The Attack on Pearl Harbor
Military intelligence in Washington, D.C., had intercepted a series of memoranda from Tokyo indicating that the Japanese were planning some kind of aggressive action. The messages were delivered to President Roosevelt that evening, but he took no action. He believed that war with Japan was imminent but that the Japanese would never attack American soil, preferring instead to push farther into Asia.
On the morning of December 7, what was thought to be the last of the fourteen communiqués from Tokyo was intercepted and decoded. It noted that Japan was breaking off all negotiations with the United States. The message was delivered to President Roosevelt at 10:00
An astute naval officer immediately understood the significance of Japan's timing and arranged to have General George Marshall, who had been enjoying a horseback ride along the Potomac, brought to the War Department for consultation. Marshall also understood the significance of the final Japanese memorandum, but his message of warning to Pearl Harbor could not be delivered immediately because the department was not in radio contact with Honolulu. Instead, the message went by commercial wire and radio and was not received until 7:33
All Hell Breaks Loose
The first wave of Japanese bombers and attack planes consisted of forty torpedo bombers (known as Kates), fifty-one Val dive-bombers, and approximately forty-nine high-level bombers escorted by forty-three Zero fighters. The torpedo bombers came in low to drop their destructive torpedoes while the Vals dropped bombs and armor-piercing shells on the docked ships below. At the same time, the Zeroes dropped bombs on American planes in the airfields, a move designed to thwart saboteurs; no thought had been given to an enemy air attack.
The massive ships along Battleship Row never stood a chance. The first to go down was the Oklahoma, its hull ripped open by three torpedoes, and the deathblow delivered by two more. Panicked sailors screamed for their lives as the ship exploded and began to sink. The crew of the Maryland, which was moored next to the Oklahoma, used the smoke and burning wreckage of their sister ship as protection while they fought the surprise attackers with everything they could find. Astoundingly, the Maryland survived the two bombs that struck it.
Figure 3-1 The USS Shaw exploding during the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Photo courtesy of the National Archives (80-G-16871)
While Japanese planes screamed overhead and bombs exploded all around, the sailors on the ships along Battleship Row used axes and hammers to open the locked boxes containing the ammunition they needed to fight back. With the first explosions ringing over the island, sailors on shore leave raced back to their ships, even swimming when necessary.
The other moored battleships, unable to maneuver, also proved easy targets for the attacking Japanese planes. The West Virginia went down after being hit with two bombs and several torpedoes; its hulk provided protection for the Tennessee, which escaped most of the torpedoes aimed at it but was set afire by flaming debris from the Arizona moored behind it. The Arizona was hit so hard by the Japanese that it sank in minutes, taking more than 1,100 crewmen with it, including Rear Admiral Isaac C. Kidd, commander of Battleship Division One, and the ship's commanding officer, Captain Franklin Van Valkenburgh. The California, which was moored alone, exploded in a fireball that reached 500 feet into the sky when a bomb struck its arsenal.
The only battleship to attempt to get out to sea was the Nevada, which was also moored alone. Its frantic crew engaged in a grueling battle with Japanese planes before finally being forced aground. The crew of the Pennsylvania, which was in dry dock at the time, fought valiantly, blanketing the air with so much antiaircraft fire that the ship took only one bomb hit.
The Japanese had sent two waves of attack planes against Pearl Harbor (a third wave was waiting and ready but was not called into action), intent on inflicting as much damage as possible in the hope of permanently crippling the American military presence in the Pacific. By midmorning, as the last Japanese planes headed back to Admiral Chuichi Nagumo's carrier fleet, four U.S. battleships had been sunk and four had been severely damaged. In addition, three light cruisers, three destroyers, and four smaller vessels were also destroyed or severely damaged. All but three of the sunken ships were raised and returned to action. The military decided to leave the Arizona where it went down and later turned the site into a solemn memorial to the military personnel and civilians who died during the assault.
Land Targets
The nearby airfields also suffered tremendous damage. Dozens of planes, parked wingtip to wingtip, made an easy and vulnerable target for Japanese bombers. In the end, only a handful of American fighters managed to make it into the air to engage the enemy attackers.
At Hickam and other area airfields, 188 aircraft — 75 percent of the island's military air fleet — had been destroyed before they could take to the air. Luckily, the fleet's three aircraft carriers — the primary target of the Japanese attack — were out to sea on maneuvers and escaped harm. Human casualties were also high: 2,403 servicemen and civilians killed and another 1,104 wounded. Most of the casualties were aboard the destroyed ships, though a direct hit on the mess hall at Hickam Field killed 35.
American forces did manage to inflict some damage on the attacking Japanese, downing twenty-seven planes and killing sixty-four airmen and seamen. In addition, the Japanese lost five two-man midget submarines, which had been deployed to penetrate the harbor minutes before the attack.
