December 7th, 1941

December 7th 1941. 

“A day that will live in Infamy”. 

The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor with 353 aircraft. The attack came in two waves and began at 7:55AM. 

The first wave had 183 aircraft. The second wave had 170 aircraft.

8 US battleships were heavily damaged. Two of them were total losses.

In all 20 ships were damaged, but most were later repaired. 188 US aircraft were destroyed. Over 2400 US service members lost their lives. Another 1100 were wounded.
The Japanese lost 29 aircraft and had 64 casualties.

The goal of the attack was to destroy America's ability to fight a war forcing a negotiated settlement.

The biggest failure of the Japanese attack was the fact that all the US Aircraft Carriers were not in the harbor. It was pure luck they all happened to be out at sea.

If the carriers had been destroyed the war could have been over that day.

The months following the attack brought more Japanese victories. It wasn’t unreasonable to think the US might not prevail.

It wasn’t until April of 1942 that the US finally pulled off a victory with Doolittles Raiders.

It was thought the US had no way of attacking the Japanese homeland.

The Americans flew B25 bombers off aircraft carriers. The mission was a one way bombing run of Tokyo.

The raiders continued onto China where the planes landed/crashed. The bombers didn’t have enough fuel to make it back to their carrier.

The bombs did little damage but psychologically it was a huge moral victory.

Now (for the first time) the Japanese knew they were not safe, and could be attacked from anywhere.

In June 1942 the turning point in the war came with the Battle of Midway.

The US had broken the Japanese code, and lured them into a trap.

The Japanese thought they were doing a land attack on the island of Midway.

The Americans put out false information that the island was without fresh water.

The Americans listened to the Japanese discuss this development and plan their attack.
The US ambushed the approaching Japanese carriers sinking 4 out of 6.

It was one of the worst defeats ever for the Japanese Navy.

The war in the Pacific would drag on for 3 more years. But after Midway the Americans had the upper hand.

The attack on Pearl Harbor dragged America into a war that resulted in the death of 111,000 Americans (in the Pacific) . It killed another 2.6 million Japanese.