A Date Which Will Live In Infamy

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A Date Which Will Live In Infamy
Created By Michael Vought Pleasant Valley High
School
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Flight Deck Preparations
After weeks of preparation, at dawn on December
7th, 1941 Japanese naval pilots began
preparations for what they hoped would be a
complete surprise attack against the American
naval installation at Pearl harbor Hawaii.
Prayers were offered and the Emporer was hailed
as each pilot agreed that if the element of
surprise were achieved, a cry of Tora, Tora,
Tora! would be heard signifying that the
Americans had been caught flat-footed.
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The Carrier Akagi
The Japanese Carrier Akagi, or Red Castle, was
the pride of the Japanese navy. Over 800 feet in
length and over 30,000 tons in weight it
represented Japanese military might and
ingenuity. Armed with effective anti-aircraft
weaponry, the Akagi also boasted a carrying
capacity of over 70 aircraft and engines capable
of propelling the ship at over 30 knots. The
Akagi served as one of the primary transport
ships bringing planes and men to and from the
target.
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Flightdeck Hurrah
With their planes fueled and readied, with bombs
and torpedoes locked and loaded, the combined
forces of the Japanese Navy and Air force
throttled away from their carriers towards Pearl
Harbor Hawaii. Within hours the empire of Japan
The Land of the Rising Sun would make history
by attacking potentially the worlds mightiest
nation. If only surprise could be achieved,
perhaps the American naval forces in the Pacific
could be rendered idle, buying the Japanese vital
time in the race to solidify their strongholds
throughout Asia and the Pacific.
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Pearl Harbor
Prior to the attack, Japanese intelligence teams
had been mapping the locations of American
vessels in Pearl Harbor. As luck would have it
the American carrier fleet was on maneuvers
outside the harbor. As for rest of the fleet?
Most of them lay like sitting ducks vulnerable,
idle, under repair, in dry-doc many were
un-fueled and unprepared to depart the harbor in
an emergency. The narrow channel leading into the
harbor was a natural defense against invasion,
and unfortunately, a harrowing bottleneck if a
quick escape should prove necessary.
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The First Wave
At 6 a.m.(Hawaiian time) on December 7,1941, the
first Japanese attack fleet of 183 planes took
off from aircraft carriers 230 miles north of
Oahu. At 702 a.m., two Army operators at a radar
station on Oahu's north shore picked up Japanese
fighters approaching on radar. They contacted a
junior officer who disregarded their sighting,
thinking that it was B-17 bombers from the United
States west coast. The first Japanese bomb was
dropped at 755 a.m. on Wheeler Field, eight
miles from Pearl Harbor. The crews at Pearl
Harbor were on the decks of their ships for
morning colors and the singing of The
Star-Spangled Banner. Even though the band was
interrupted in their song by Japanese planes
gunfire, the crews did not move until the last
note was sung. The telegraph from Washington had
been too late. It arrived at headquarters in Oahu
around noon (Hawaiian time), four long hours
after the first bombs were dropped.
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The Military is Notified
There were peace talks occurring up until about
November 27, 1941. At that time, negotiations had
come to a halt. The United States put its troops
on alert. On December 6, 1941, President
Roosevelt made an appeal for peace to the Emperor
of Japan. Not until late that day did the U.S.
decode thirteen parts of a fourteen part message
that presented the possibility of a Japanese
attack. The telegraph from Washington had been
too late. It arrived at headquarters in Oahu
around noon (Hawaiian time), four long hours
after the first bombs were dropped.
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Devastating Efficiency
The Japanese had caught the Americans at such a
disadvantage that it would precious hours before
any kind of defense could be mounted.
Anti-aircraft fire was dispensed from those
destroyers still capable of providing fire,
however, so great was the efficiency with which
the Japanese attacked that no amount of
resistance on the part of the Americans would be
sufficient. The Japanese had won a clear-cut
tactical victory!
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A Navy in Ruins
Of the approximately 100 U.S. Navy ships present
in the harbor that day, eight battleships were
damaged with five sunk. Eleven smaller ships
including cruisers and destroyers were also badly
damaged. Among those killed were 2,335 servicemen
and 68 civilians. The wounded included 1,178
people. The U.S.S. Arizona was dealt the worst
blow of the attack. A 1,760 pound bomb struck it,
and the ammunition on board exploded killing
1,177 servicemen. Today, there is a memorial
spanning the sunken remains of the Arizona
dedicated to the memory of all those lost in the
bombing.
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2nd Wave Air Defenses
In vain the military personnel at Pearl tried to
their ships, their harbor, their very lives.
Anti-aircraft fire suppressed the late morning
raids, but by then the bulk of the damage had
already been done. American air defenses shot
down fewer than 30 planes. Had a greater number
of ships been moored in the harbor, the Japanese
military might have scored one of most dramatic
military defeats in the history of warfare.
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Battleships Burning
The devastation was enormous! If not for the
quick thinking and heroism of many in the United
States Navy, the entire fleet might have been
destroyed. I made my way to the quay and started
to remove my shoes when I suddenly found myself
in the water. I think the concussion of a bomb
threw me in. I started swimming for the pipe line
which was about one hundred and fifty feet away.
I was about half way when my strength gave out
entirely. My clothes and shocked condition
sapped my strength, and I was about to go under
when Major Shapley started to swim by, and seeing
my distress, grasped my shirt and told me to hang
to his shoulders while he swam in. Corporal E.C.
Nightingale
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The Story Breaks!
By now, it had become evident that the United
States need to regroup and even rebuild what was
left of its shattered Pacific fleet. News of the
attack was a shock to the entire nation. The
bombing rallied the United States behind the
President in declaring war on Japan. On December
11, Germany and Italy declared war on the U.S.,
bringing about a global conflict. The United
States would later drop two atomic bombs on the
Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki,
bringing Japan to complete surrender on August
14, 1945.
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Unconditional Surrender
Aboard the Battleship Missouri, General Douglas
McArthur in August of 1945, accepted the issuance
of peace as asked for by the Japanese people.
Under one condition, that the Japanese be allowed
to retain their Emperor, were the Japanese faced
with ultimate ruin. Four long, bloody years of
war in the Pacific had come to an end.