Original subtitles

On a sleepy Sunday morning in 1941, the Hawaiian island of Oahu couldn't have

looked any more peaceful or idyllic. Even with the fairly recent arrival of

the United States Pacific Fleet, which had deployed to the island from San

Diego to their new main base at Pearl Harbor, only seemed to harbinger nothing

more than a display of US naval prestige.

Arranged off Ford Island in a line were seven of America's mightiest

battleships. This part of the harbor had become known appropriately as Battleship

Row, and the sight of these seemingly invincible battleships must have

convinced all that America's might was unquestionable. And yet, the sun was

rising, literally and figuratively, shining a spotlight on a vast fleet of

aircraft that buzzed through the morning sky.

and into history.

This is the story of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

As the 20th century dawned, the old empires of Europe still dominated the

world, and while new burgeoning powers like Germany, the United States, and

Japan were catching up industrially and militarily, there seemed little left of

the globe for them to claim.

Of all the world's powers, Japan was probably the most underestimated at the

start of the 1900s.

Certainly, it was a significant regional power in the Far East, but Western

arrogance and racial prejudices often dismissed them as no serious threats to

Europe's influence, especially in China, which often had to dance to the West's

tune. However, that began to change after May 27th, 1905.

War had erupted between Japan and one of the oldest and grandest empires, that of

Imperial Russia, and on the high seas the stage was set for a crucial battle

to determine naval superiority in the conflict.

Most of the world's military leaders expected the Russian navy to sweep away

the impudent Japanese fleet, but to the surprise of everyone, the Japanese not

only defeated the Russian fleet, but annihilated it, with only marginal

losses on their side.

The fallout from this victory had wide-reaching consequences that few

truly appreciated in 1905, but would become apparent in the decades to come.

For the first time in the modern era, an Asian empire had defeated a European

one, which led to the damaging of Russian prestige and the weakening of

its position in Europe, contributing to the outbreak of the First World War, and

eventually, the Russian Revolution.

For the Japanese, however, the victory emboldened them, and born from the

subsequent glory, the military took on a greater prominence in Japanese culture,

invoking the old notions of the samurai and the way of the warrior.

They continued their military build-up and embraced the latest military

technologies, for it was technology that had allowed them to achieve superiority

over the Russians.

Newer Japanese warships were equal to and sometimes better than that of their

European counterparts, and when Japan supported the Allies in World War I,

Japanese warships would enter the Mediterranean to do battle with Germany,

where they both impressed and concerned European admirals.

Japanese troops also fought successful campaigns against German possessions in

Asia, only further cementing their position as one of the world's premier

powers. However, once the war was over, Japan found that it still was not

considered worthy of sitting at the top of the table.

Furthermore, the world's powers imposed a series of arms limitations on every

country, designed to prevent another world war.

But these greatly favored Britain and the United States, at sea especially.

Japan's navy was heavily restricted in terms of the number and size of ships it

could build, compared to London and Washington, who argued that they needed

larger numbers of ships, for they had larger empires that needed defense.

By this time, the ball was already rolling in Japan, with ambitions of

building a modern, grand Asian empire.

with Japan at the very heart.

The more militant factions in Japanese society were now eager to seize the

opportunity that presented itself from the exhausted Europeans and Americans to

strike outward without risk of them interfering unless challenged directly.

The economic downturn experienced in the country in the late 1920s only furthered

the militarists' calls for expansion.

to seize resources abroad such as oil and strategic metals both of which japan

lacked significant indigenous supplies of there were two prevailing mindsets on

how this new empire would be forged the first was known as the northern plan and

this called for an invasion of china through manchuria and then into the

soviet union where the japanese army would capture oil-rich siberia This was

favored by the army leadership, largely because as a land campaign, they could

expect significant resources and funding from the government.

They also viewed communism as one of the greatest threats to Japan, and believed

that the Western world, equally suspicious of communists, would most

likely ignore the invasion, or even support Japan directly.

The counterplan, known as Nanshin Ron, instead viewed Southeast Asia and the

numerous Pacific Islands as being in Japan's sphere of interest, should they

serve the empire.

Favored by the Japanese Navy, this was a more problematic approach to empire

building in the early 1930s, as this threatened to bring Japan into conflict

with the European powers of Britain, France, and Holland, who all held

possessions in this region, as well as the United States in the Philippines.

Both policies were followed to varying degrees in the 1930s, although the

southern plan was followed much more carefully than the army's northern plan.

Efforts in the south were instead made to peacefully increase Japan's influence

with the establishment of various Japanese companies, which built

facilities for seemingly commercial uses, but had clear military potential

in the future.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Sea of Japan, The Japanese Empire had

already secured the island of Taiwan following the Sino-Japanese War of 1894,

and had annexed the Korean Peninsula in 1910.

They were now preparing to instigate the first part of the Northern Plan,

occupying Manchuria in southeastern China, which would power the Empire's

army and economy, and give them a staging ground for their eventual war

with the Soviet Union.

however they couldn't simply invade without some pretense and so the

japanese concocted an attack on a railway line in manchuria used by

japanese residents working there Dubbed the Mukden Incident, a small bomb was

detonated on the railway line by the Japanese on September 18th, 1931, and

blamed on Chinese terrorists.

The bomb was so weak that the track was not even damaged, and trains continued

using it in the immediate aftermath.

But the Japanese response was swift, and soon Japanese troops were landing in

Manchuria to protect Japanese citizens from these terrorists.

Despite holding a massive numerical advantage, the Chinese troops defending

Manchuria were totally outclassed, and within six months, the region had fallen

to Japan, becoming the puppet state of Manchukuo.

International condemnation was swift, especially when the deceit regarding the

bombing was proven by an investigation by the League of Nations.

This led to Japan becoming something of a diplomatic pariah, but the League of

Nations did little beyond filing protests with Tokyo.

Prior to the invasion of Manchuria, China was in a state of civil war as

fighting had broken out between the nationalists and the communists. But

with Japanese troops on Chinese soil, they decided to halt the fighting and

instead focus on expelling Tokyo's troops.

Fighting continued to take place in the months and then years after the railway

line bombing.

Initially, the Chinese received significant technical assistance from

the Soviet Union, but soon this expanded to include aid from the United States,

which, declaring itself a neutral party, also sold large amounts of scrap metal

to Japan, who then recycled this scrap into the tools of war.

As the fighting in China intensified, it was clear that the Japanese had both a

technological and qualitative edge over the Chinese, particularly in the air.

As such, the Chinese went looking around the world for former military pilots to

train Chinese pilots how to fly the newer aircraft types they were

receiving, particularly the American ones.

One such pilot was Robert McCauley Short, who found himself demonstrating

the Boeing 318 biplane fighter to the Chinese.

But as he witnessed firsthand the Japanese brutality and the lack of

action on part of the international community, in February of 1932, he

decided to join the fight himself.

On that day, he used his more advanced aircraft to attack three Japanese Navy

fighters flying from the carrier Honshou over Shanghai.

Despite damaging the flight leader, the three Japanese planes managed to escape

the wrath of his guns as they turned back to their carrier.

Back on the ground, the situation at that time was dire for the Chinese, and

on February 22nd, the squadron Short was flying with was forced to relocate to an

airfield in Nanking.

Flying a faster type than the Chinese, Short elected to set out first on his

own and head for the airfield. However, on the way, he spotted three Imperial

Japanese Navy B-1M bombers.

Short made a high-speed pass on the three aircraft, riddling the leader with

gunfire, which sent his plane crashing to the earth.

However, he was seemingly unaware of the nimble A-1N fighters that were escorting

the bombers that swooped in behind him and mortally wounded his Boeing 318.

Witnesses on the ground reported seeing the Boeing come down in flames and crash

southeast of the city of Suzhou.

Some reports claim that the Japanese pilots overflew the crash site and at

least one of them saluted the dead American.

While Short was acting as a private person and not on behalf of the US

military, it can nevertheless be argued that he simultaneously became the first

American pilot to shoot down a Japanese plane, and in turn, the first casualty

of combat between the US and Japan in the air.

On May 22nd of 1933, Japanese and Chinese diplomats met to negotiate a

ceasefire, and effectively handed over Manchuria and parts of northern China to

Tokyo. a great prize indeed for the empire but it had led to the japanese

withdrawing from the impotent league of nations who criticized them but did

little else to interfere even as the stories of japanese brutality against

chinese prisoners and civilians was relayed around the world There was

sporadic fighting along the Chinese frontier in China in the years that

followed, mostly conducted by anti-Japanese partisan forces,

particularly those loyal to the Chinese communists. But then, on the night of

July 7th, 1937, Chinese and Japanese troops exchanged fire near the Marco

Polo Bridge on the road to Beijing.

The exact cause of the fighting is disputed, but likely began as a result

of confusion mixed with high tension among the troops on both sides.

Very quickly, the fighting erupted into a full-scale battle, and spurred on by

this, Chinese troops conscripted by the Japanese turned on their new former

masters and began killing Japanese soldiers and civilians, as well as

burning Japanese properties.

Enraged by the violence against Japanese civilians, Japanese troops were soon

deployed from the home islands to suppress the mutineering Chinese, and

the Second Sino-Japanese War broke out.

The fighting that followed was almost medieval in its barbarism. The Japanese

held nothing back, and civilians were not spared.

With every town, village, and city captured by the Japanese, there followed

an orgy of murder and rape,

than when the Japanese closed in on the Chinese capital, Nanking.

The horror inflicted on the inhabitants of that city, which had swelled in

number as it was flooded with refugees from the already occupied territories,

is beyond description.

From infants to the elderly, no one was spared as Japanese commanders appeared

to lose control of their men.

In her book, entitled The Rape of Nanking, historian Iris Chang said, If

one event can be held up as an example of the unmitigated evil lying just below

the surface of unbridled military adventurism, that moment is the Rape of

Nanking.

Given that the Western powers held various interests in China during the

1920s and 30s, they watched on with alarm as the situation in the country

deteriorated with the outbreak of the Civil War.

and then Japan's invasion of Manchuria.

While adopting a mostly neutral stance in much of the fighting, they

nevertheless felt the need to deploy some of their own forces to protect

their interests.

British troops, for example, fought several skirmishes with hostile troops

referred to as bandits, but were more often than not members of the Chinese

communist forces opposed to their imperialist presence rather than

outlaws. On the vital Yangtze River routes, both the Royal Navy and the

United States Navy operated a force of river gunboats, whose primary function

was to protect the shipping from their respective countries that traversed the

3,900 mile stretch of water.

It was a dangerous job, with snipers from various factions often hiding along

the banks of the river, hoping to pick off unsuspecting crew members up on

deck. One member of the American Asiatic Fleet engaged in this perilous work was

the USS Penai, with 59 officers and men on board.

Built in China in 1927, the vessel was heavily engaged in escort missions along

the Yangtze into the 1930s, when shots being fired at the ship seemed to become

a daily occurrence.

Although, as one of the vessel's captains, Lieutenant Commander R.A. Dyer

once remarked, the Chinese appear to be rather poor marksmen, and the ship has

so far not sustained any casualties in these engagements.

In 1937, Japanese invasion of China changed the situation dramatically, and

there was concern that roaming Japanese warplanes may mistake the warship for a

Chinese vessel and attack.

As such, the Panai began sailing with large American flags draped over the top

of the vessel to identify it. In December of 1937, as the Japanese closed

in on the doomed Chinese capital of Nanking, American and British gunboats,

including the Panai, were deployed in an operation to evacuate their respective

embassies. The Panai, along with a number of American embassy staff and

civilians on board, formed up with three American merchant ships, and on December

12th, as the fighting intensified, moved upriver in an attempt to avoid getting

caught in the crossfire.

American authorities informed the Japanese of the vessel's presence in the

region. But nevertheless, Japanese planes were ordered to attack any and

all shipping on the Yangtze.

The Panai and the accompanying merchant ships were attacked by Japanese navy

planes at approximately 1327 hours local time.

Two 130-pound bombs struck the American warship, which was also repeatedly

strafed with machine gun fire from Japanese fighters.

At 1554 hours, the Panai sank, and in all, four men were killed, including the

captain of one of the merchant ships, while many others were wounded before

being rescued by the British gunboats HMS Ladybird and HMS Bee, and another

American gunboat, the rather ominously named USS Oahu.

The incident occurred almost exactly four years before Pearl Harbor would be

attacked. Meanwhile, American missionaries recorded the horrors that

they witnessed firsthand, as men were tortured and murdered, while women and

young girls were raped and bayoneted en masse.

Just how many were killed in the rape of Nanking is still a source of contention

between the Chinese and Japanese authorities, with numbers varying from

around 30,000 all the way up to nearly half a million.

American businesses and property were not spared from the Japanese orgy of

looting and arson, although following the Panai incident, Japanese commanders

did start reeling in their men when it came to dealing with American officials.

When the consul at the American embassy, John Moore Allison, was struck in the

face by a Japanese soldier, the Japanese were quick to apologize, but from the

American perspective, this was also a slap in America's face and fueled the

growing feeling That left unchallenged, Japan would only expand further and

further outwards, growing in power until it could one day possibly threaten the

United States.

After the Nanking Massacre and the attacks on foreign nationals, ships, and

buildings, public opinion in Australia and the United States especially swung

away from general indifference to a largely anti-Japanese stance regarding

the Second Sino-Japanese War.

Dock workers in Australia refused to load Japanese ships carrying materials

used for war in China.

while Chinese communities in the United States raised money for their people's

war effort and made public their people's plight. However, once again,

any protests fell on deaf ears in Tokyo, who didn't recognize anyone's authority

other than the emperor's.

Furthermore, they were already building warships in excess of the arms

limitation treaties, much to the concern of the British and Dutch empires, who

were at the time preoccupied with the growing threat emerging from Nazi

Germany in Europe.

Thanks to US neutrality, American companies were still able to profit from

the war between China and Japan, selling weapons and supplies to both sides, even

though its politicians and the public at large were appalled at Japanese

brutality.

On April 19th, 1939, American economist and foreign policy researcher Maxwell S.

Stewart told members of the American Congress that the US's neutrality in the

war was an absolute farce, since it was the United States that was essentially

powering the Japanese war machine.

With Japanese bombers manufactured with American steel and fueled by American

oil exports, the U.S. people were soon having to accept a degree of culpability

in the war.

But with most Americans being of European descent, they tended to focus

their interest on events in Europe. But voices continued to cry out in Congress

in opposition to Japan.

As for Japan itself, its army was now finally engaged in battle with the

Soviet Union.

Since the creation of Manchukuo, Soviet and Japanese forces had fought a series

of skirmishes in an undeclared border war, but on May 11th, this began to

spark into full-blown open warfare.

Known in Japan as the Nomanhan Incident, the conflict would last until September

16th, 1939, by which time the Japanese 6th Army had been decimated, losing at

least 8,000 men.

The Soviet army had lost substantially more men in the fighting, but had

achieved its primary strategic objective of maintaining the integrity of its

border. The impact of this defeat was far-reaching with regards to Tokyo's

foreign policy. It effectively heralded the death knell for the Northern plan,

for they knew that while their soldiers were superior to the Soviet soldiers,

the Soviet Union could throw so many more against them than they could ever

hope to match.

This would lead to a rethinking of foreign policy, with Japan eventually

agreeing to a neutrality pact with the Soviet Union in early 1941 to prevent

any further hostilities.

This left the Japanese army to focus on its war in China, while the navy

prepared to implement the southern plan by force if necessary.

In September of 1939, Europe was set ablaze by war with Nazi Germany, and by

June of 1940, France and Holland had fallen, and their militaries largely

defeated. This left their colonies open to Japanese expansion in the Pacific and

Southeast Asia, with relatively little anyone could do about it. With Germany

controlling France, and Tokyo and Berlin negotiating a formal alliance, on

September 22nd, 1940, Japanese troops invaded the north of French Indochina,

modern-day Vietnam.

Their primary objective was to cut off supplies to the Chinese coming in via

the port of Haiphong, and so they maintained their forces in the north of

the country.

Securing the region on the 26th of September, the next day Japan joined

with Germany and Italy to form the Axis Powers.

These events sent shockwaves through London and Washington about what this

could mean for the future.

In anticipation of such an act, President Roosevelt ordered Admiral

Husband E. Kimmel, the commander of the Pacific Fleet, to relocate his fleet's

main base from San Diego to Pearl Harbor in Oahu, Hawaii, as a deterrence against

Japanese aggression aimed at American interests.

Again, the United States was struggling with its neutrality, with sympathies

primarily being in opposition to Nazi Germany, and that opposition now being

translated onto Japan via the new treaty.

diplomatic cables began being sent between all parties concerned looking

for assurances from tokyo that japan would not threaten allied interests in

the region but throughout the coming months the situation only seemed to

deteriorate the us felt they were left with no choice but to begin imposing on

japan ever tighter embargoes on materials, such as aircraft parts and

scrap metal exported by American companies.

But while this hurt the Japanese war machine, they did not stop it, and in

June of 1941, the Japanese army invaded the southern region of Indochina.

Consequently, in July of 1941, the United States put an oil embargo on

Japan, which forced Tokyo to begin eyeing up the oil-rich Dutch East Indies

to replace the US oil it was no longer getting. But anticipating this, US

President Franklin D. Roosevelt warned that the United States would be prepared

to take opposing steps should Japan launch further attacks in the region. He

then made it clear.

that the United States were pushing for Japan to begin withdrawing from

continental Asia, but this was totally unacceptable to the politically

influential Japanese military.

As proposals and counter-proposals were shared across the vastness of the

Pacific Ocean by diplomats hoping to find a solution to this crisis, the

Japanese military, expecting that the situation with the US would only

continue to break down, were already exploring possible options for

conducting war.

with America.

Born on April 4th of 1884, Isoroku Yamamoto would graduate from the

Imperial Japanese Naval Academy at 20 years old, initially specializing in

naval gunnery, which was still the dominant factor in naval combat despite

the introduction of newer weapons such as the torpedo and submarine.

Serving with distinction at Tsushima, where he was wounded in action, he was

soon climbing up the ranks and was earmarked for several notable overseas

deployments to the then-friendly country of the United States, studying at the

prestigious Harvard University and the Japanese Embassy in Washington.

His Japanese and American acquaintances frequently noted his fondness for

gambling. And he was considered something of a shark at numerous games

of chance, from both the East and the West.

Despite his somewhat conventional career thus far, in the early 1920s, he was one

of the few world military leaders who truly grasped the potential of the

military aircraft as a tool of war.

The Japanese Navy's first aircraft was acquired in 1910, and in 1922, the

Japanese Navy commissioned its first aircraft carrier, the Houshou.

Yet, like in other navies around the world, naval aviation was still seen as

merely a weapon of support to the battleships. Keen to push for greater

innovation and investment in naval air power, in 1924, he switched his focus to

this new branch of the Imperial Japanese Navy, serving first as head of

Aeronautics Department, before commanding the 1st Carrier Division.

aiding the development of japan's carrier fleet were a group of british

pilots and engineers under the sempil mission this was an officially sponsored

british mission which looked to profit from japan's aim to build a sizable

carrier fleet for use in the pacific on the grounds that japan had been an ally

in World War I, and that it was believed they could never truly match the Royal

or US navies. Under the stewardship of Scottish peer Lord William Forbes

Semple, the British assistance included the scale of combat aircraft which would

go on to inspire Japanese manufacturers, kick-starting Japan's naval aircraft

industry. However, this official assistance was short-lived, ending after

18 months.

However, in that short time, a great deal of technical know-how had already

been transferred to Japan.

Yet, despite the ending of the mission, Lord Semple continued to provide the

Japanese with information on British military developments, in contradiction

to the official British Secrets Act.

His activities were discovered, but his political connections allowed him to

escape prosecution.

and in the 1930s, he would continue to act on behalf of Japanese interests.

Meanwhile, now an admiral, Yamamoto knew that carrier power alone in the 1930s

would not be sufficient to build the powerful naval striking force he dreamed

of, and so he commissioned a large fleet of twin-engined, land-based torpedo

bombers to support them until newer, more powerful carrier aircraft could be

developed. By 1940, thanks to Sempil giving them the technical boost they

needed, and men like Yamamoto providing the doctrinal infrastructure, Japan had

built up the most powerful naval aviation force in the world, comprising

of six large fleet carriers, three smaller secondary carriers, and one

training carrier.

Supported by the immense land-based bomber forces, Japan was now in the

position to challenge their increasingly hostile former allies.

But Yamamoto was nowhere near as enthusiastic for war with the empires of

Britain, France, Holland, and the United States, particularly while Japan was

still fighting China.

Yamamoto's intimate knowledge of the US made him the perfect man to plan a war

against them.

but this in turn also endowed him with the knowledge of the risk that was

involved. Comparing the United States with his own country, he knew that the

Americans had advantages both in terms of men and material on a one-to-one

basis. The Americans' preoccupation with events in Europe, with Hitler's Germany,

would alleviate some of this advantage initially, with US fleet deployments

already favoring Atlantic operations.

But once war with Japan began, much of the American Atlantic fleet would be

redeployed against them. Then there would be America's mighty industrial

complex, which, as well as being vast, did not rely as heavily on the import of

strategic materials as Japan's did, and so would be more difficult to disrupt

with submarines and aircraft.

With all this in mind...

He reasoned that immediately after the fighting began, Japan would have six

months with which to sufficiently knock the United States out of the Pacific to

such an extent as to force them to the negotiating table.

There they could be made to surrender control of the Pacific to Tokyo, giving

Japan a free hand to create its empire, euphemistically called the Co-Prosperity

Sphere, and become the dominant empire in Asia.

He warned that if Japan wasn't victorious within six months, twelve at

the very most, they would certainly lose the war, because that was how long he

reasoned it would take the US to fully gear up for war, by which time Japan

couldn't hope to match American war production.

His rather pessimistic opinion was met with hostility from the more politically

influential Japanese army, who were convinced of their country's superiority

and fighting spirit.

With the generals now pushing for war with the Western empires in Asia, he had

little choice but to make his plans.

He knew that the first attack would have to be decisive and give Japan room to

expand outwards across the sea with as little opposition as possible for as

long as possible. The Japanese Navy had already contemplated how a war with the

U.S. might play out, and most of their planning concerned a large-scale

invasion of the U.S. territory of the Philippines.

From the Philippines, the United States were in prime position to threaten vital

Japanese sea lanes and have a base from which to attack the expanding empire.

A key component of any conflict would be for the American forces already

stationed there to be quickly defeated, allowing the Japanese to fortify the

island chain and use it as a springboard from which to conduct operations against

the US Navy once it had mobilized out of its main base at Pearl Harbor.

However, this would, as Yamamoto believed, lead Japan to ultimate defeat,

for it did not deal with the US Navy, and in particular, their own powerful

battleships and aircraft carriers soon enough to be realistic.

Not only would these be a threat throughout the Philippines campaign, but

it would force Japan to wage a naval campaign to counter them, which would

take time, time the Americans could use to gear up for war.

searching for alternatives he began contemplating the somewhat radical idea

of attacking pearl harbor in a pre-emptive strike this would take out

the u.s navy main force in one swift blow it was as he considered his options

he learned from reports from japanese naval officers in berlin and rome of a

battle between british and italian forces that occurred on the night of

november 11th 1940.

Using seemingly hopelessly obsolete Fairey Swordfish biplanes, the British

Royal Navy had launched an air attack from the carrier HMS Illustrious against

the bulk of the Italian surface fleet while it was moored at Taranto Harbour.

The Italians believed that the harbour was too shallow for air-launched

torpedoes to operate, and that any air attack would be spotted before it could

inflict any significant damage.

And yet, Both of those beliefs were shattered in the night. While the air

attack didn't destroy the Italian fleet, it was so heavily damaged that it was

taken out of the fight in the Mediterranean for several months.

This was precisely what Yamamoto hoped to achieve with the American fleet, and

so rather than face the American Pacific fleet in open warfare on the high seas,

he instead pushed for a pre-emptive strike against them while they were

still moored at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.

He envisioned a much larger attack than the one the British had conducted at

Toronto, incorporating the Japanese Navy's six large fleet carriers and the

latest naval fighters, bombers, and torpedo aircraft all working together to

first destroy the American aircraft protecting the harbor and then

obliterate the American battleships and carriers.

Japan's generals were initially unconvinced of the plan.

They wanted the carriers to support landings in Burma, Manila, and the

Philippines, fearing that if so many of Japan's carriers, 60% of their total

force, were discovered by the Americans and destroyed, either before or after

they attacked Pearl Harbor, then they would lose the war on the spot.

Yamamoto rebuffed their concerns, stating that if Japan didn't destroy the

American fleet at Pearl Harbor first, then Japan was guaranteed to lose,

regardless of any alternative war plan.

In the end, Yamamoto won the argument, and the preparation for an attack on

Pearl Harbor began.

However, there were numerous obstacles in the way of Yamamoto's ambition.

Like the harbor at Toronto, Pearl Harbor was located in a comparatively shallow

stretch of water, which presented problems for the torpedo-carrying

aircraft, who would bear the brunt of the effort against the American

warships. Upon dropping a torpedo into the water from an aircraft, it would

dive to a depth in excess of 100 feet before pulling up and leveling off.

At Pearl Harbor, this meant that the torpedoes would nearly all get buried in

the mud at the bottom of the harbor, which in places was just under 100 feet

deep. So confident were the Americans that it was impossible for air-launched

torpedoes to threaten the ships at the Pearl that they didn't even employ

torpedo nets to protect their battleships.

At Taranto, the British got around this problem by having their old biplanes

flying extremely low and slow, thus reducing the depth at which the torpedo

plunged after release, but this wasn't an option for the Japanese with their

more advanced monoplane torpedo bombers.

Eventually, Japanese engineers came up with a cunning solution in the shape of

wooden fixtures attached to the nose and tails of the torpedoes that would reduce

the depth at which they dived after striking the water.

The greatest obstacle in Yamamoto's plan had now been overcome, and the US Navy

were oblivious to the threat the Japanese posed.

Beginning in April of 1941, pilots of the Imperial Japanese Navy began

practicing mock attacks against US ships.

As these pilots practiced, they gained more experience, which could be then

incorporated into their overall plan.

To aid them, the Japanese admirals had a massive model of Pearl Harbor

constructed with which to finalize every detail of the plan for attack.

But in order for it to be perfected, they needed intelligence.

Enter Takeo Yoshikawa, a young Japanese naval officer who was dispatched to Oahu

to spy on the American fleet.

With no more access than an ordinary tourist, Yoshikawa was able to gather a

remarkable amount of information on the fleet and the surrounding airfields

protecting it, just by watching them. With a high Japanese-American population

on the island, he attracted little attention, and would often sit in a tea

house overlooking the harbor watching the activity, using his encyclopedic

knowledge of American vessels to build up an intricate picture of the daily

routine. Perhaps his most well-known activity was to pose as a tourist and

hire a sightseeing plane to discreetly photograph the harbor from the air.

This detailed information was then passed back to Tokyo, where it was

incorporated into the final plans.

Late in the planning stage, the use of two-man midget submarines would be

included to assist the attack.

The midget submarines would attempt to sneak into the harbor and launch their

torpedoes at the US warships, while their crews were too busy defending

themselves against the attack from the air to notice them. The finalized plan

would see six carriers sneak up to the north of Oahu and launch their aircraft

in the early hours, taking the American base by surprise.

Two waves of aircraft would be launched, each with their assigned targets to hit

before they would return to their carriers, rearm and refuel, and then

launch a third wave to mop up the remaining ships and facilities,

rendering Pearl Harbor completely unusable.

However, some in the Japanese leadership wanted to go even further and invade

Hawaii itself, believing that both it and the Philippines could be taken

concurrently, but this part of the plan was ultimately cancelled.

Even by early November, there were still hopes on both sides that war could

somehow be averted at the last minute.

On November 20th, the Japanese offered what they knew would be one final

proposal that could avert war with the US and the British Empire.

They offered to withdraw from Indochina and halt their expansion into Southeast

China on the condition that the US lifted its crippling sanctions and

supply 1 million gallons of aviation fuel.

The US considered the offer unacceptable and issued a counter-demand that Japan

had to unilaterally withdraw from mainland China.

This was unthinkable to Tokyo, who now knew war was coming.

Yamamoto, meanwhile, was already assembling his combined fleet of

aircraft carriers, battleships, cruisers, destroyers, and submarines.

It included two heavy cruisers, one light cruiser, two battleships, nine

destroyers, eight tankers, 23 fleet submarines, and five midget subs.

The key component of this fleet was, of course, the six fleet carriers and their

aircraft under the command of Admiral Nagumo.

Together, these six ships embarked a force of over 400 aircraft.

Overseeing the operation from the battleship Nagato, Yamamoto ordered

this, the most powerful carrier force in history, out to sea on November 26th,

1941. As the diplomatic situation looked unresolvable, but the avid gambler knew

that this, his first roll of the dice, would be the most crucial and

potentially the most problematic.

His whole plan relied on surprise, but surely given the tension between Tokyo

and Washington, the US would realize such a vast fleet of ships were missing

and begin searching for them.

Upon discovering them sailing towards Hawaii, the Americans could realize what

was happening and deploy their fleets and aircraft to intercept.

His fleet had 12,000 miles to cover, which would take him nearly two weeks,

providing there were no delays, but that gave a passing US aircraft or ship ample

time to spot them. The vastness of the Pacific Ocean did afford them some

protection, but even then, Yamamoto was taking no chances, having the fleet sail

under total radio silence, only receiving coded broadcasts from Japan,

fearing any transmission from the fleet could be intercepted. Ahead of the main

fleet, Japanese submarines scanned the oceans looking for marauding US ships

sailing in their path.

However, on the American side, the US intelligence network was far more

concerned about the Philippines.

They were intercepting large numbers of communication between Japanese units and

official sources across Asia, although it was often uncertain what they meant.

However, observers in the Far East had noticed Japanese warships deploying out

to sea in the beginning of December, as the Japanese made their preparation for

their Asian and Pacific blitzkrieg. The US were therefore correctly anticipating

the imminent Japanese attack on the Philippines, but had completely missed

the part of the plan.

concerning an attack on Pearl Harbor.

Less than 24 hours after Yamamoto's fleet had set sail, war warnings were

issued to all US forces in the Pacific, but the measures the admirals and

generals should take were not entirely clear.

These war warnings were repeatedly issued over the coming days, which

should have caused alarm, but as Admiral William Halsey, a man whose name would

become synonymous with the Pacific theater in the months to come, put it,

there were so many of them, that after a while, people just became dulled to

their impact and started to relax.

Despite the belief that the Philippines was the Japanese's primary objective,

Admiral Kimmel took what measures he could to guard the harbor, but it was

not made any easier by the fact that his force of long-range maritime patrol

aircraft had been repeatedly struck down in size as they were transferred to the

Atlantic. He therefore lacked the aircraft to patrol the whole ocean

around Oahu, and so instead, he concentrated their search efforts in the

lanes in and out of the Pearl, and the areas where his warships conducted

training. His reasoning for this was that he anticipated attacks from

Japanese submarines once hostilities broke out, but this of course only aided

in Yamamoto's efforts to approach the island undetected.

Further inland meanwhile, US Army Lieutenant General Walter C. Short

interpreted the warnings from Washington as being less about a military attack by

Japan's forces, and more about acts of sabotage from the local Japanese

immigrant population.

He therefore increased security measures at his airfields, including bunching the

aircraft closer together so they would be easier to guard.

These orders were met with a rather incredulous response from many of the

soldiers carrying out these duties, who knew the Japanese immigrants Short were

referring to and didn't believe they would ever be involved in sabotage or

supporting the Japanese Empire against the United States.

The disjointed army and naval responses to the war warnings highlighted a

glaring problem in terms of defending Oahu from attack, being that there was

no one person in overall command of US forces stationed there.

This, coupled with an almost dismissive attitude that was being taken towards

the warnings issued, their lack of clarity on what to do, and the general

belief that the fighting would start in the Philippines.

meant that a direct attack on Pearl Harbor was the last thing anyone

expected, and as such, adequate measures that could have been taken to blunt a

surprise attack were ignored.

The Americans opened the door for Yamamoto's aircraft to attack.

On December 2nd, 1941, from the Nagato moored in Hiroshima Bay, Yamamoto

ordered a transmission to be sent to the attack force.

It said, climb Mount Nitaka.

This was the order given to conduct the attack on Pearl Harbor.

From the outset, Yamamoto had emphasized that the key to victory would be

eliminating the three US carriers in their Pacific fleet.

These were the USS Enterprise, the USS Saratoga, and the USS Lexington.

But being moving airstrips at a time of crisis, they became very active in the

final days of peace, and the window for catching all of them at once seemed to

be slipping from Nagumo's grasp.

Saratoga was back in the US undergoing a major refit and so was certain not to be

at Pearl Harbor on December 7th, which left Enterprise and Lexington.

Enterprise was next to go when on November 28th, it slipped out of Pearl

with orders to ferry 12 gunman F4F Wildcat fighters of the US Marine Corps

to Wake Island.

Then, just two days before the attack commenced, Lexington too was employed in

delivering aircraft.

this time to Midway Island.

Thus, as the Japanese fleet approached, they were dismayed that the carriers

would not be present.

This was the whole idea of the attack, to knock these carriers out of the

battle before they could lead America to victory.

The Japanese had gambled everything to get here, and the most important targets

were completely out of the firing line.

Nevertheless, the attack was ordered to go ahead anyway.

they could still inflict a powerful blow against the american fleet which would

only further weaken them in any future confrontation where the three carriers

could be destroyed using overwhelmingly superior japanese numbers on the evening

of december 6 1941 in the last hours of peace american code breakers began

intercepting a flood of coded transmissions across the pacific unsure

what it all meant as they did not have the full picture yet They expected the

Japanese to attack Southeast Asia and the Philippines, but a warning to that

end doesn't reach Pearl Harbor before the sun starts to rise over Oahu.

345 hours.

On the north of the island of Oahu, an alarm rings out inside the tents of

privates George E. Elliott Jr.

and Joseph L. Lockard.

but this is not a warning of any kind rather it is the sound of the alarm

clock rousing them to begin their duties at their radar station assembled on the

north of the island their radar site is one of six mobile units comprising just

four vehicles carrying the antennae power generator and support equipment

that had been assembled around oahu intended to give as wide a coverage as

possible Located some 532 feet above sea level at a site known as Opana, the two

radar operators have an excellent view of the ocean for their SCR-270 radar

antennae to scan for aircraft.

The two men are working a 24-hour shift at the site, but only operate the radar

in the morning, between 0400 hours and 0700 hours, and even then, it is

primarily for training purposes.

The rest of the time they spend carrying out maintenance or guarding the site

against vandals and snooping locals.

Unlike the stereotypical image of a radar screen with a circular dish and a

beam traversing round and round like a searchlight, this early radar set

instead employs an oscilloscope for display that produces spikes whenever an

object is detected.

It can only tell them something is there. It can't tell them who it is.

357 hours.

Around the waters of Oahu, One of the few US warships at sea in the early

hours is the Wicks-class destroyer USS Ward, under the command of Lieutenant

Commander William W. Outerbridge, who only assumed the captaincy of the ship

two days before.

Lookouts on the Ward spot another warship, the minesweeper USS Condor,

which begins signaling that they believe they had spotted a periscope in the

water, and so Outerbridge orders his men to begin searching for a possible

Japanese submarine.

600 hours, the first wave of Japanese planes begin taking off from their

carriers under the leadership of Commander Mitsuo Fushida. It consists of

183 planes and comprises of three groups.

Two of the groups have orders to attack the surrounding airfields around Pearl,

allowing the primary group to go in and attack battleship Rho.

According to the battleship USS Nevada, Ensign Joseph K. Taussig Jr.

is awoken to take command of the forenoon watch.

Being officer of the deck on a quiet Sunday morning in port is usually

tedious, and so Taussig racked his brain looking for something to do.

It then struck him that only one boiler had been lit to power the ship since

they had entered Pearl, and therefore he decided to order another to be lit, if

only to give him and the duty personnel something to do.

630 hours.

Out at sea, another group of monoplane dive bombers are taking off from the

deck of a carrier, but these are not Japanese aircraft, rather American.

Sailing over 200 miles west of Pearl Harbor is the aircraft carrier USS

Enterprise, and it is in the process of launching a formation of 18 Douglas SBD

dive bombers.

The Enterprise should have already entered Pearl Harbor, but a storm has

delayed them by 24 hours.

The SBDs have been ordered to conduct a patrol of the area before landing on

Ford Island.

637 hours.

Lookouts aboard the USS Ward cite another American ship, this time a US

Navy supply ship, the Antares, sailing towards the entrance of Pearl, with a

500-ton barge in tow.

The Antares is expecting to meet a tugboat that should relieve it of the

barge, but when it fails to arrive on time, The Antares instead has to alter

course to the east to keep the entrance to Pearl clear until the tug appears.

However, as the ship turns, crew members notice a small white wake apparently

trailing behind them.

Realizing it is a periscope, the Antares quickly signals its location to the USS

Ward and sensing an attack, Outerbridge orders his crew to general quarters and

moves to intercept the submarine.

An orbiting PBY Catalina also swoops down on the scene, dropping smoke bombs

to mark the target's location.

The Ward opens fire with its 4-inch deck guns, before using its higher speed to

overtake the sub and drop depth charges, which destroys the Japanese vessel,

killing its two crew members.

Outer Bridge immediately sends a coded transmission to Pearl Harbor, outlining

the attack, but after delays decoding the message, it is presented to Admiral

Kimmel, who demands verification that it is genuine and not a false alarm.

700 hours.

Unaware of the drama that has unfolded out at sea, Private Elliot and Lockhart

are coming to the end of their watch and are looking forward to the arrival of

the relief crew and breakfast.

Elliot, who is new to their unit, has spent most of the time at the plotting

table, where he would mark any tracks Lockhart spotted on a map before

relaying the information back to headquarters, although there had been

none thus far.

While they wait for the truck that will carry them back to their base, the two

men decide to get in some extra training as a way of killing some time, whereby

Elliot will man the oscilloscope under Lockhart's guidance.

Scanning the horizon, the oscilloscope only draws a flat line like it had for

much of the morning, indicating that it isn't detecting anything. But then,

suddenly and unexpectedly, it spikes.

Examining the reading for himself, Lockhart is amazed at the size of the

spike. which indicates to him a large number of aircraft, more than he has

ever seen at one time.

The men immediately contact Fort Shafter in Honolulu to report their findings,

speaking to Private Joseph McDonald, who's looking for Lieutenant Kermit

Tyler in the plotting room. Tyler dismisses the report as nothing, much to

the incredulity of Lockhart. He insists they are detecting a large formation of

aircraft approaching Oahu.

and recognizing the concern in the young radar operator's voice, McDonald gets

back to Tyler and insists he speaks directly to him.

Lieutenant Tyler again tells Lockhart and Elliott to ignore the track because

he knows they're expecting a group of B-17 Flying Fortress bombers to fly in

from the US to Wheeler Field.

Neither Lockhart, Elliott, nor McDonald are satisfied with this, but they have

to follow the orders of their superior officer.

Relieved of duty a few minutes later, McDonald returns to his tent with a grim

expression on his face, and when asked what was wrong by a fellow soldier, he

replies, the Japs are coming.

726 hours.

The destroyer USS Helm casts off from its mooring to begin a day of routine

maintenance work on the various buoys scattered in and around the harbor.

740 hours.

Elliot and Lockhart lose contact with the formation of aircraft they had

detected over half an hour earlier.

A truck soon arrives to take them back to their main base, arriving just as the

sound of explosions ring out over Oahu.

748 hours.

Commander Mitsuo Fushida orders his men to begin their attack.

As the men of the Pacific Fleet groggily awake, the harbor begins to buzz with

the sound of aero engines.

Even now, many of them are blissfully unaware of the imminent danger,

attributing the aircraft to being either Navy or Army pilots conducting some

early morning training.

On ships like the USS Nevada, bands are playing as the morning flag hoisting

ceremony gets underway.

It's only as the first explosions begin to roar that they finally realize what

is happening.

The Japanese have caught the Americans at Pearl Harbor completely and totally

by surprise.

Battleship Rowe bears the brunt of the initial attacks, with the USS Oklahoma

being hit by two torpedoes that cause significant damage to the battleship's

hull. A few minutes later, a third torpedo strikes the warship and nearly

capsizes it.

In the opening minutes of the attack, the USS West Virginia takes seven

torpedo hits from modified Type 91 torpedoes, whilst almost simultaneously,

the USS California takes two.

Then the Japanese level bombers make their attacks.

Some 10 Japanese bombers target the USS Arizona with modified 1760

-pound armor-piercing shells, which strike the ship to devastating effect.

One of the bombs detonates near the ship's magazines, resulting in a

powerful explosion that effectively cuts the ship in two.

Nearby, the heavy cruiser USS Helena is hit by a torpedo after the attacking

Japanese pilot mistook the vessel for Admiral Kimmel's flagship, the

battleship Pennsylvania, in the low light.

The blast from this hit damages the mine layer USS Oglala, which begins taking on

water, and efforts to stop the ship's sinking are thwarted by repeated

strafing attacks by Japanese aircraft.

Another cruiser, the USS Relay, also receives a torpedo hit and begins

listing as it takes on water.

Immediately, the US sailors scramble to their defensive positions and begin

returning fire, claiming a handful of Japanese aircraft.

However, the gunners in battleship row have a tough time aiming at the Japanese

planes, because the warships are so closely packed together that there is a

risk of spraying each other with bullets.

On board many of the ships returning fire, ammunition supplies quickly run

low, sometimes within minutes.

leaving crew members scrambling to bring up new supplies from the ship's stores.

As if all this were not enough, the American air opposition at Pearl Harbor

is so low that Japanese Zero fighters take to strafing the defensive gunners

with bullets.

Further inland, as the first bombs began raining down on Pearl, the army

airfields at Barber's Point, Bellows, Hickam, and Wheeler come under attack,

bombs landing amongst the aircraft bunched up to protect them from local

saboteurs, causing immense damage.

At Wheeler Field, pilots like Lieutenant Phil Rasmussen are still wearing their

pajamas as they pick up whatever weapons they can find to fire into the air at

the Japanese planes.

During a lull in the attack on the field, Rasmussen and his comrades assess

the damage.

Large numbers of their P-38 and P-40 fighters are burning, but miraculously,

a handful have seemingly escaped undamaged, and so they hurriedly arm and

fuel them.

before lifting off.

Despite being heavily outnumbered, and with Rasmussen's own P-36 being less

than a match for the Japanese Zero, and having a gun jammed, he still manages to

bring down one of the Japanese fighters.

In all, the pilots from Wheeler managed to bring down 11 Japanese planes, but

this was only a drop in the ocean compared to the total force being

brought against them. In the midst of the attack, the SBDs from the Enterprise

arrive over Pearl Harbor, and can't believe what they're seeing.

Almost immediately, they are set upon not just by Japanese aircraft, but by

American gunners, who have trouble distinguishing them from the similar

-looking Japanese carrier bombers, resulting in seven being shot down

before they manage to land.

Not long after, the B-17s Lieutenant Tyler was expecting to arrive are also

fired upon by both Japanese pilots and American gunners.

Many of the aircraft take damage, and with Hickam Field under heavy air

attack, the bombers divert to nearby airfields.

817 hours.

The destroyer USS Helm, which was set to undertake maintenance of the harbor's

buoys, turns to leave the harbor as the attack continues.

As the destroyer leaves the inlet for the open sea, where it can at least

maneuver as it is attacked, a lookout spots an object snared on a nearby reef,

and soon identifies it as one of the two-man midget submarines.

Turning to starboard, Helm opens fire on the midget submarine, but misses, and

the small submersible soon escapes.

However, it would not be gone for long, as it quickly snags on the reef again.

Eventually, the two men on board will abandon the submarine, resulting in one

of them drowning, and the other, Kazuo Sakamaki, becoming the United States'

first Japanese prisoner of war.

827 hours.

The USS Monaghan, a destroyer, was ordered to head out to sea to assist the

ward shortly before the attack began, and as such, came under attack as it got

moving. Attempting to leave the harbor, it spots another of the midget

submarines attempting to attack the fleet, and its captain orders full speed

ahead in an attempt to ram it.

Missing the submarine by just 50 yards, the destroyer then drops depth charges

into the water that is so shallow, the resulting blast lifts its stern out of

the water.

damaging the steering mechanism.

Out of control, the ship crashes into a barge, but only suffers minor damage.

830 hours.

Aboard the destroyer USS Alwyn, the crew are scrambling to get the ship moving

and away from the dock so as not to be a sitting duck.

With much of the crew on shore leave, including all the senior officers, Alwyn

begins steaming away with less than 50% of its regular crew on board, and with a

young Ensign, Stanley B. Kaplan, in command.

Kaplan has barely been at sea for eight months, and now he is commanding a

destroyer under heavy fire attempting to escape the carnage. Shortly after the

destroyer begins moving, lookouts spot the ship's captain boarding a motor

launch with several other officers before attempting to reach them, but

Kaplan is under orders from the commander of the destroyer force at

Pearl to not stop or slow down, and he leaves the men behind.

Gunners on his first command firing at Japanese planes above as he leads Alwyn

out to sea.

After nearly three quarters of an hour of almost continuous air attack,

battleship Rowe is left ablaze as the first wave of Japanese warplanes finish

their attacks and head back to their carriers.

But the second wave is not far behind.

840 hours.

Despite having taken a torpedo hit that causes heavy flooding, the battleship

USS Nevada is able to come up to power thanks to Ensign Taosig's decision to

light another of the ship's boilers.

What should have taken two hours to get moving only takes 40 minutes, and the

mighty battleship breaks free of its moorings and is no longer a sitting duck

for the Japanese.

854 hours.

The second wave of attacks begin, with a Japanese force consisting of 35

fighters, 78 dive bombers, and 54 high-altitude bombers.

However, now the American forces are fully engaged and meet the second wave

head on. Most of the Japanese losses incurred on December 7th are amongst the

second wave, who do not have the benefit of total surprise, and this does not go

unnoticed by Admiral Nagumo.

950 hours.

Defending itself from repeated attacks by Japanese dive bombers, the USS Nevada

is attempting to make for the open sea.

when it's struck by five Japanese 250-kilogram bombs.

The Japanese are making a determined effort to sink the battleship in the

channel leading to Pearl, hoping that it would block entry and exit, further

exacerbating the damage they have inflicted on American forces at Oahu.

By themselves, these light bombs cause significant damage to the battleship,

but not enough to sink it. However, they do start fires that are now as big a

threat to its hard-pressed crew as the Japanese.

Ten hundred hours.

Their bombs, bullets, and torpedoes expended and low on fuel.

The final Japanese pilots begin returning to their aircraft carriers,

expecting to be loaded up to participate in the third wave of attacks.

However, much to the dismay of many of them, Admiral Nagumo has cancelled the

third wave of strikes.

Nagumo reasoned that much of their objective, excluding the carriers, had

already been achieved, and given that the Americans were now fully prepared

for more attacks, he would be sacrificing many of his pilots and

aircraft unnecessarily, which would weaken his force further, all of whom

will be needed when the inevitable battle with the American carriers comes.

Once all of his aircraft are recovered to the carrier decks, he orders the

fleet to retreat.

Of the 350 aircraft he has sent into battle that morning, 29 have been lost,

a relatively small figure for the damage that has been inflicted.

1030 hours.

Despite the Herculean efforts of the crew of the Nevada to escape Pearl

Harbor, the fires caused by the bombs have prevented damage control teams from

tackling the flooding, and fearing the battleship will sink, her crew are

ordered to drive the ship onto shore on nearby Ford Island.

With the help of a tug and a small minesweeper, the Nevada hits the shore

at hospital point and is no longer mobile.

President Roosevelt was alerted of the events at Pearl Harbor soon after they

began. Given the time difference between Oahu and Washington, it was the early

afternoon when Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox burst into a meeting the

President was having with one of his advisors, Harry Hopkins, to tell him the

Japanese were attacking Pearl Harbor.

Recounting that momentous day, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt remembered that

her husband presented a dead calm demeanor.

as he received the latest information from the scene. But she knew deep down

that he was incensed by the attack, given all that he had done to find a

peaceful resolution to the crisis with Japan.

Furthermore, it was the way in which Japan had begun this war that further

incensed him and his cabinet.

An insulting seven and a half hours after the bombs began raining down on

Pearl Harbor, the Japanese delivered their declaration of war against the

United States and Great Britain.

Among those he conferred with regarding the attack was British Prime Minister

Winston Churchill in London, who also found his country at war with Japan that

day. Coinciding with the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese forces had attacked

British Far Eastern possessions such as Hong Kong, leading to the Prime Minister

uttering to Roosevelt, Assessing the situation, and what the days ahead might

entail, Roosevelt confided in Eleanor, that he expected Germany to soon follow

in their Japanese allies' footsteps and declare war on the United States.

Almost repeating Yamamoto's own predictions, Roosevelt told her that the

United States was in no way prepared to fight the war they were now embroiled

in, and that it would take time to reorganize American industry from

producing cars and refrigerators to making tanks and bombs.

He therefore said to her that in his opinion, the country would, quote, have

to take a good many defeats before we can have a victory.

Armed with this knowledge, Eleanor Roosevelt went on the radio that night

for her weekly scheduled program.

To an audience of shocked, angry, and frightened listeners, she reassured them

by stating, quote, Whatever is asked of us, we shall accomplish it. We are the

free and unconquerable people of the USA.

While she was speaking to the American people in their homes, Her husband was

with his secretary, Grace Tully, dictating a speech he planned to give

the next day to US Congress.

In the evening, he and his cabinet met, where they discussed the latest reports

from Pearl Harbor.

The news was horrifying.

Casualty reports were rising exponentially with every message from

the scene, and with so many ships damaged or sunk at once, the US Navy's

Pacific Fleet had been dealt a significant blow.

in the crucial opening round of the conflict.

The saving grace was that the U.S. carriers had, miraculously, all been

spared. After a restless night's sleep, Roosevelt addressed Congress at 12.30 p

.m. on December 8, 1918.

That since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan

on Sunday, December 7th, 1941,

a state of war has existed

between the United States and the Japanese Empire.

Within an hour, Congress had voted to reciprocate the declaration of war on

Japan. The vote was almost unanimous, save for one lone voice, that of

Jeanette Rankin, a Republican from Montana and the first woman to hold

federal office in the U.S.

Rankin voted against the declaration and refused to be pressured by the other

representatives, even when they publicly booed and hissed at her from the

gallery. Explaining her reasoning, she said, As a woman, I can't go to war, and

I refuse to send anyone else.

Back at Pearl Harbor, the carrier USS Enterprise sailed solemnly into Pearl

Harbor on the afternoon of December 8th, where the crew saw firsthand the

devastation they had only narrowly escaped themselves.

The day before, they had launched an attack wave of planes after a possible

sighting of the Japanese fleet, but found nothing, and now, eager to get

revenge, or at least not be caught idle in a second attack on the Pearl, every

man scrambled to refuel, rearm, and resupply the carrier so it could head

back out to sea, as news of the invasion of the Philippines spread across the

Pacific. For all who were there, and for all who weren't, across America and

American possessions across the world, there was only one thing on their minds.

Avenge Pearl Harbor.

2,335 US service personnel and 68 civilians were killed in the attack on

Pearl Harbor.

A further 1,178 were wounded.

The Japanese sank four battleships and seriously damaged four others, along

with a number of cruisers and other supporting vessels, while some 390

aircraft were destroyed.

And yet the survival of the American carriers meant ultimately...

the attack would only buy Japan the six months Yamamoto predicted was needed to

decisively defeat the Allies.

This was something Japan would fail to do.

At the Battle of Midway in June of 1942, four of the carriers that attacked Pearl

Harbor would be lost to American air power.

It would be a defeat Japan would never recover from and would provide the

catalyst for the eventual fall of the Japanese Empire in 1945.

Pearl Harbor left an indelible impression on the United States after

World War II, particularly as the Cold War began with the Soviet Union.

The U.S. constantly feared being caught off guard in another surprise attack,

but this time involving nuclear weapons, and so invested billions of dollars in

early warning systems and intelligence gathering technologies.

They also instigated a massive rearmament program to confront the

Soviets. so that unlike on December 7th, 1941, the US was always geared

up to fight any war that might break out.

But in an effort to prevent that from happening in the first place, the United

States also adopted a much more aggressive foreign policy in countering

the Soviets than it did with countering the Japanese in the 1930s. With all

these wartime lessons having been learned, many historians have asked

questions. over whether or not the US should have been aware of an attack

being underway.

Was key evidence overlooked, or as some have suggested, deliberately ignored?

Like many major events in history, Pearl Harbor has bred conspiracy theories,

ranging from the plausible to the downright absurd, that nevertheless

continue to be argued about to this very day, specifically whether Roosevelt knew

the attack was going to happen prior to December 7th. the only thing that can be

said with certainty is that Pearl Harbor was more than just an attack on the

United States.

In a single stroke, it altered the course of world history, catapulting

America into World War II and its position today.

Probably the most influential and certainly most powerful nation on the

face of the Earth.