Pearl Harbor :: essays research papers

Pearl Harbor     My report is about the attack on Pearl Harbor. In this report I willexplain what happened and why it happened. So you know, Pearl Harbor is locatedon Oahu island, Hawaii.     Pearl Harbor was the operating base of the U.S. Pacific Fleet. The Nipponese pulled a surprise attack on the U.S. on December 7, 1941 at 750 A.M.during the beginning of World War II. On November 26 a powerful Japanese taskforce, under the command of vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo, left the Kuril Islandson December 2 it received a coded marrow issuing the attack order. Theundetected Japanese force arrived off the Hawaiian Islands on the morning ofDecember 7. In two successive waves more(prenominal) than 350 Japanese bombers, torpedoplanes, and fighters struck. More than 75 U.S. fightships(including battleships,cruisers, destroyers, submarines, and auxiliaries) were based at this "Gibraltarof the Pacific." All U.S. aircraft carriers were elsewhere. Observing radiosilence, it reached a launching point at 6 AM, December 7. At 750 AM, thefirst wave of Japanese planes struck Pearl Harbor, bombarding airfields andbattleships moored at the concrete quays. The U.S. totally taken off guard hadto defend themselves in pajamas. They used anti-aircraft guns in an attempt tostop the Japanese. A second wave followed. The surprise attack was over before10 AM. The results were devastating 18 U.S. ships were hit, and more than 200aircraft destroyed or damaged. The battleship Arizona was a total wreck theWest Virginia and California were sunk and the Nevada was heavily damaged.Approximately 2,400 Americans were killed, 1,300 wounded, and 1,000 missing.Japanese losings were fewer than 100 casualties, 29 planes, and 5 midgetsubmarines. The Japanese totally destroyed the U.S. naval power in the Pacific.The attack was, however, a colossal policy-making and psychological blunder, for itmobilized U.S. public opinion against the Japanese and served as the catalystthat brought the United States into the war. "December 7, 1941," said PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt, is "a date which will live in infamy." A monument hasbeen built across the hull of the sunken U.S.S. Arizona it was dedicated as anational memorial in 1962. The next day President Roosevelt told a jointsession of Congress that December 7 was "a date which will live in infamy."Congress voted to declare war on Japan. A small boat rescued seamen from USSWest Virginia after the surprise Japanese air attack. There are differentreasons why the Japanese were able to pull a surprise attack on the UnitedStates biggest military base. One is that when the U.