Pearl Harbor Blog:
Part of the whole beginning of Japan bombing us at Pearl Harbor was when the differences between China and Japan split them even further apart. In 1931, Japan attacked and conquered Manchuria, in China. Japan claimed Manchuria as part of Japan even though it was located in China. After a few years, in 1937, Japan started their unsuccessful attempt to conquer the rest of China. The Japanese government allied with the Nazi’s in Germany and joined the Axis alliance. Japan, with the help of Nazi Germany was able to conquer most of Indochina, and have it conquered for a few years, not many. The United States was alarmed when they heard that Japan was invading and ultimately trying to conquer China. The U.S. was allies with Japan in World War I. The United States also had some interest in East Asia before they heard of the Japanese attack. The United States increased the military they were sending to help China along with supplies and money. The U.S. also started up a program to try and strengthen China’s military power in the Pacific part of the War. When Japan invaded China, it began the Second Sino-Japanese War. China, with the help of the U.S., was able to cut off shipments and more shipments of raw materials and the oil supply going into Japan. Japan did not have very many Natural Resources in themselves, so because of the Great Depression, they had one of two choices: 1. they could import them and pay the high tariff, or 2. they could take them from surrounding countries in Southeast Asia. Japan chose to take them from surrounding countries in Southeast Asia and this upset the United States very much.
Japanese leader, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, planned to remove the United States Naval fleet located in Pearl Harbor, so to remove the United States as a threat in the Pacific, with a surprise attack on December 7, 1941. In early 1941, Japanese carrier pilots began training in special tactics that would be used in the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The Naval General in Japan finally approved Yamamoto’s plan. This attack that was planned called for the use of 6 heavy aircraft carriers that would be accompanied by 24 other supporting vessels to help them along the way. Also, a fleet of submarines would sink any United States warships that tried to escape the Japanese carrier forces. All these fleet’s assembled in Tankan Bay in the Kurile Islands and they departed in secrecy for Hawaii on November 26, 1941. These vessels had to avoid all contact with normal shipping lanes so this would be a surprise attack on the United States. At dawn on December 7, 1941, the fleets arrived at a point just more than 200 miles out north of Oahu, where the Pearl Harbor Naval base is located. Thankfully, the United States aircraft carriers were not in the harbor at the time, because they were sent on a mission by Admiral William Halsey to deliver Marine Corps fighter planes to Wake Island. The USS Enterprise delivered the aircraft on December 4, 1941 and on December 7, 1941; the ship was on its way back to Pearl Harbor. On December 5, 1941, Admiral Kimmel sent the USS Lexington with a task force behind them lead by Admiral Newton, who was behind the USS Lexington, on a mission to deliver 25 scout bombers to Midway Island. The last of the 3 U.S. Naval carriers, the USS Saratoga, left Pearl Harbor for repairs on the West Coast. At 6a.m. on December 7, 1941, 6 Japanese carriers launched 181 planes for the first attack on Pearl Harbor. These planes consisted of torpedo bombers, dive bombers, horizontal bombers, and fighter planes.
As they went south, some U.S. forces on Oahu realized there was something very different about this particular Sunday Morning. In the hours before dawn, U.S. Naval vessels spotted an unidentified submarine periscope at around the area of the entrance to the Pearl Harbor Naval Base, it was reported sunk by the USS Ward and a patrol plane that they sent to ensure it was sunk. At 7 a.m. an alert operator at the Army station reported the approaching planes from the Japanese attack. The officers that the information was relayed to did not even consider that this would be an enemy force because they were expecting American Planes to arrive that morning. The Japanese aircrews achieved the complete surprise and they hit the U.S. military ships shortly before 8 a.m. December 7, 1941. They attacked at the same time against the fleet in Pearl Harbor and the naval air bases at Ford Island and Kaneohe Bay, the Marine airfield at Ewa and the Army Air Corps fields at Bellows, Wheeler and Hickam. This would allow the Japanese forces to attack with out retaliation by the United States. More than 90 ships were at anchor in Pearl Harbor at the time of the attack and they were the primary targets were 8 of the U.S. battleships stationed there. Seven of the battleships were in Battleship Row along the Southeast shore of Ford Island while the USS Pennsylvania lies in dry lock across the channel to protect the battleships. After the first couple minutes, all the battleships had taken at least one bomb or a torpedo hit from the Japanese forces.
The battle ended shortly after 10 a.m. on December 7, 1941, less than two hours after it began. 21 U.S. ships, all part of the Pacific fleet were sunk of damages, 188 aircraft were destroyed and 159 more were damaged. 2, 403 Americans died that day, 68 of which were civilians, most of them killed by improperly fused anti-aircraft shells that landed on Honolulu. 1,178 Americans were wounded. The Japanese loses were very much less, 29 planes, which was less than 10 percent of the attacking forces. The Japanese were successful, but the raid was not complete. They failed to damage any of the American Naval Aircraft carriers that by the stroke of luck were out of Pearl Harbor. The Japanese neglected to damage the shore side facilities at Pearl Harbor. These facilities played a very important role in the Allied victory in World War II. Only Three of the American ships could not be repaired, the USS Arizona, the USS Oklahoma and the USS Utah. The attack on Pearl Harbor gave us the power to commit to victory in World War II.
Personal Thoughts and Opinions:
I really enjoyed doing this blog because it taught me so much about Pearl Harbor that I did not know about it prior to doing this Blog. I liked the source I used because it gave me really specific information and it helped me understand what went on prior to the Japanese attack on World War II. I liked learning about Pearl Harbor and now I think I have to watch the movie because I have never seen it before. I liked how we saved all but three ships after Japan worked so hard to try and destroy them.
Source:
-http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq66-1.htm
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