The Bombing of The Harbor
December 7, 1941
The Japaneses saw the US and others countries as a threat to its invasions in Asia and in 1940 the Japanese began developing plans to destroy and crush the US Navy base in Hawaii formally know as Pearl Harbor. The Japanese launched a bombing surprise attack on the US Pacific fleet of ships at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. The attack rained fire on the American fleet and took the fleet out of action for a short while. In response to the bombing attack the US declared war on Japan. Following Germany's statement of war directed at the United states, the US also declared war on Germany. A soldiers words from the day went like this. " I heard a plane then a second later an explosion, as i looked out of my small glass window i see the fire and the mess it was Dec 7, 1941 a date which will live in infamy” These strong words show that the Japanese would not let up and would only seek pure destruction. The Americans were taken completely by surprise as the Japanese planes had flown low to avoid radar detection over 300 Japanese planes flew in armed with torpedoes and machine guns ready to take out the US Naval Base. The first Japanese attack targeted airfields and battleships, this was so the Americans were stunned, with no planes, or any weapons to fight back with the US base was sure to fall. The second Japanese wave targeted other ships and shipyard facilities. The Japanese knew if the US fleet had no left over facilities to fix ships or help the wounded the Base would fall much quicker and most likely for the raid to succeed. The total damage of this bombing eight US battleships were damaged, five sunk, three light cruisers, three destroyers, three smaller vessels, and 188 aircraft were destroyed. A insane 2,335 servicemen and 68 civilians killed, 1,178 wounded. Over 1,000 men aboard the Battleship USS Arizona were killed due to the Japanese dropping a 1,760-pound bomb smashing into the bow of the ship causing catastrophic explosions trapping and killing most on board. Whist the Japanese had a huge tactical success, the strategy was a complete failure. The Japanese attack failed to destroy any American aircraft carriers, fleet repair facilities, or fuel reserves. This pretty much made the US still ready to fight if another attack was going to happen. Also the “sneak attack” that Japan used, made the Americans stronger and ready to fight and win the war against Japan. |
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