United States was quite delicate throughout 1941. This relationship grew progressively worse, but, on November 26, 1941, the Kido Butai left Hittokapu Bay on its way to Hawaii. They would move at a steady 24 knots toward a small section of water approximately 230 miles south of Oahu.
The negotiations had been getting worse, until, on November 27, 1941, the negotiations finally ground to a halt. This was because the United States began to grow more concerned with the growing power of Germany and Japan, but still wanted to remain neutral. Franklin Delano Roosevelt resolved to halt the flow of the crucial American oil supply to Japan, which needed the supply to continue to operate machinery. This oil supply had been gradually decreased as Japan became a bigger threat to the United States. Japan didn't have a large amount of oil due to the lack of land there, which wouldn't yield a large enough amount of oil to supply the entire Japanese military. Needless to say, this angered Japan, and severely damaged any chance of peace between the growing Japanese Empire and the United States.
On December 7, 1941, at 6:00 a.m. (Honolulu time) after months of training, 183 Japanese aircraft are launched from six major fleet carriers, and fly along at multiple altitudes (High level bombers at 9,800 feet, dive bombers at 11,000 feet, and fighters at 14,100 feet) toward Oahu, using the radio station at Honolulu as a sort of beacon to guide them in.
At 7:02 a.m. (Honolulu time), a radar operator on the Private George Elliot and Private Joseph Lockard spotted the Japanese aircraft onto an approach to Oahu, and contacted the Information Center to report the contacts. At that time, Lieutenant Kermit Tyler, being only one of two people, in a building filled with plotters, controllers, and aircraft identification experts only a couple of minutes ago, informed Private Lockard that it was a flight of B-17 Flying Fortresses on an approach to the islands. Private Lockard did not mention that it was too large to be a flight of even the massive Fortresses, and that it was most likely consisting of more than fifty planes, and nothing more was mentioned about it.
At 7:15 a.m., a second wave of 167 Japanese planes departs the fleet carriers for Pearl Harbor. These aircraft also use the radio station out of Honolulu as a beacon to find there way toward Pearl Harbor.
At 7:55 a.m., the attack on Pearl Harbor begins. The first bomb is dropped on Wheeler Field, just 8 miles from Pearl Harbor.
Meanwhile, Lieutenant Commander Logan Ramsey, who was watching the color guard ceremony, was outraged as a different Japanese plane makes a low pass on the field. Lieutenant Richard Ballinger, one of the people with him notices the red on the plane, and thinks it is a squadron commanders plane, but then notices that something black falls out of the plane when it completed its dive. Once the first bomb detonates, both men realize that it is a Japanese plane, and scramble for cover, but only after Lieutenant Ramsey sends out a brief, plain English, none coded transmission which basically summarized the situation:
The United States only managed to launch a few fighters, which collected a total of 27 (29 aircraft destroyed, but 2 crashed on takeoff) Japanese kills out of the total of 350 starting aircraft. One Japanese submarine and five midget subs were also sunk. One of which, sunk by the USS Ward, was trying to trail the USS Antares into the harbor just before the attack. Another was beached, and the crew was captured, being the first Japanese prisoners taken by Americans.
The United States would have been even worse off if the three carriers that were stationed at Pearl Harbor had been there. The USS Lexington IV was out with Task Force 12, and upon hearing word of the attack, immediately began a search for the Japanese task force. The USS Saratoga V had just entered San Diego after being dry-docked in Bremerton. The USS Enterprise was delivering aircraft to Wake Island when the attack was under way. This also saved much of the submarine base, because Mitsuo Fuchida recalled his fighters after he discovered that the carriers were not nearby.
Nonetheless, the United States was outraged by this fact, and throughout the nation, Japanese-Americans were rounded up and moved to isolated areas in Utah. Later on in the war, however, the United States would regret that decision, as many of these people volunteered to serve when the drafts began.
The United States Naval damage was fairly heavy, especially to key waships such as battleships and cruisers. The United States lost a total of 5 battleships with another 3 damaged. There were also 3 light cruisers, 3 destroyers, and 4 auxiliary craft that were either sunk or heavily damaged. In addition to those there were 205 aircraft either destroyed or damaged (4 B-17s destroyed, 12 B-18s destroyed, 2 A-20s destroyed, 32 P-40s destroyed, 20 P-36s destroyed, 4 P-26s destroyed, 2 OA-9s destroyed, and 1 O-49 destroyed, another 88 pursuit [fighter] planes damaged, 6 reconnaissance aircraft damaged, 34 bombers damaged.) Another 18 aircraft from the USS Enterprise would be shot down, some by Japanese aircraft, and others by American gunners, who thought that the Japanese were trying to take the islands. As for personnel killed, missing, wounded, and those who died of their wounds, the numbers came out to 3, 581 people (2, 008 Navy dead, 710 wounded. 109 Marine dead, 69 wounded. 218 Army dead, 364 wounded. 68 civilians dead, 35 wounded [much of the civilian casualties were 'friendly fire situations', shells that were on there way down after firing and missing their target. One of these shells could easily kill someone, just by falling on them.])
Carriers: Akagi, Kaga, Hiryu, Soryu, Shokaku, and the Zuikaku.
Battleships: Hiei and Kirishima.
Cruisers: Tone, Chikuma, and Abukuma.
Destroyers: Hamakaze, Akigumo, Kagero, Kasumi, Shiranuhi, Tanikaze, Urakaze, Isokaze, and Arare. Ushio and Akebono were also along, but were part of a Midway neutralization force.
I-Boats: I-19, I-21,and I-23. There were numerous other submarines scattered throughout the Pacific designed to alert the Kido Butai.
Tankers: Kenyo Maru, Kyokuto Maru, Kokuyo Maru, Shinkoku Maru, Toho Maru, Nihon Maru, Toej Maru, and Shiriya.
Battleships: USS Oklahoma(Sunk, raised, but never returned to service), USS Nevada(Beached and raised), USS Pennsylvania(Damaged but mostly overlooked because it was in dry-dock), USS Arizona(Sunk and never raised), USS Tennessee(Damaged), USS California(Sunk and later raised), USS Maryland(Damaged) and the USS West Virginia(Sunk and later raised)
Cruisers: USS New Orleans and USS San Francisco, USS Raleigh(Damaged), USS Detroit, USS Phoenix, USS Honolulu(Damaged), USS St. Louis and the USS Helena(Damaged)
Destroyers: USS Allen, USS Chew, USS Bagley, USS Blue, USS Cassin(Sunk, parts used for a new USS Cassin), USS Downes(Sunk, parts used for a new USS Downes), USS Shaw(Destroyed in drydock from a magazine explosion), USS Monaghan, USS Farragut, USS Dale, USS Aylwin, USS Henley, USS Patterson, USS Ralph Talbot, USS Selfridge, USS Case, USS Tucker, USS Reid, USS Conyngham, USS Phelps McDonough, USS Worden, USS Dewey, USS Hull, USS Jarvis, USS Mugford, USS Cummings, USS Schley and the USS Helm
Submarines: USS Catchelot, USS Narwhal, USS Gudgeon, USS Dolphin and USS Tautog
Fleet oilers: USS Neosho and USS Ramapo
Destroyer tenders: USS Whitney and USS Dobbin
Repair ships: USS Medusa, USS Rigel, and USS Vestal(Damaged)
Patrol gunboats: USS Sacramento
Seaplane tenders: USS Curtiss(Damaged) and USS Tangier
Small seaplane tenders: USS Avocet
Hospital ships: USS Solace
Submarine tenders: USS Pelias
Target ships: USS Utah(Sunk and never raised)
Minelayers: USS Oglala(Sunk and later recovered)
Destroyer seaplane tender: USS Thornton and USS Hulvert
General stores issue ships: USS Castor
Fleet minesweeper: USS Grebe, USS Bobolink, USS Viero, USS Turkey, USS Rail, and USS Tern
High speed, destroyer minesweeper: USS Ramsey, USS Gamble, USS Montgomery, USS Trevor, USS Breese, USS Zane, USS Perry and USS Wasmuth
Destroyer minelayers: USS Preble, USS Tracy, USS Pruit and USS Sicard
General auxiliaries: USS Argonne, USS Sumner
See a list of major sources used in the research of this report
