When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, America was at last forced to officially enter World War II. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt officially declared war on the Japanese and in his famous radio address to the American people, he professed that December 7 was a day that would live in infamy. Americans and Japanese alike, still remember Pearl Harbor Day, but how many remember the gallant, fighting Marines who served on a tiny atoll in the Pacific by the name of Wake Island? Prior to the war, Wake Island, located 2300 miles west of Honolulu, was an unincorporated territory of the United States, which was placed under the jurisdiction of the Navy in 1934. It was also a Clipper stop on Pan American Airlines’ famed Trans-Pacific run, and in 1939, the U.S. Navy began construction of an air and submarine base, which was half completed at the time of the attack. Because of the construction of the base, approximately 1200 civilians were on the island, working for the American construction firm, Morrison-Knudsen, in addition to the Navy personnel and Marines who had been sent to defend the island. The first attack came at noon on December 7, 1941, when 36 Japanese bombers initiated the first bombing of the island. The bombings by the Japanese continued until December 23, when under continuous shelling, the Americans, under U.S. Navy Commander Winfield Scott Cunningham, were finally forced to surrender. Although the Japanese finally took the island, they incurred heavy losses. Three cruisers and one transport sustained heavy damage, two destroyers and one patrol boat were sunk, while 820 Japanese soldiers were killed, with another 333 wounded. In contrast, American military casualties included 120 killed, 49 wounded, with two missing in action. Initially, Japanese strategists assumed that the tiny island would be overwhelmed in a matter of hours. However, they underestimated the fighting spirit of the military personnel and civilians stationed on the island. For sixteen days these brave men fought against overwhelming odds, but demonstrated both to the Japanese and to their fellow Americans back at home that the Americans could and would put up a courageous fight. During the first air raid, Pan American’s facilities were destroyed, and ten civilian employees of the airline were killed. When the assault on the island was first launched, the Americans had twelve aircraft. By December 21, they were down to two planes and by the 22nd of December, none was left in the fleet.
“Tora! Tora! Tora!” – These are the code words which were transmitted by Mitsuo Fuchida to the Japanese fleet signaling that the U.S. Pacific Fleet had been caught by surprise at Pearl Harbour. The attack, which occurred in the early morning of December 7th, 1941, resulted in the United States abandoning its policy of isolationism and entering the war. The U.S. officially declared a state of war between the Japanese Empire and the United States on December 8th, but for those who were at Pearl Harbour, like Thomas Mahoney, the war began on that morning at 8AM (Dunnahoo 5). Mahoney was born in New Jersey and enlisted at the age of 18 in 1940 to the United States Navy along with his brother, Harold. He was eventually stationed aboard the U.S.S. Curtiss at Pearl Harbour as an electrician’s mate when the surprise attack by the Japanese occurred, and went on to serve on board the U.S.S. O’Bannon, the most decorated U.S. Destroyer of World War Two, and where he would see most major actions in the Pacific Theatre including, but not limited to, the Guadalcanal Campaign, the Battle of Leyte Gulf, and the Recapture of Corregidor.
This paper will compare Gordon W. Prange's book "At Dawn We Slept - The Untold Story of Pearl Harbor" with the film "Tora! Tora! Tora!" directed by Richard Fleischer, Kinji Fukasaku, and Toshio Masuda. While the film provides little background to the attack, its focal point is on the Pearl Harbor assault and the inquiry of why it was not prevented, or at least foreseen in adequate time to decrease damage. Prange's book examines the assault on Pearl Harbor from both the Japanese and American viewpoints to gain a global view of the situation and the vast provision undertaken by Japanese intelligence. The film and book present the Japanese side, the American side, the events that lead up to the attack, and the aftermath.
First, Pearl Harbor is a day to remember for us as Americans today; but in the past, Americans used the remembrance of Pearl Harbor to pump them up and want to defeat the Japanese. The Americans wanted to defeat Japan, so badly since their attacks on Pearl Harbor occurred even before war was declared. “Pearl Harbor was a huge success for the Japanese, but the ‘sneak’ attack made Americans determined for revenge”(Granton). It is still a mystery what would happen if we didn’t drop the bombs, either way a war was going to be fought. These bombs may have killed thousands, but World War II and the Japanese took the lives of millions.
“Now It’s the Japanese Who Will ‘Remember Pearl Harbor’.” Daily Boston Globe 7 June 1942: D1 ProQuest. Web. 13 March 2014.
Japanese stood their ground and on December 7,1941.The surprise attack on the Americans that destroyed or damage nearly 20 American naval vessels, including eight battleships, and over 300 airplanes. More than 2,400 Americans died in the attack, including civilians, and another 1,000 people were wounded at Pearl Harbor(document
The attack was well organized and the Japanese were prepared. The continental United States was receiving telegrams warning them that there would be an attack. Unfortunately, people in Hawaii were not warned; they were living their normal lives, doing things they were accustomed to doing such as going to parties, writing letters home, and just doing things that a man stationed in Hawaii would do. Many men wrote letters home to their girlfriends or parents or kept a journal. The following letter is an example.
In the early morning of 19 February 1945, United States Marines assigned to the 3rd, 4th and 5th Marine Division led the initial assault on the Japanese controlled island of Iwo Jima, with the objective of capturing and securing the island. This was the beginning of one of the fiercest and bloodiest; and more decisively, the most strategically important battles fought during World War II. After the dust had settled, and the smoke had cleared, the causalities and losses were astounding. 6,821 U.S. Marines along with 18,844 members of the Imperial Japanese Army had paid the ultimate sacrifice. A decisive US victory on the island of Iwo Jima later played a pivotal role in the overarching defeat of the Japanese Empire and its Armed Forces (Morison, 1945).
This battle was the start of America taking control of the war over the Pacific. This battle took place six months after Japan first struck Pearl Harbor. Many historians say this was the greatest air battle of all time. America not only proved that numbers didn’t matter, but showed that only leaders with clear eyes and soldiers with heart can win a battle of any size. Even before the battle started, America saw his attack coming.
Because of the desperation felt by the Japanese forces leading up to the battle and American forces making steady advances toward Japan, the Japanese forces felt the battle could not be won. They were ordered to by time for Japan to build its defenses around the homeland. Japanese were not only dying for their county but taking their own lives as ... ... middle of paper ... ... 6 wounded.
Allen, Thomas B. Remember Pearl Harbor: American and Japanese Survivors Tell Their Stories. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, 2001. Print.
On December 7,1941 Japan raided the airbases across the islands of Pearl Harbour. The “sneak attack” targeted the United States Navy. It left 2400 army personnel dead and over a thousand Americans wounded. U.S. Navy termed it as “one of the great defining moments in history”1 President Roosevelt called it as “A Day of Infamy”. 2 As this attack shook the nation and the Japanese Americans became the immediate ‘focal point’. At that moment approximately 112,000 Persons of Japanese descent resided in coastal areas of Oregon, Washington and also in California and Arizona.3
The American soldiers had begun using the method of island hopping, because the bomb was not available. The idea of dropping a bomb was that the war itself could possibly end at its earliest points. The dropping of the atomic bomb could also justify the money spent on the Manhattan Project (Donohue 1). With a quote by Franklin D. Roosevelt “This will be a day that will live in infamy”, Pearl Harbor was a tragic day for Americans. The United States had lost many soldiers, which they had claimed that they would eventually get revenge.
The experience that the Japanese learned demonstrates what ingenuity and strong-willed Soldiers can do, even when facing great numbers and simultaneous overwhelming lethality on land, air, and sea. Wits and diligence can endure against even the most extreme technological superiority.
It’s a beautiful sunny morning, on a tropical island that everyone would love to take a vacation at. It’s approximately 6:00 am, December 7, 1941, when a first group of 181 kamikaze planes attacked; targeting key naval bases stationed at Hawaii; a sustained crippling of U.S. naval forces for about 6 months. The death toll was 2,500. Out of the 9 battleships, 8 were heavily damaged by the assault on Pearl Harbor and out of the 8, three were unrepairable, USS Arizona, USS Oklahoma, and the USS Utah. 160 aircrafts were put out of commission, and nearly 130 were heavily damaged. This was the first incident in which there was an act of war, committed on U.S. soil, outside of the American Revolution and the Civil War. The world was at war, and the U.S. remained neutral until now. Before the attack, the U.S. was in great debate whether to enter the war or to stay out of it. The act of war forced the U.S. into the War and triggered a controversial debate in whether to retaliate against Japan with the use of nuclear arms.
Slowly, though, the Allies gained ground and continued to push back the defensive lines of General Ushijima and his troops. The Japanese tried to use kamikaze air and land attacks as successful offensive measures, but these continued to produce little effect and failed each time. Finally, the Allies started to gain ground quite quickly. The Japanese had to move their defensive lines several times because the Americans were boxing them in. At last, General Ushijima ordered every man to fight to the death, and the fighting became very disorganized.