The
attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise
military strike by the
Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service against the
United States naval base at
Pearl Harbor,
Hawaii Territory, on the morning of December 7, 1941. The attack, also known as the
Battle of Pearl Harbor, led to the United States' entry into
World War II. The
Japanese military leadership referred to the attack as the
Hawaii Operation and
Operation AI,and as
Operation Z during its planning.
Japan intended the attack as a
preventive action to keep the
U.S. Pacific Fleet from interfering with military actions they planned in
Southeast Asia against overseas territories of the
United Kingdom, the
Netherlands, and the United States. Over the next seven hours there were coordinated Japanese attacks on the U.S.-held
Philippines,
Guam and
Wake Island and on the
British Empire in
Malaya,
Singapore, and
Hong Kong.
The attack commenced at 7:48 a.m.
Hawaiian Time (18:18 UTC). The base was attacked by 353 Imperial Japanese aircraft (including
fighters,
level and dive bombers, and
torpedo bombers) in two waves, launched from six
aircraft carriers. All eight U.S. Navy battleships were damaged, with four sunk. All but the
USS Arizona were later raised, and six were returned to service and went on to fight in the war. The Japanese also sank or damaged three
cruisers, three
destroyers, an anti-aircraft training ship,and one
minelayer. One hundred eighty-eight U.S. aircraft were destroyed; 2,403 Americans were killed and 1,178 others were wounded. Important base installations such as the power station,
dry dock, shipyard, maintenance, and fuel and torpedo storage facilities, as well as the submarine piers and headquarters building (also home of the
intelligence section), were not attacked. Japanese losses were light: 29 aircraft and five
midget submarineslost, and 64 servicemen killed. One Japanese sailor,
Kazuo Sakamaki, was captured.
The surprise attack came as a profound shock to the American people and led directly to the American entry into World War II in both the
Pacific and
European theaters. The following day, December 8, the United States
declared war on Japan,and several days later, on December 11,
Germany and
Italy declared war on the U.S. The U.S. responded with a
declaration of war against Germany and
Italy. Domestic support for
non-interventionism, which had been fading since the
Fall of France in 1940,disappeared.
There were numerous historical precedents for unannounced military action by Japan, but the lack of any formal warning, particularly while negotiations were still apparently ongoing, led President
Franklin D. Roosevelt to proclaim December 7, 1941, "
a date which will live in infamy". Because the attack happened without a declaration of war and without explicit warning, the attack on Pearl Harbor was later judged in the
Tokyo Trials to be a
war crime.
