The attack on Pearl Harbor was an attack by the Japanese Navy against the U.S Naval Base in Hawaii on December 7, 1941. On December 6, 1941 President Roosevelt made a final attempt to the Japanese emperor for peace. There was no response. Later in the day the U.S code breaking service started receiving a 14 part Japanese message but could only figure out the first 13 parts. They believe this to be a Japanese Attack but are unsure of where this would take place. On December 7, 1941 the last part of the Japanese message was delivered to Washington D.C at approximately 9 a.m. An hour after that another Japanese message was intercepted and it instructed the Japanese embassy to send the message to the Americans around 1 p.m. The Americans then realized that this time was early morning for Pearl Harbor, which means they are several hours behind. The U.S. war department then sent out an alert on a commercial telegraph. The delay of the alert caused the alert to be four hours late.
The Japanese first attack was taken off from the carriers located 230 miles north of Oahu and headed for Pearl Harbor. The second attack took off from the Japanese carriers and headed for Pearl Harbor. Pearl Harbor was not ready for these attacks once so ever. Many officers and crewmen were off duty because it was a Sunday morning. The Americans were socked and very much so, caught off guard. The first attack hit airfields and battleships. The second attack hit other ships and shipyard facilities.
Sources-
http://worldwar2history.info/Pearl-Harbor/
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