Pearl Harbor

"Yesterday, Dec. 7, 1941 - a date which will live in infamy - the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan." Exactly as Franklin Delano Roosevelt proclaimed in his speech to Congress, December 7th would indeed live in infamy. Pearl Harbor was the most pivotal foreign affairs incident for the United States since the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Not only was it significant domestically, it had resounding consequences across the globe. It has lived on as one of the single most tragic events on United States soil.

Early Warnings

The United States had received many warnings stating there would be an attack on Pearl Harbor. In October, the Soviets top spy, Richard Sorge, informed Kermlin that Pearl Harbor would be attacked in sixty days. Moscow had then informed him that this had been passed on to the United States. The United States completely ignored all references to an attack on Pearl Harbor. On December 6th at 9:30pm, Roosevelt had read the first thirteen parts of the decoded declaration of war that the Japanese had sent to us. The document stated "This means war." This is when Roosevelt decided that it was time to proclaim war on Japan. Unfortunately, his decision did not reach Pearl Harbor in any helpful form before it was too late.

Pearl Harbor has remained a controversial topic for these very same reasons. Franklin Delano Roosevelt has been blamed for not recognizing the seemingly obvious threats, but recently; a different take on the situation has surfaced. Historians have allowed for the possibility that Roosevelt was prevented from taking action by Congress. Some evidence to support this is an account by Harry Hopkins of the President's demeanor after receiving word that Pearl Harbor had been bombed. He described Roosevelt as being unsurprised and greatly relieved. In addition to this, Eleanor Roosevelt wrote that FDR became "in a way more serene." In the NY Times Magazine of October 8, 1944 she wrote: "December 7 was...far from the shock it proved to the country in general. We had expected something of the sort for a long time."

However, the United States Government has learned from this mistake. Today, many more precautions are taken, and veiled threats are taken much more seriously. An example of this would be the "War for Iraqi Liberation." The United States Government believed that Saddam Hussein was a threat, and rather than waiting for this to be entirely confirmed, the United States Government preemptively struck against him.

The Attack

By 7:55am Japanese planes filled the sky over Pearl Harbor. The first wave consisted of a flight of Japanese bombers armed with shallow-running torpedoes and bombers armed with armor piercing bombs. Without warning, they opened fire on the seven exposed battleships and the surrounding ships. Simultaneously, the airfields and aircraft on them were assaulted, giving the Japanese near-complete air superiority. By the time the crews had reacted, most gun emplacements useful as anti-aircraft guns were destroyed. Pearl Harbor was defenseless, and the Japanese took full advantage of this.

Soon after the first wave had ended, the low roar of a plane's engines was heard again over Oahu. This time, the United States Military was more prepared, but still mostly disabled. Soldiers who were not wounded grabbed whatever they could find and attempted to defend what remained of the Pacific fleet. However, it was to no avail. Only twenty-nine Japanese planes were downed, out of three hundred and fifty-three sent in the attacks.

The night of December 7th yielded more casualties, but they were not the result of Japanese bombardment.

As men and women scrambled across the island trying to restore order and set up a first line of defense, it became night. Although they had all been told of the Enterprise's planes arrival, someone became nervous when the planes redirected themselves over what was left of Battleship Row and opened fire. Suddenly, the night sky was lit up with tracers from the makeshift anti-air defenses. Only two of the six planes inbound on the first flight landed.

The Aftermath

The death toll at Pearl Harbor by the end of December 7th had risen to two thousand four hundred and three servicemen and women. Another one thousand one hundred and seventy-eight had been wounded. In addition to the grievous loss of human life, wartime materials suffered. The Oklahoma and the Arizona battleships were destroyed beyond repair. The Nevada, California, Tennessee, West Virginia, and Maryland were all heavily damaged, or sunk and raised again. Many other support ships were damaged and destroyed as well. One hundred and