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Today marks a solemn anniversary for the United States. Though few remain today who remember the events as they unfolded, it is important that our collective memory as a nation never forgets what happened on a beautiful Sunday morning more than 80 years ago.
Yesterday, December 7, 1941, a date which will live in infamy, the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.
Those words, spoken by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, resonate through the years. They served as the prelude to the official entry of the United States into World War II after the surprise attack by Japanese forces at the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
Japanese Imperial Ambitions
The Empire of Japan had grown ever more militaristic and expansionist in the decades preceding World War II. The Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05 proved they could stand up to the European nations which had long dominated the world stage. The following years would see Japan annex Korea and Manchuria before turning its sight towards China and the many islands of the greater Pacific region.
In order to fuel its imperial ambitions, however, Japan needed raw materials that the home islands sorely lacked, such as iron, rubber, and oil. These resources were in abundance in what is now modern Indonesia and Malaysia, but there was a looming concern: Southeast Asia was heavily colonized by the Netherlands, Great Britain, France, and the United States. The former three were already heavily entangled in the European theater of conflict, but should the U.S. enter the war, its presence in the Philippines presented a potential threat to Japan’s shipping lines.
The Japanese leadership decided that war with the U.S. was inevitable, and that the only way for Japan to win would be to destroy the Americans’ will to fight. Their target was the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, which served as the headquarters for the American Pacific fleet, in order to cause as much damage as possible with a single strike.
Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, who had spent time in the United States first as a college student at Harvard and then as a naval attaché in Washington, D.C., was chosen to mastermind the attack. He had misgivings, however, and offered the following warning about what would happen in a war with America: “We can run wild for six months or maybe a year, but after that, I have utterly no confidence.”
Awakening the Sleeping Giant
At first glance, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor seemed a great success: twenty-one American ships were lost or damaged, including four battleships sunk, most notably the USS Arizona, which exploded with a loss of 1,177 of its officers and crewmen and damaging ships moored near her. In total, 2,335 Americans servicemen were killed and 1,143 wounded, to the Japanese’s 64.
But for all that, the attack failed to achieve its primary objective: to break the American spirit. If anything, it galvanized Americans as never before and united them in their the desire for revenge. Neutral no more, the United States threw itself into World War II with a passion.
Not only that, but the material damage done at Pearl Harbor wasn’t as crippling as one might think. All but two of the ships lost in the attack were eventually repaired and returned to service, aided by the fact that the Japanese failed to destroy the repair yards and drydocks. The Japanese also ignored the oil fields that fueled the fleet, as well as the submarine pens and the old headquarters building that housed the Naval Intelligence service. Critically, the American aircraft carriers were also away from Pearl Harbor at the time of the attack. In the end, it was naval air power, submarine warfare, and military intelligence – not the big guns of the battleships – that would decide the course of the war in the Pacific.
Japanese Admiral Hara Tadaichi described the outcome thusly: “We won a great tactical victory at Pearl Harbor and thereby lost the war.”
Almost exactly six months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese were decisively defeated at the Battle of Midway in June of 1942. Though many more battles and campaigns followed until the Japanese surrender in 1945, Yamamoto’s earlier words had proved to be prophetic, as they were never able to regain the offensive momentum in the Pacific after Midway.
Afterword
For most of us today, the attack on Pearl Harbor is only a story, something you read about in history class or perhaps see in a movie. As those of that generation grow ever fewer with each passing day, their stories will gradually be forgotten unless we keep them alive.
Stories like that of Doris Miller, a cook who served on the battleship West Virginia; after helping wounded comrades, he shot down 4-6 Japanese planes until he ran out of ammunition. He then continued to help injured sailors as best he could until the ship sank. He was awarded the Navy Cross for his heroism.
Or USS Vestal, a repair ship that was moored alongside USS Arizona when the attack started. Despite being lightly armed, the ship and her crew fought with every gun they had, despite being struck with two bombs meant for Arizona. When Arizona exploded, some of Vestal‘s crew were blown overboard, including her commanding officer, Commander Cassin Young. Commander Young swam back to Vestal and countermanded an order to abandon ship. Despite a six and a half degree list, hull damage, and fires caused by the destruction of the Arizona, her crew used axes to cut away her mooring lines. With the help of the naval tug Hoga, whose captain had served on Vestal only a few months prior, the repair ship managed to get underway. Due to the damage and fires, and not wanting to block the harbor, the ship was intentionally grounded. Commander Young would later receive the Medal of Honor for his actions during the battle. After the battle, Vestal‘s crew worked diligently to help repair their own ship because the repair yards were busy with many other damaged vessels. Vestal would later serve with distinction in the Pacific theater, receiving a Presidential Unit Citation for 75 Seabees who remained aboard to repair USS Enterprise even while she went into battle during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal.
December 7 should not be just a date on a calendar. Fly your American flags with pride today and tell the stories that deserve to be remembered.
Featured Photo: The wreck of USS Utah in the waters off the western side of Ford Island, Pearl Harbor, on the tenth anniversary of the Japanese attack that sank her. At right is a memorial plaque giving historical information on her loss. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives, catalog #: 80-G-436649.
