On Sunday, December 7, 1941 the Japanese Navy attacked Pearl Harbor by surprise and brought the United States of America into World War II. The events leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor started a decade earlier. In 1931 Japan conquered Manchuria, which until then was part of China. Japan marched to expand its empire and in 1937 began the campaign to conquer China. The United States had political and economical interest in China and East Asia, as a response we sent financial aid to China and started strengthening its military power in the Pacific. In September of 1940 Hitler created the Tripartite Pact, mutual military assistance between Japan, Germany, and Italy (already allied with Germany since the 1939 “Pact of Steel”). These three nations formed what would become known as the Axis 1. By July of 1941 peace talks were breaking down and the western powers responded by placing an embargo on shipments of oil and other raw material to Japan. A country that was poor in natural resources, America supplied 80% of Japan’s oil. The Japanese government viewed the embargo as a threat to the survival of the nation. Japan responded by seizing the resource-rich territories of Southeast Asia, a move they thought would certainly lead to war with the United States. Within that year Japan occupied all of Indochina. War with Japan was becoming inevitable. Eighteen months earlier Franklin D. Roosevelt as a deterrent transferred the United States Pacific fleet to Pearl Harbor.
Knowing the threat that the Pacific Fleet posed to Japan, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, commander of the Japanese fleet, developed a plan for a surprise attack to immobilize the US Navy before the start of war.
Admiral Yamamoto’s plan would require great aerial power, planning and training, and most importantly surprise. Admiral Yamamoto would put together one of the most powerful Attack Forces ever assembled. Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo would command the task force assigned to attack Pearl Harbor. This attack force would consist of 6 aircraft carriers with over 420 planes supported by a group of fast battleships, cruisers, destroyers, as well as tankers to fuel the ships on the journey. A separate group of an Advance Expeditionary Force of large submarines was sent ahead to scout Hawaii and sink any American warships that escaped the carrier force. In the spring of 1941 Admiral Yamamoto began training for the special tactics that would be used in the attack. That same year in October the naval general staff gave final approval for Yamamoto’s plan.
The Attack on Pearl Harbor
November 26, 1941
Vice Admiral Nagumo’s fleet under the greatest secrecy departed Tankran Bay in the Kurile Islands for Pearl Harbor. By dawn of December 7 Vice Admiral Nagumo and the Japanese attack force were 200 miles north of Oahu.
December 7, 1941
3:42 am
On patrol less then 2 miles from the entrance of Pearl Harbor, the U.S. Minesweeper Condor spots something in the water. Fifty yards off the port bow the officer of the deck spots a periscope from a sub.
The Condor sends a blinker message to the destroyer Ward “Sighted submerged submarine on westerly course, speed 9 knots2.
6:00 am
Commander Mitsuo Fuchida leads the Japanese air attack and at 6:00 am a first attack wave heads south to Pearl Harbor. The first attack wave is of over 180 aircraft, including torpedo planes, high-level bombers, dive-bombers and fighters. By using a Honolulu radio station’s music as a guiding beam, Japanese pilots reconfirm their navigation. When the first attack group had taken off, a second attack wave of similar size, but with more dive bombers and no torpedo planes, was brought up from the carriers’ hangar decks and sent off into the emerging morning light. Near Oahu’s southern shore 2.
(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});
from Kauai i Hawaii Travel Tips http://ift.tt/1wnnQGG
via Website Design Hawaii #hawaiiwedding
No comments:
Post a Comment