What happended during the attack of pearl harbor?

Answer 1

The Japanese Navy attacked US military bases on the Hawaiian island of Oahu, starting a war with the United States. It was a surprise sneak attack on Sunday morning, December 7th 1941. The Japanese used 5 midget submarines in the attack but they were ineffective. The main attack was carried out by 352 fighter, bomber & torpedo-bomber aircraft launched from six Japanese aircraft carriers that were about 220 miles north of Oahu. Additionally the Japanese had 20 Fleet submarines in Hawaiian waters to attack the US Fleet.

It was December 7, 1941 east of the International Date Line (Hawaii, North America, Europe & Africa) and December 8, 1941 west of the Dateline (Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Burma, Dutch East Indies, Philippines, Hong Kong, China, Japan, Guam, Wake Island, etc.).

Prior to the Japanese attack there were very public negotiations underway in Washington, D.C. between representatives of Japan and the US State Department. We now know that this was a Japanese ruse to gain time and cover for the coming attack on the United States.

The US-Japanese negotiations centered around the Japanese military's brutal aggression against China, and resulting US trade sanctions on Japan. The Japanese diplomatic position never changed from that of demanding that the United States accept the Japanese conquest of China and that the United States should not interfere in Japanese military actions. The Japanese wanted economic sanctions against them, lifted by the United States, but offered nothing in return for it. Negotiations were doomed to fail, except that a small group of misguided intellectuals (American clergymen & some Japanese business interests) provided false & misleading information (about Japanese diplomatic positions) that lead to a false hope, among some American diplomats, in a diplomatic compromise. By 1941, the Japanese government secretly undertook to use the negotiations as a delaying tactic, while preparing and planning for war against the United States, Britain & Commonwealth, and the Netherlands. The Japanese negotiators in Washington, DC were unaware of this pretense and therefore were not told of the futility of their efforts. Additionally, the Japanese never entered into negotiations with the British or Dutch whom they also attacked on that same day.

As intended, the Japanese did not attempt to issue any warnings or declarations of war until after the attack. The coded 14-Part Message that the Japanese Embassy received on December 6/7, 1941, and was supposed to decode and deliver before the attack, was not a Declaration of War by Japan. Instead, the message only stated that negotiations (between Japan & the US) had reached an impasse, and blamed the US. There was no mention of a pending attack, or a threat of one.

Japan attacked the United States at Hawaii on December 7, 1941 starting at 0748 hours (local time) at Kaneohe Air Station. The attack at Pearl Harbor, Ford Island, Hickam Field & Wheeler Field began at about 0755 hours (local time). Back on this day, when it was 7:55am at Pearl Harbor; it was 1:25pm in Washington, DC; 6:25pm in London; and it was 3:25am on December 8, 1941 in Tokyo, Japan.

The First Wave of the attack lasted from 7:48 to 8:39 am. The Second Wave of the attack lasted from 8:54 to 9:45 am.

Overall, the Japanese attack was primarily aimed at the US Battleships & cruisers in Pearl Harbor. US aircraft carriers would have been attacked, but they were several hundred miles at sea at the time. There was great destruction and loss of life caused by the attack.

Some historians & news reports have said that the US Pacific Fleet was "crippled" or "almost wiped out". This is a myth that ignores the facts.

A large part of the US Pacific Fleet was not at Pearl Harbor on the morning that it was attacked. All three Fleet Aircraft Carriers in the Pacific were not at Pearl Harbor. One of the nine (Post WW1) Battleships in the Pacific was not at Pearl Harbor. Eleven of the 13 Heavy Cruisers in the Pacific were not at Pearl Harbor. Five of the 11 Light Cruisers in the Pacific were not at Pearl Harbor. 37 of the 68 Destroyers in the Pacific were not at Pearl Harbor. 47 of the 51 Submarines in the Pacific were not at Pearl Harbor.

Note: The ships that were at sea, were primarily involved in operations to reinforce Midway & Wake Islands, escort convoys to/from the Philippines, or were on patrol in waters not far from Hawaii.

The major exception, and the primary targets of the attack, were the 8 battleships. It was these battleships that suffered most of the destruction and damage inflicted on the ships during the attack. At the time, these losses appeared to be quite severe and the American naval leaders, politicians & public were shocked. However in hindsight, these losses were not as devastating to the American war effort as originally thought. Note: The unarmed target ship USS Utah, a retired former old battleship, is often erroneously counted as a battleship that was sunk. Although it was sunk, it was no longer a warship. In fact, the Japanese pilots were instructed not to waste their bombs & torpedoes on this ship.

Here is a brief summary of US ship losses & damage to the 8 battleships at Pearl Harbor:

Battleship-USS Arizona, heavily damaged by bombs & magazine explosion & sunk; 1,177 killed

Battleship-USS Oklahoma, heavily damaged by 5 to 9 torpedoes, capsized & sunk; 429 killed

Battleship-USS West Virginia, heavily damaged & sunk; 106 killed

Battleship-USS California, 2 torpedoes & 2 bomb hits, sunk in shallow water 2 days later; 105 killed

Battleship-USS Nevada, damaged by 2 torpedoes & 5 bombs; beached (not sunk); 57 killed

Battleship-USS Pennsylvania, slight damage from bombs & strafing; 32 killed

Battleship-USS Tennessee, 2 bomb hits, minor damage; 5 killed

Battleship-USS Maryland, 2 bomb hits, some damage; 4 killed

Of the four sunk and one beached: Only the USS Arizona & USS Oklahoma were total losses. The USS West Virginia, USS California, and USS Nevada were all raised/re-floated and then repaired & improved on the US west coast in time to fight in the Pacific war. The USS West Virginia required the most time & effort to repair & rebuild. It was re-floated on 17 May 1942 and sent to Puget Sound for repairs and returned to service in 1944. The three battleships not sunk: USS Pennsylvania, USS Tennessee, and USS Maryland were all repaired and improved on the US west coast and returned to service in less than four months.

Beyond the battleships: one target ship (USS Utah) was sunk, two light cruisers were damaged by one torpedo hit each. Three destroyers were heavily damaged by bombs and knocked out of service. One seaplane tender was damaged by one bomb and by one Japanese aircraft that crashed into her. One repair ship was heavily damaged by two bombs and when the battleship USS Arizona blew-up next to her. One destroyer tender was damaged by a bomb hit.

Killed during the attack: 2,004 US Navy (at Pearl Harbor Ford Island & Kaneohe NAS & Hospital); 111 US Marines (at Pearl Harbor & Ewa Marine Corps Air Station); 239 US Army (at Bellows Field, Camp Malakole, Fort Kamehameha, Fort Shafter, Hickam Field, Schofield Barracks, & Wheeler Field); and 48 civilians (from mostly in Honolulu & Pearl City). This included 12 children.

The Japanese declared war about 7 1/2 hours after the attack on Hawaii began. The United States declared war on Japan on December 8, 1941 (US time). US President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivers the famous "…a date which will live in Infamy…" speech to a Joint Session of Congress at 12:30 pm (slightly less than 24 hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor began). Within an hour of the speech, the US Congress passed a formal declaration of war against Japan. The US Senate votes 82-0; the US House of Representatives votes 388-1. Montana Congresswoman Jeannette Rankin was the 'no' vote. The Joint Resolution was approved by Congress at 4:10 pm.

Answer 2

Pearl Harbour was attacked.