Pearl Harbor

In 1941, one of the largest American military defeats occurred. An entire naval fleet was destroyed; hundreds were killed, all before 9:00 on a Sunday. The United States did not have any knowledge of this attack, partially because of ignorance, and partially because of the military strategies of their Japanese opponents. The Japanese attack on the United States naval base of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, was a classic case of "It will not happen to me!" (Stevens) Although the United States suspected Japanese actions, they did not take a defensive stance, as they believed an attack would never touch their soil. Through an examination of military history, tactics and eyewitness descriptions, it will be proven that the United States had no knowledge of the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. In the years before 1941, the war in Europe saw little American military action. After the collapse of France, American President Roosevelt promised his county that no American troops would be sent to Europe to aid in the battle against Hitler and his powerful army. These promises caused Roosevelt to be criticized by his closest advisors for his indecisiveness about declaring war. The President's defense to these accusations was he did not want to out step public opinion. As well, he believed American intervention would cause a 'mortal blow' to the Allies cause. In reality, the advisors, as well as Roosevelt, knew that Britain could not win the war without American armed intervention. Two oceans to the East, Japan was deep into a war of her own. Japanese forces were concentrated on the Chinese front to conquer and obtain. As a result of her unpopular declaration of war on China, Japan's fuel supply from the United States was eliminated. Consequently, the Japanese turned to Indonesia to continue the supply of fuel for her war efforts. Fuel talks broke down, as the Dutch, who were in control of the Indonesian fuel supply and, under heavy influence from the United States would not supply Japan with fuel. Desperately needing fuel to continue the war, Japan first thought of attacking Indonesia, but feared United States intervention. After some thought, Japanese leaders decided that an attack directly on the United States would be more appropriate to bring the United States to the fuel supplies negotiating table. The first acknowledgment that Japan was a war threat came on November 27, 1941 when Washington ordered a 'War Warning'. The United States feared a Japanese attack, not on America, but on the Philippines. American military leaders took little or no precautions upon the issue of warning. Admiral Husband E. Kimmel and Lt. General Walter C. Short of Pearl Harbor had done nothing to make the fleet or its defenses ready for Japanese attack. The commanding officers believed the warning to be no more than a possible threat of sabotage from the Japanese living on the island of Oahu. As a result, the officers ordered that all aircraft in the base be lined up at wing tip to be easily guarded. Defenses were on limited alert, with no long distance reconnaissance and no improvements on the limited anti-aircraft defenses. On board ships, only half of the anti-aircraft positions were stood at with the ammunition locked away. "In every reference I've seen and every Pearl Harbor survivor I've ever talked to, each referred to the attack as a surprise," (Department) said PH1 Goodwin of Pearl Harbor in an Electronic-mail letter dated December 15, 1997. Mr. Goodwin's comment is embarrassing at best; subsequently the American defense stance has been referred to as a 'shameful blunder'. The lack of preparation for an attack demonstrated by the officers at Pearl Harbor portrayed the general attitude of ignorance in the American government, "The United States of America is the strongest, most powerful country in the world. A country such as Japan, which does not even have the resources to survive a lengthy war, could not possibly attack them." (Institute) The result of the attack would have been much less serious had the American officers exercised more vigilance. The ignorance was so great that, on the day of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, several major and peculiar instances were noted and ignored by officers on duty. At 3:50 AM an unidentified periscope was seen and ignored at the entrance of the harbor. Also, the destroyer "Ward" depth-charged and sank an unidentified submarine at 6:37 AM. The contact report was taken up much later and with no degree of urgency. Finally, two radar sightings of a large mass of aircraft 64 kilometers north of the island were dismissed by the commanding officer at 7:02 AM as a 'probable' flight of B-17s from the United States west coast. These events, left utterly unacknowledged, led up to one of the great military defeats in United States history. At 6:00 AM, the 2 500 foot anti-torpedo gate that guarded the entrance to Pearl Harbor was opened in a customary morning maneuver unknowingly welcoming the attack. Three hundred and sixty Japanese planes broke through the clouds above Pearl Harbor at 7:55 AM. The planes attacked in rows of two or three, dropping torpedoes at 100 knots from 70 feet. The first wave of planes destroyed United States hangers and the planes in the neat, anti-sabotage rows. Other attacks in the first wave were on 'Battleship Row', cruisers and other auxiliary ships. Most ships had numerous torpedo hits. To complete the destruction of the war ships, six submarines aided in the sinking and destroying of what was not already certain. When torpedoing planes left the vicinity, bombers carrying 1 600-pound bombs were sent to destroy any remaining ships.

Overlapping the first wave of attack at 8:40 AM was a second one. They concentrated on the not yet fully destroyed