Editor’s Note: Today marks the 75th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor.
The first Zero fighters approached the northern tip of Oahu at 7:48 a.m. as a command bomber flew overhead, preparing to give the signal to attack. Those in the bomber were tuned in to a Honolulu radio station and listening to the haunting strains of a Japanese song that was being played.
The waters of Pearl Harbor were glimmering a bright blue as the sun rose, and, though several civilian planes were lazily circling the harbor, not one single Oahu-based U.S. Army plane was off the ground. They were bunched together, wing to wing, at Hickam, Wheeler, and Bellows Fields in an attempt to shield them from saboteurs rumored to be on the islands. The Marine planes were in the same positions at their airfield at Ewa. The harbor’s antiaircraft defenses were also off guard, as most of the anti-aircraft guns on the various ships were unmanned, and only four of the Army’s 31 anti-aircraft batteries were in place, and those were all without ready ammunition. It had been stored away for safety considerations.
This large flight of planes approaching the island did not go undetected. U.S. soldiers manning an Army radar station at Opana reported a group of aircraft speeding toward Oahu, but the officers to whom these reports were relayed did not consider them significant. They believed the planes to be a flight of B-17 bombers expected that day from the mainland. There were also other clues that something was amiss. Earlier that morning, the Navy destroyer U.S.S. Ward had attacked and reportedly sunk an unidentified submarine approaching the entrance to the harbor, and an urgent message from Washington alerting the Pacific Command to a possible attack was sent by telegraph rather than real time radio traffic, delaying the alert by precious hours. The warnings all went unheeded.
At 7:53 a.m., after viewing the harbor and seeing no activity, the observer on the Japanese bomber radioed the code words “Tora Tora Tora” to fleet commander Admiral Nagumo and dropped a blue flare that signaled the Americans were completely surprised and that the attack could proceed. A second blue flare was also dropped due to a mixup. Torpedo bombers fanned out into formation looking for targets in Pearl Harbor while dive bombers and fighters, some confused by the second blue flare, headed to Hickam and other airfields to attack American planes parked in neat rows on the tarmac. Not a single fighter rose to meet the Japanese planes. The attack was a complete success.
There were seven battleships anchored together in two rows, five on the inside and two on the outside, on the southeastern side of Ford Island in Pearl Harbor. Another battleship, the U.S.S. Pennsylvania, was in dry dock. A line of enemy planes approached the island, launched their torpedoes and sped away. After a short pause there was a massive explosion, and the U.S.S. Oklahoma shuddered.
The next wave of planes hit the battleship West Virginia, and soon thereafter bombers joined in the attack, dropping 2,000-pound bombs into the melee on Battleship Row, setting off a massive explosion in the Oklahoma.
Not far away, five bombs found the battleship Arizona, one landing in the fuel storage area and starting a fire. Some 1,600 pounds of black powder, some of the most volatile and dangerous of all explosives, was stored nearby. Without any warning the black powder exploded, setting off hundreds of tons of smokeless powder in the forward magazine of the ship. Witnesses reported that the ship went up like a volcano, erupting fire as it leaped halfway out of the water and broke into two pieces. It didn’t seem possible that a single one of the 1,512 men aboard could have survived, but 335 were spared.
Men were leaping off ships into the water all along Battleship Row and attempting to swim the short distance to Ford Island. However, the water was covered with a thick layer of oil, six inches deep in some places, which made swimming difficult. When that oil inevitably burst into flame, most of the men in the water never made it to safety but died a horrid death.
At 8:55 a.m another wave of 170 Japanese planes approached Ford Island. Every battleship was either sunk or on fire, though the U.S.S. Nevada had been able to get under way, slowly moving past the toppled Oklahoma in an attempt to reach open sea. Six bombs staggered the Nevada, but with the help of two tugboats, she was beached near a dry dock that was being used for the U.S.S. Pennsylvania. Not a single Navy or Marine fighter, and just 30 or so Army Air Corp fighters, ever made it into the air to confront the attackers. The Army fighter pilots had some success as they shot down eleven enemy planes.
Eighteen ships, including all eight battleships, were sunk or badly damaged. A total of 188 planes were destroyed, 159 damaged, and 2,403 Americans were killed in the attack. It was a disaster and a national tragedy, but not the catastrophe it could have been. All three aircraft carriers stationed at Pearl, the main target of the attack, were at sea and thus spared. Most of the ships that were heavily damaged or sunk eventually returned to battle. The enemy neglected to target the oil storage tanks and submarine pens, which later provided needed infrastructure for the U.S. fleet when it went on the attack.
The reasons for the debacle would be debated for many years following the attack. In a nutshell, U.S. leaders either didn’t think the Japanese had the ability to conduct such an attack, or thought an attack would occur elsewhere. Few thought the Japanese would be “stupid enough” to attack Pearl Harbor. Though given many hints and possible scenarios for just such an attack, military and political leaders refused to believe it possible. In reality, all Americans bore some responsibility for the attack due to their refusal to accept a world torn from its moorings by World War I and the realignment of powers that inevitably occurred. The world had changed.
At 1:00 p.m. the next day, President Roosevelt went before the assembled Congress of the United States and spoke, “Yesterday, December 7, 1941 — a date that will live in infamy — the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan … ” The speech, interrupted numerous times by bursts of applause, continued on for some minutes before the president concluded, “I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack on Sunday, December 7, 1941, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese Empire.”
A thunder of applause met him as he left the dais and, for the first time since he had become president, people of every political conviction spoke in one voice. Partisan politics was gone. America had declared complete and total war.