THE ATTACK AT PEARL HARBOR

THE TRAGEDY THAT TOOK PLACE IN LESS

THAN THREE HOURS...

BRIEF SUMMARY• The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941. The attack was intended as a preventive action in order to keep the U.S. Pacific Fleet from interfering with military actions the Empire of Japan was planning in Southeast Asia against overseas territories of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and the United States.• The base was attacked by 353 Japanese aircraft in two waves, launched from six aircraft carriers. Four U.S. Navy battleships were sunk and the four other battleships present were damaged. The Japanese also sank or damaged three cruisers, three destroyers, an anti-aircraft training ship, and one minelayer. 188 U.S. aircraft were destroyed; 2,402 men were killed and 1,282 wounded. Japanese losses were light, with 29 aircraft and five midget submarines lost, and 65 servicemen killed or wounded. One Japanese sailor was captured.• The attack came as a HUGE shock to the American people and led directly to the United States entry into World War II in both the Pacific and European theaters. The following day the United States declared war on Japan. Domestic support for isolationism, which had been strong, disappeared.• President Franklin D. Roosevelt preached how the attack on Pearl Harbor was "a date which will live in infamy".

The Kamikaze •The Kamikaze was a special Japanse fleet that attacked the Americans on December 7, 1941 •The Kamikaze were suicide attacks by military aviators from the Empire of Japan, designed to destroy as many warships as possible.•These warriors were known to be insane, other people would call it heroric. The Kamikazi wouldn't come home until their job was complete meaning most of the missions were suicidal, they killed themselves for the pride of their countries.•The Kamikaze was the main factor of how Pearl Harbor was destroyed on December 7.

Events that lead to the Tragedy

At 7:58 A.M., the alarm went out: "Air raid, Pearl Harbor. This is not drill!" Later that morning, the magazine of the USS Shaw

exploded after being struck by a Japanese bomb.

One hundred and eighty-three aircraft took part in the first wave of the Japanese attack: "It was like the sky was filled with fireflies," bomber pilot Abe Zenji explained. "It was

the most beautiful thing I had ever seen."

This is a picture of the wreckage at Pearl Harbor's Naval Air Station after the attack, in which 347 U.S. planes were

destroyed or damaged.

By 9:40 flames on the West Virginia had reached as high as the foretop. The fires were not put out until

4:30 that afternoon. As you can see in this picture.

In these posters you can see that the mass destruction by the surprise attack (2,403 killed, another 1,178 wounded) left Americans determined to enter the war against Japan

A picture of the The USS Oklahoma... "You did a little praying and thinking things," said Seaman Garlen W.

Eslick, a victim trapped aboard this ship. "We could hear the boys, some of them, in this one compartment next to us, and they were hollering for help for a good long time. There wasn't anything we could do about it, and then they

became quiet. They evidently drowned." A terrifying expierence that overwelmed many navymen.

FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT

As Americans were struck with pain, anger and fear from the attacks on Pearl Harbor, the nations president Franklin D.

Rooselvelt made a compelling speach the day after the attacks. This speach drove Americans from depression to determination

and in August 1945 atomic bombs Hiroshima and Nagasaki were deploied by the Americans on Japan. This was a knock out punch to

Japan causing them to surrender and end the war in the Pacific.

A Presentation By Chris Mckay