Remembering Pearl Harbor

“December 7th, a day which will live in infamy,” said President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

It was 7:55 a.m. when the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service launched a surprise aerial attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Hawaii, they changed the course of WWII. The entire attack took only around an hour and fifteen minutes.

The unprovoked strike was met with outrage and disbelief, prompting the United States to declare war on Japan the very next day, thus entering the Second World War.

This year marks the 80th anniversary of the attack.

The Japanese strike force consisted of 353 aircraft launched from four heavy carriers. These included 40 torpedo planes, 103 level bombers, 131 dive-bombers and 79 fighters. The attack also consisted of two heavy cruisers, 35 submarines, two light cruisers, nine oilers, two battleships and 11 destroyers.

The attack killed 2,403 U.S. personnel, including 68 civilians, and destroyed or damaged 19 U.S. Navy ships, including 8 battleships. The three aircraft carriers of the U.S. Pacific Fleet were out to sea on maneuvers. The Japanese were unable to locate them and were forced to return home with the U.S. carrier fleet intact.

The Japanese lost 29 aircraft and 5 midget submarines in the attack. One Japanese soldier was taken prisoner and 129 Japanese soldiers were killed. Out of all the Japanese ships that participated in the attack on Pearl Harbor only one, the Ushio, survived until the end of the war.

It was surrendered to the U.S. at Yokosuka Naval Base. When Admiral Yamamoto learned that his forces had not destroyed the U.S. aircraft carriers or completely destroyed the U.S. fleet, he feared that the United States, with its enormous industrial potential, would soon recover and fight back.

The United States did recover—and quicker than Yamamoto could have imagined. After only six months, the U.S. carrier fleet dealt a decisive blow to Yamamoto’s navy in June 1942 at the Battle of Midway, sinking four Japanese aircraft carriers. After this U.S. victory came the start of the U.S. island-hopping campaign and the eventual defeat of the Japanese Empire in August 1945.

The horrors of Pearl Harbor and WWII followed those that made it home.