How long were the men stationed at Pearl Harbor before it was attacked?

Answer 1

Pearl Harbor had been a Navy base since the 1890s, and Hawaii had been a US territory since that time. In those days there were violent anarchists, many of whom were working men. They liked to slip a bomb disguised as a lump of coal into a Navy ships coal bunkers. All the world's modern navies ran on coal, and to prevent the anarchists from slipping in bombs, if they had to buy coal where ever they were when they ran out, navies wanted "coaling stations". This was why the Navy got Pearl Harbor to start with, as a coaling station, where the warships could get a secure supply of coal. Once there was a Navy base in Hawaii, the Army had to send troops to protect the Navy base and its ships when they were in the Harbor.

At the time of the Pearl Harbor attack in 1941 some soldiers had been in Hawaii for a number of years. Today, men get transferred to a new base about every two years. It was not that way back then, and men might serve in the "Pineapple Army", the old Hawaiian Division, for ten years or more.

Up until the summer of 1940, the US Pacific Fleet was based in California. President Roosevelt ordered it to Hawaii to send a signal to the Japanese that the US was concerned about their invasions and wars against their neighbors in Asia. The Admiral commanding the Fleet at that time tried to tell Roosevelt that keeping the Fleet in Pearl Harbor was a bad idea. It was very difficult to defend the base. Defending the base was the Army's job, but they did not have the cannon and equipment they needed to do it right. Plus, there was only one narrow channel as a way in or out of the Harbor. One ship sunk in the channel and the entire Fleet would be bottled up in the Harbor for months, until the wreckage could be removed. Instead of listening to this Admiral, Roosevelt fired him.