Early in the morning on December 7, 1941, the United States Naval Station at Pearl Harbor was attacked through a surprise mass bombing raid conducted
by the Japanese naval and air forces. Pearl Harbor was considered the chief base of the United States Navy’s Pacific Fleet (Robinson, 2001). They also attacked other American military bases on the Hawaiian island of Oahu (Robinson, 2010). This devastating attack lasted for two hours, while hundreds of Japanese fighter planes destroyed the Naval Station (A&E Television Networks, LLC, 2012). During the attack, 20 American naval vessels were destroyed, as well as eight battleships and 200 airplanes. The
attack also resulted in an immense amount of casualties including 2,402 people that were killed and 1,282 that were wounded. According to Robinson (2001), the Pacific fleet had prepared for the possibility of naval attack by massing the fleet together. Unfortunately, this left the fleet vulnerable to the Japanese’s surprise bombing raid by air, allowing them to cause devastating damage to the base. News of the bombing attack spread quickly through newspaper and radio. As the news spread across the country, Americans were shocked and then soon filled with rage (Davenport, 2010). “If the attack on Pearl Harbor came as a devastating shock to most Americans, for those of Japanese ancestry it was like a nightmare come true” (Daniels, 1972, p. 26). Japanese Americans were filled with the same fear that many other Americans felt, as well as shame and apprehension (Davenport, 2010). Japanese Americans were immediately affected by the attack at Pearl Harbor. There were many Japanese American civilians living in Hawaii that were killed and wounded by bombs from the attack (Robinson, 2010). |
December 7, 1941
"December 7, 1941, a day which will live in infamy, the United States of America was suddenly and deliberatly attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan." - Franklin D. Roosevelt