December 7 1941 – The Japanese Launch an Early Morning Raid on the United States Navy at Pearl Harbor

463

*Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons One of the most stunning and comprehensive victories in military history occurred on December 7, 1941. The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN), launching more than 350 aircraft, inflicted heavy casualties and disastrous damage on the United States Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Intending to cripple the US Navy before it could intervene as Japan expanded operations in Asia, the assault brought the American military into the global fight. Tensions between the Japanese and American governments had been simmering for years. In 1931, the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) swept into Manchuria, beginning a campaign against the Chinese which gobbled up territory filled with resources. Decried by the West, the IJA continued pushing into the mainland, killing hundreds of thousands at Nanking alone during 1937. With the United States, Britain and France openly supporting China, it would only be a matter of time before the war of words escalated. Looking to protect American interests, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered the Pacific Fleet to sail for Pearl Harbor in the first few months of 1941. Units stationed in the Philippines soon received additional soldiers, a move Roosevelt hoped would slow the Japanese assault by inducing second thoughts. When oil shipments to Japan were brought to a halt in July, however, there seemed no other option for the Imperial military than to capture other countries to support the military effort. At IJN headquarters, plans to act in Southeast Asia had been brewing for months. The Dutch East Indies and Malay, areas rich in petroleum and rubber, would have to be taken in order for the Japanese to continue asserting their dominance upon the region. Believing the US would declare war once these attacks took place, leadership included plans for a strike at the Pacific Fleet to slow the American response. While Japanese sailors and pilots trained for the big event through the latter half of 1941, American intelligence focused on the Philippines as the logical location — it was closer to Japan and contained a wide variety of materials the IJA could make use of. Despite the strained relationship, officials from both countries spent much of the fall months discussing the possibility of a peace treaty. In some corners, the Japanese believed open war was the likely outcome regardless, so plans for the Pearl Harbor attack went on. When the two parties left the negotiating table in November, more than half of Americans believed war to be imminent. Though Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto had wished for American officials to receive a formal declaration of war at least a half-hour before the raid, the message did not get through right away. The coded transmission had been broken by US intelligence officers, but the 5,000-word document, known as the “14-Part Message” had not made it to the Japanese Embassy for translation in time. (Recent scholarship has shown disagreement within the IJN as to whether such a courtesy should have been afforded at all.) Early on the morning of December 7, 1941, five IJN midget submarines slipped away from their larger mother boats, with two managing to fire torpedoes at American ships patrolling the waters off Oahu. Shortly before 8am, a pair of radar operators at Opana Point noticed targets approaching from the northeast. Dismissed by the commanding officer as the arrival of bombers destined for the new airfield further south, the soldiers and sailors found out otherwise within minutes: 183 Japanese planes were attacking. Lumbering bombers, the first of two waves that would total 353 aircraft, dropped torpedoes into the shallow water of the harbor with the Pacific Fleet’s battleships in their sights. Thanks to the element of surprise, many of the most important ships moored at Pearl Harbor suffered direct hits. (Fortunately for the US Navy, its three aircraft carriers were out to sea.) Other aircraft scrambled to the two air bases on the island, dropping bombs on parked fighter planes and firing at men on the ground. Wholly unprepared, almost 2,400 Americans were killed in the 90-minute battle, many of them after an armory explosion on the USS Arizona. Five battleships had been sunk — two of which could not be recovered. Half of the aircraft at the two US Army Air Force stations on the island were ripped to shreds. The scope of destruction was almost unbelievable. The following day, as the US reeled from the shock of the attack, Roosevelt addressed a joint session of Congress at 12:30pm. With much of the nation listening via a live radio broadcast, the President began by stating December 7th would forever be a “date which will live in infamy,” before spending seven minutes giving voice to American fury at the Japanese aggression and appealing to the combined House of Representatives and Senate members for a declaration of war. Forty minutes after Roosevelt took the podium, a joint resolution passed with a combined total of 470 to 1 — Jeannette Rankin, the first woman to win a Congressional seat, held to her principles against intervention. At 4:10pm, the President signed the bill into law. Three days later, Italy and Germany returned the favor with declarations of their own and the US, within hours, replied with an announcement that the military might of the American people would now be turned toward Europe and the Pacific. World War II now included all the world’s major powers for the first time. Also On This Day: 43 BCE – Roman philosopher and politician Cicero is assassinated 1732 – The Royal Opera House opens at Covent Garden, London 1949 – The government of the Republic of China moves its capital to Taipei, Taiwan from Nanking, China 1972 – Apollo 17, the last mission to the moon, launches from Cape Canaveral, Florida 1999 – The Recording Industry Association of America launches a copyright suit against file-sharing service Napster 7th December, 1990 – Iraqi parliament endorses Saddam Hussein’s decision to free hostages. 7th December, 1741 – Elisabeth Petrovna becomes tsarina of Russia 7th December, 1804 – Naturalist Alexander von Humboldt reports his discovery of the decrease in intensity of Earth’s magnetic field from the poles to the equator in a memoir to the Paris Institute. 7th December, 1877 – Thomas Edison demonstrates his phonograph (gramophone) to the editors of “Scientific American”. 7th December, 1926 – Gas refrigerator patented.