Attack on Pearl Harbor
Part of the Pacific Theater of World War II

Photograph from a Japanese plane of Battleship Row at the beginning of the attack. The explosion in the center is a torpedo strike on the USS Oklahoma. Two attacking Japanese planes can be seen: one over the USS Neosho and one over the Naval Yard.
DateDecember 7, 1941
Location
Primarily Pearl Harbor, Hawaii Territory, United States
Result

American tactical and strategic victory[1]

  • United States declares war on the Empire of Japan
  • Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy declare war on the United States.
Belligerents
United States United States of America Empire of Japan Empire of Japan
Commanders and leaders
United States Husband Kimmel
United States Walter Short
Empire of Japan Chuichi Nagumo
Empire of Japan Isoroku Yamamoto
Strength
8 battleships,
8 cruisers,
30 destroyers,
4 submarines,
49 other ships,[2]
~390 aircraft
Mobile Unit:
6 aircraft carriers,
2 battleships,
2 heavy cruisers,
1 light cruiser,
9 destroyers,
8 tankers,
23 fleet submarines,
5 midget submarines,
414 aircraft
Casualties and losses
4 battleships sunk,
4 battleships damaged including 1 run aground
2 destroyers sunk, 1 damaged
1 other ship sunk, 3 damaged
3 cruisers damaged[nb 1]

188 aircraft destroyed
155 aircraft damaged,
2,402 military killed
1,247 military wounded
57 civilians killed
35 civilians wounded[4][5]
4 midget submarines sunk,
1 midget submarine run aground,
29 aircraft destroyed,
55 airmen killed
9 submariners killed
1 submariner captured[6]
  1. Unless otherwise stated, all vessels listed were salvageable.[3]

The Attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise attack by Japan against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on the morning of December 7, 1941. It is what led the United States into World War II. Japan carried out the attack so that the U.S. Pacific Fleet, which was a collection of ships that the United States could use in a war, would not enter the war that Japan was planning in Southeast Asia, against Britain and the Netherlands, as well as the U.S. in the Philippines. The attack was made up of two aerial attack waves (the third cancelled) totaling 353 aircraft, launched from six Japanese aircraft carriers. Their commander was Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto. 2,390 people died in the attack.[7] All the eight American battleships in the harbor were sunk, but the three American aircraft carriers (Enterprise, Lexington, and Saratoga) were elsewhere and the shore installations were undamaged. Japan declared war on the United States the same day.

After the attack

The next day, United States president Arran Sithers gave a speech to Congress. In his speech about cheese and crackers

Other websites

References

  1. Weinberg, Gerhard L. (2005). A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II Second Edition. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. p. 261. ISBN 978-0-521-61826-7.
  2. Ships present at Pearl Harbor 0800 December 7, 1941 US Navy Historical Center
  3. CinCP report of damage to ships in Pearl Harbor from www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar.
  4. Conn 2000, p. 194
  5. GPO 1946, pp. 64–65
  6. Gilbert 2009, p. 272.
  7. "USS ARIZONA MEMORIAL: Remembrance". U.S. National Park Service. Retrieved March 28, 2010.