“A Date Which Will Live in Infamy”: FDR Asks
for a Declaration of War. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on
December 7, 1941, stunned virtually everyone in the United States military.
Japan's carrier-launched bombers found Pearl Harbor totally unprepared.
Japan intended the attack as a preventive
action to keep the U.S. Pacific Fleet from interfering with military actions
the Empire of Japan planned in Southeast Asia against overseas territories of
the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and the United States. There were
near-simultaneous Japanese attacks on the U.S.-held Philippines, Guam and Wake
Island and on the British Empire in Malaya, Singapore, and Hong Kong. The
attacks - from troop landings at Kota Bharu, Malaya, to the air attacks ranging
geographically from Hong Kong to Pearl Harbor - took place over seven hours.
The attack began at 7:48 a.m. local Hawaiian
Time. The base was attacked by 353 Japanese fighter planes, bombers, and
torpedo planes in two waves, launched from six aircraft carriers. All eight
U.S. Navy battleships were damaged, with four sunk. All but Arizona were later
raised, and six were returned to service and went on to fight in the war. The
Japanese also sank or damaged three cruisers, three destroyers, an
anti-aircraft training ship, and one minelayer. 188 U.S. aircraft were
destroyed; 2,403 Americans were killed and 1,178 others were wounded. Important
base installations such as the power station, shipyard, maintenance, and fuel
and torpedo storage facilities, as well as the submarine piers and headquarters
building (also home of the intelligence section) were not attacked. Japanese
losses were light: 29 aircraft and five midget submarines lost, and 64
servicemen killed. One Japanese sailor, Kazuo Sakamaki, was captured.
The attack came as a profound shock to the
American people and led directly to the American entry into World War II in
both the Pacific and European theaters. The following day, December 8, the
United States declared war on Japan. Domestic support for non-interventionism,
which had been fading since the German attack on France in 1940, disappeared.
Clandestine support of the United Kingdom (e.g., the Neutrality Patrol) was
replaced by active alliance. Subsequent operations by the U.S. prompted Germany
and Italy to declare war on the U.S. on December 11, which was reciprocated by
the U.S. the same day.
There were numerous historical precedents for
unannounced military action by Japan. However, the lack of any formal warning,
particularly while negotiations were still apparently ongoing, led President
Franklin D. Roosevelt to proclaim December 7, 1941, "a date which will
live in infamy". Because the attack happened without a declaration of war
and without explicit warning, the attack on Pearl Harbor was judged by the
Tokyo Trials to be a war crime.
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