Attack on Pearl Harbor

Setting the scene

By 1941, the United States had embargoed oil and steel to Japan in response to its invasion of China and occupation of French Indochina. Japan, which imported 80% of its oil, faced economic strangulation. Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, commander of the Japanese Combined Fleet, planned a surprise attack on the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, to cripple American naval power and buy time for Japan to seize Southeast Asia's oil fields. Yamamoto, who had studied at Harvard and served as naval attaché in Washington, knew Japan could not win a prolonged war with America's industrial might, but hoped a decisive blow would force the U.S. to negotiate.

What happened

On Sunday, December 7, 1941, at 7:48 a.m. Hawaiian time, 353 Japanese aircraft launched from six carriers 230 miles north of Oahu attacked Pearl Harbor in two waves. The attack lasted 90 minutes. The Japanese sank or damaged 18 ships, including 4 battleships sunk and 4 damaged, and destroyed 188 aircraft. The USS Arizona exploded after a bomb detonated its magazine, killing 1,177 crew. The USS Oklahoma capsized, trapping 429 men. Total American dead: 2,403, with 1,178 wounded. Japan lost 29 aircraft and 64 men. Crucially, the U.S. aircraft carriers were at sea, and the vital oil storage tanks and repair facilities were untouched.

Why it still matters

Pearl Harbor unified isolationist America for war. President Franklin Roosevelt called December 7 'a date which will live in infamy' and asked Congress for a declaration of war, which passed with one dissenting vote. The attack brought the U.S. into World War II, ultimately leading to Japan's defeat. It demonstrated the dominance of carrier-based air power over battleships—a lesson the U.S. Navy learned well. The attack was a tactical victory but a strategic catastrophe for Japan, awakening the 'sleeping giant' of American industry. The USS Arizona Memorial, dedicated in 1962, now marks the site where 1,102 crew remain entombed.

Background

The U.S.