So, Japan was a little scared of the U.S. and they didnt want us coming into the war. They planned this surprise attack on Pearl Harbor because it was the U.S's largest naval base. Japan did not think that they could suruvive a long war with the U.S. so they wanted to weaken them before the U.S. started attacking.
U.S. stopped all trade with Japan. They wanted to stop Japan, but the American people didnt want to go to war.
The U.S. had cracked a code and Washington D.C. knew that they were going to attack. They sent a message to Pearl Harbor, but it got there to late. They had new technology that could see planes coming. They saw the Japanese planes but they thought it was a fleet of American planes.
The attack was on December 7, 1941. Japan first wave sent 183 planes. About 90 of them were aimed at battleships and aircraft carriers. About 55 of them were aimed at Ford Island and Wheeler Field. The rest were aimed at Ford Island, Hickam Field, Wheeler Field, Barber’s Point, and Kaneohe.
They were recieving some warnings from ships and other planes but by the time they got them the planes were already attacking the Island. Everyone was caught offguard. They were very unprepaired. Their weapons were locked up and nobody was manning the machine guns. A lot of ships were sunk and a lot of lives were lost. A lot of people recieved the Medal of Honor.
The second attack had 171 planes. About 55 planes main target was just to go in and start bombing things. About 81 were amied at aircraft carriers and cruisers. The rest were aimed at Ford Island, Hickham Field, Wheeler Field, Barber’s Point, and Kaneohe.
The entire attack lasted about 90 minutes. There were about 2,500 Americans that died and about 1,400 that were wounded. 18 ships were sunk. About half of the fatalites were due to the explosion and sinking of the Arizona. The next day U.S. declared war on Japan.
I think it stinks that Japan did that. We would have been so much stonger in WWII if they wouldn't have attacked us. They did it in a very smart way thought, I have to give them credit for that. I'm pretty sure that I would have died during the attack if I would have been there.
source 1) http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/2WWpearl.htm
source 2) http://www.pearlharbor.org/history-of-pearl-harbor.asp
Comments