The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941. The attack was intended as a preventive action in order to keep the U.S. Pacific Fleet from interfering with military actions the Empire of Japan was planning in Southeast Asia against overseas territories of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and the United States.
MOTIVATIONS
Facing the problem of insufficient natural resources and following the ambition to become a major global power, the Japanese Empire began aggressive expansion in the 1930s. In 1931, Japan invaded and conquered Manchuria in 1931 and Jehol, a Chinese territory bordering Manchuria, was taken in 1933. In 1936, Japan also created a Mongolian puppet state in Inner Mongolia named Mengjiang. In 1937, Japan invaded China, starting what would become known as the Second Sino-Japanese War. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the war would merge into the greater conflict of World War II as a major front of what is broadly known as the Pacific War.
In 1940, Japan invaded French Indochina in an effort to control supplies reaching China. Following Japanese expansion into Indochina and the fall of France, in July 1941, the U.S. ceased oil exports to Japan. This caused the Japanese to proceed with plans to take the Dutch East Indies, an oil-rich territory. Following the developments, Japan and the U.S. engaged in negotiations in an effort to improve relations. After exchanging a series of conditions, Japan presented its final proposal. On November 20, 1941, it offered to withdraw their forces from southern Indochina and not to launch any attacks in Southeast Asia provided that the U.S., the UK, and the Netherlands ceased aiding China and lifted their sanctions against Japan. The American counter-proposal of November 26 required Japan to evacuate all of China without conditions and conclude non-aggression pacts with Pacific powers. However the day before the proposal was delivered (November 27 in Japan), on November 26 in Japan, the main Japanese attack fleet left port for Pearl Harbor.
ATTACK
The base was attacked by 353 Japanese fighters, bombers, and torpedo planes in two waves, launched from six aircraft carriers. All eight U.S. Navy battleships were damaged, and four were sunk. Of the eight damaged, two were raised, and with four repaired, six battleships returned to service later in the war. The Japanese also sank or damaged three cruisers, three destroyers, an anti-aircraft training ship, and one mine layer. In all, 188 U.S. aircraft were destroyed, 2,402 Americans were killed and 1,282 wounded. Important base installations such as the power station, shipyard, maintenance, and fuel and torpedo storage facilities, as well as the submarine piers and headquarters building (also home of the intelligence section) were not attacked. Japanese losses were light: 29 aircraft and five midget submarines lost, and 65 servicemen killed or wounded. One Japanese sailor was captured.
EFFECT
The attack came as a profound shock to the American people and led directly to the American entry into World War II in both the Pacific and European theaters. The following day (December 8), the United States declared war on Japan. Domestic support for non-interventionism, which had been traditionally strong and fading since the fall of France in 1940, disappeared. Clandestine support of Britain (for example the Neutrality Patrol) was replaced by active alliance. Subsequent operations by the U.S. prompted Germany and Italy to declare war on the U.S. on December 11, which was reciprocated by the U.S. the same day.
One of the most controversial consequences of the attack was the creation of internment camps for Japanese American residents and citizens. Within hours of the attack, hundreds of Japanese American leaders were rounded up and brought to high-security camps such as Sand Island at the mouth of Honolulu harbor and Kilauea Military Camp on the island of Hawaii. Roosevelt authorized the deportation and incarceration with Executive Order 9066, issued February 19, 1942. Over 110,000 Japanese Americans, including United States citizens, were removed from their homes and transferred to internment camps in California, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Arkansas, and Texas. Many historians see the decision as one of the most shameful chapters in the history of the Roosevelt administration.
Battleship USS California sinking, December 7, 1941, National Archives and Records Administration
The U.S. Navy battleship USS California (BB-44) slowly sinking alongside Ford Island, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii (USA), as a result of bomb and torpedo damage, December 7, 1941. The destroyer USS Shaw (DD-373) is burning in the floating dry dock YFD-2 in the left distance. The battleship USS Nevada (BB-36) is beached in the left-center distance.