Pearl Harbor, a U.S. Navel base on the Island of Oahu, HI, is located just west of Honolulu. On December 7th, 1941, an ordinary Sunday morning turned intodisaster when two attack waves totaling to 353 Japanese aircraft attacked withfull force. Approximately 188 U.S.aircraft were destroyed, 2,402 people were killed, and 1,282 were wounded. FourU.S.battleships were sunk, four were damaged, and three cruisers, three destroyers,one anti-aircraft ship, and one minelayer were either sunk or extremely damaged.Beginning at 7:55 the attack only lasted two hours.
The attack was intended to neutralize the pacific fleet, thus protecting Japan’s advance through the pacific. It was also supposed to buy time for Japan to strengthenits position and increase its naval strength before shipbuilding of theVinson-Walsh Act made that impossible. It was also mean to deliver an extremeblow to American moral, but as history tells us, this plan backfired. All theJapanese did was “awaken a sleeping giant”.The navy base was not the only thing attacked. Airfieldswere targeted also.
I think this day angered Americans and made them a tougher enemy for the Axis Powers. Truly “a day that will live in infamy”, the day following the attack we declared war on Japan and the rest of the AxisPowers, which is good. Think of how life altering it would have been if we didnot enter the war. It’s crazy.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_on_Pearl_Harbor#Background_to_conflict
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