The Attack on Pearl Harbour – Part 1
Summarised from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The attack on Pearl Harbour was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States of America. The United States was a neutral country at the time and the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service launched an attack against the naval base at Pearl Harbour in Honolulu, a Territory of Hawaii, just before eight o’clock on Sunday morning, the 7th of December, 1941. The attack led to the formal entry of the United States into World War II on the next day. The Japanese military leadership referred to the attack as the Hawaii Operation and Operation AI. During its planning, they also referred to it as Operation Z.
Japan intended the attack as a preventive action to keep the United States Pacific Fleet from interfering with its planned military actions in Southeast Asia against the overseas territories of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and the United States. Over the course of seven hours, there were coordinated Japanese attacks on the Philippines, Guam and Wake Island all held by the United States and on the British Empire in Malaya, Singapore, and Hong Kong.
The attack started at 7:48 a.m. Hawaiian Time. The base was attacked by 353 Imperial Japanese aircraft, launched from six aircraft carriers in two waves including fighter planes, dive bombers, and torpedo bombers. All eight United States Navy battleships were damaged, and four of them were sunk. All of the battleships except for the USS Arizona were later raised, and six of the battleships were returned to service and went on to fight in the war. The Japanese also sank or damaged three cruisers, three destroyers, an anti-aircraft training ship, and one minelayer. 188 United States aircraft were destroyed, 2,403 Americans were killed, and 1,178 Americans were wounded. Important base installations such as the power station, the dry dock, the shipyard, the maintenance facilities, the fuel and torpedo storage facilities, as well as the submarine piers and the headquarters building (also the home of the intelligence section) were not attacked. Japanese losses were light: 29 aircraft and five midget submarines were lost, and 64 servicemen were killed. The commanding officer of one of the submarines was captured.
Japan announced a declaration of war on the United States later that day (that is, on the 8th of December in Tokyo), but the declaration was not delivered until the following day. The following day, the 8th of December, Congress declared war on Japan. On the 11th of December, Germany and Italy each declared war on the United States, which responded with a declaration of war against Germany and Italy.
There were numerous historical precedents for the unannounced military action by Japan, but the lack of any formal warning, particularly while peace negotiations were still apparently ongoing, led President Franklin D. Roosevelt to proclaim the 7th of December, 1941, “a date which will live in infamy”. Because the attack happened without a declaration of war and without explicit warning, the attack on Pearl Harbour was later judged in the Tokyo Trials to be a war crime.
Background to the conflict
Diplomatic background
War between Japan and the United States had been a possibility that each nation had been aware of, and planned for, since the 1920s. The relationship between the two countries was cordial enough that they remained trading partners. Tensions did not seriously grow until Japan’s invasion of Manchuria in 1931. Over the next decade, Japan expanded into China, leading to the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937. Japan spent considerable effort trying to isolate China, and endeavoured to secure enough independent resources to achieve victory on the mainland. The “Southern Operation” was designed to assist these efforts.
Starting in December 1937, events such as the Japanese attack on the USS Panay, the Allison incident, and the Nanking Massacre swung Western public opinion sharply against Japan. Fearing Japanese expansion, the United States, the United Kingdom, and France assisted China with loans for war supply contracts.
In 1940, Japan invaded French Indochina, attempting to prevent the flow of supplies reaching China. The United States halted shipments of airplanes, parts, machine tools, and aviation gasoline to Japan. Japan considered this to be an unfriendly act. However, the United States did not stop oil exports, partly because of the prevailing point of view in Washington that such an action was likely to be considered as extreme provocation due to Japanese dependence on American oil.
In mid-1940, President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved the Pacific Fleet from San Diego to Hawaii. He also ordered a military build-up in the Philippines, taking both actions in the hope of discouraging Japanese aggression in the Far East. Because the Japanese high command was mistakenly certain that any attack on the United Kingdom’s Southeast Asian colonies, including Singapore, would bring the United States into the war, a devastating preventive strike appeared to be the only way to prevent American naval interference. An invasion of the Philippines was also considered necessary by Japanese war planners. War Plan Orange, a plan prepared by the United States, had envisaged defending the Philippines with an elite force of 40,000 men; this option was never implemented due to opposition from Douglas MacArthur, who felt that he would need a force ten times that size. By 1941, United States planners expected to abandon the Philippines at the outbreak of war. Late that year, the commander of the Asiatic Fleet was given orders to abandon the Philippines.
The United States finally ceased oil exports to Japan in July, 1941, following the seizure of French Indochina after the Fall of France, in part because of new American restrictions on domestic oil consumption. Because of this decision, Japan proceeded with plans to take the oil-rich Dutch East Indies. On the 17th of August, Roosevelt warned Japan that America was prepared to take appropriate steps if “neighbouring countries” were attacked. The Japanese were faced with a dilemma: either withdraw from China and lose face, or seize new sources of raw materials in the resource-rich European colonies of Southeast Asia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_on_Pearl_Harbor
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