Pearl Harbor

The Japanese Navy made its attack on Pearl Harbor on the morning of December 7, 1941. The surprise attack on Pearl Harbor was aimed at the U.S. Pacific Fleet of the United States Navy and its defending Army Air Corps and United States Marine Corps air forces. The attack damaged and destroyed twelve U.S. Warships and 188 Aircraft, and killed 2,403 American servicemen and 68 civilians.

Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto planned the raid as the start of the Pacific Campaign of World War II, and it was commanded by Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo who lost 64 servicemen. However, the Pacific Fleet's three Aircraft carrier were not in port and so they was undamaged, as were oil tank farms and machine shops. Using these resources the United States was able to rebound within six months. This attack has been called the Bombing of Pearl Harbor and the Battle of Pearl Harbor but most commonly the Attack on Pearl Harbor or simply Pearl Harbor.

The aim of the attack on Pearl Harbor was to neutralize Pacific Fleet in the pacific, if only temporarily near simultaneous coordinated attack. Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku himself suggested that even a successful attack would gain only a year or so of freedom of action. Planning for an attack in support of further military advances began in January 1941, and training for the mission was under way by mid-year when the project was finally judged worthwhile after some

Imperial Navy infighting. The attack depended on torpedoes, but the weapons of the time required deep water when air launched. Over the summer of 1941, Japan secretly created and tested torpedoes that could be launched in Pearl Harbor. The effort resulted in the Type 95 torpedo that inflicted the majority of the damage to U.S. ships. Japanese weapons technicians also produced special armor-piercing bombs by fitting on 14 and 15-inch naval gun shells. Dropped from 10,000 feet, they would be able to penetrate the armored decks of the American battleships and cruisers in Pearl Harbor.

On November 26, 1941, a fleet including six Aircraft carrier commanded by Japanese Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo left Hitokappu Bayin the Kuril Islands under strict Radio silence bound for Hawaii. The aircraft carriers involved in the attack were: Japanese aircraft carrier Akagi, Japanese aircraft carrier Hiryu, Japanese aircraft carrier Kaga, Japanese aircraft carrier Shokaku, Japanese aircraft carrier Soryu, and Japanese aircraft carrier Zuikaku. Escorting the task force were 2 fast Battleship, 2 Heavy cruiser, 1 light cruiser, 9 Destroyer, and 3 Fleet submarine. The carriers had a total of 423 planes, including Mitsubishi Zero, Fighter aircraft, Nakajima B5N, Torpedo bomber, and Aichi D3A Dive-bomber. The Japanese task force and its air group were larger than any previous aerial strike force. Accompanying the fleet was 8 Tanker ship for underway refueling. In

addition, the Advanced Expeditionary Force had 20 Fleet submarine and 5 two man Ko-hyoteki class Midget submarine was sent to Hawaiian waters to gather intelligence and sink any U.S. vessels that might try to flee Pearl Harbor during the air attack.

U.S. civilian and military intelligence forces had, between them, information to anticipate Japanese attacks weeks or even months before the attack happened. The armed forces at Pearl Harbor had a number of warnings on the day of the attack. Both of these information sources could have brought Pearl Harbor to a higher level of alert and made the attack unsuccessful or at least much less damaging. American commanders were warned that tests had shown that shallower torpedo launching was possible, but they did not fully appreciate the danger posed by the secret Japanese torpedo. Expecting that Pearl Harbor had natural defenses against torpedo attack, the U.S. Navy failed to add torpedo nets or baffles. Due to a shortage of planes, long patrols were not being made. At the time of the attack, the Army was training rather than on alert. Most of its portable anti-aircraft guns were locked up with the ammunition kept locked in separate armories. To avoid upsetting the property owners, the officers did not keep the guns dispersed onto private property.

Part of the Japanese plans for the attack included breaking off negotiations with the United States 30 minutes before the attack. Diplomats from the Japanese Embassy in Washington D.C., including the Japanese Ambassador, Admiral Kichisaburo Nomura, and special representative Saburo Kurusu, had been conducting extended talks with