Abstract

“Yesterday, December 7, 1941—a date which will live in infamy” this quote was said by

Franklin D. Roosevelt, the thirty second president of the United States after the bombing at Pearl

Harbor. That attack was one of the most horrible massacres in the history of America. Soldiers

were attacked from all over the harbor. They were attacked on an unexpected Sunday morning.

The United States had no idea it was coming. After the attack president Roosevelt created a pay

back plan, which then leads to the bombing of Hiroshima in Japan. Many soldiers were killed on

both the United States and Japanese side. Pearl Harbor was one of the most tragic incidents in the

history of America, killing thousands of soldiers which then caused America to attack

Hiroshima.

On a Sunday morning over 43,000 soldiers stationed to sleep in because they were up all

night celebrating the night before. So this meant that the attack on Pearl Harbor was for sure a

sneak attack.

When Japans bombing fleet was noticed on the radar about thirty miles out, the

commanding officer thought it was just a flock of birds. 7:55AM, 7:55AM was the exact time the

bombing at Pearl Harbor started (Hasenauer). By this time all of the soldiers were fast asleep

with not one little bit of a clue of what was about to happen. For the next two hours, these

soldiers were about to witness hell before their very own eyes.
 Japan’s main targets were the ships with the most soldiers which in this case meant the

USS ARIZONA and the USS OKLAHOMA. Both ships were hit in its magazines by a 1,600-

pound armor- piercing bomb (Hasenauer). The USS ARIZONA exploded and sank within nine

minutes. During the sinking all 1,177 men aboard were going insane and were all afraid because

not one soldier knew what to do, they were all so shocked and couldn’t believe what was

happening. The USS OKLAHOMA also sank entombing over four hundred men (Hasenauer).

But the catastrophe was not yet over. At the U.S. pacific fleeter Pearl Harbor, some planes even

attacked the army garrison at scho field barracks, which was the headquarters of the 24th infailtry

(Hasenauer). And they also attacked Hickam, Wheeler, Ewa, and Bellow fields. so not only did

Japan attack Pearl Harbor but also all of the people around it.

“The Japanese struck the flight line and hanger areas at Wheeler and in between the two

hangers where a tent city was filled with people” this was said by a Hickam air force base

historian. She also said that “while the fighter stayed 15,000 feet, the dive bombers split and

attacked from the east and west. As soon as the fighters saw that they had taken then base by

surprise they joined the dive bombers in high-speed, low level strafing runs”. 33 Americans

didn’t survive at Wheeler, 75 were hurt and 40 fighter planes were destroyed (Hasenauer).

Shortly after the first bombs fell at Wheeler, 2LTs Ken Taylor and George Welch radioed

Haleiwa Field, 10 miles to the north, to learn that the field had not yet been attacked. They raced

Taylor’s Buick from Wheeler to Haleiwa, jumped into their P-40 fighter planes and together shot

down six Japanese fighter planes. Welch got four and Taylor got two (Hasenauer).
 At around the same time this was going on, 50 dive bombers and fighter planes attacked

the Hawaiian air depots engineering building and the parking ramps, where A-20, B-17 and B-18

bombers were sitting ducks, parked wing tip to wing tip as a precaution against potential

saboteurs among the islands 160,000 inhabitants of Japanese ancestry (Hasenauer).

By the second wave, an hour after the first one, gun emplacements were set up

everywhere. There were soldiers at Hickam lunging machine guns on the top of roofs of hangers,

others climbed into a parked B-18, mounted a .30 cal machine gun in the nose and kept firing at

the enemy aircraft until the planes were consumed by the fire (Hasenauer).

About 169 Japanese fighters and bombers attacked Pearl Harbor, the air fields and

stations. At Hickam, Wheeler, and Bellows, 240 soldiers died and some 450 were wounded.

Thirty nine civilians died at Hickam, and in downtown Honolulu 68 civilians were killed and 35

were wounded. Altogether, 2,403 U.S. service members were killed, 1,178 were wounded, 188

aircrafts were destroyed and 151 were damaged (Hasenauer).

The Japanese only lost 64 men, 5 torpedo bombers, 15 dive bombers, nine fighter planes

and all five of their midget submarines that was supposed to sneak into Pearl Harbor and help

take out the fleet before going back home(Hasenauer). None of the submarines did what they had

to do but, a sub commander washed up on shore and was captured by the Americans and held

him prisoner. The Americans also caught another prisoner was a pilot of a damaged aircraft who

crashed landed on one of the Hawaiian islands.

 Soon after round two was over and the skies were starting to clear up, Hawaii’s territorial

governor, with the approval of the president Franklin D. Roosevelt and short, declared martial

law. Because of this, general orders regulated everything. There were blackouts, curfews, food

and gas rationing, and news and mail censorship (Hasenauer). By December, civilians and

military dependents had been evacuated to the mainland. Hawaiians fled to their fields and

farmlands, even bomb shelters were put all over the island. It took a while for the Army’s

strength in Hawaii increased from 43,000 to 250,000 soldiers in only 4 years.

After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, the Unites States retaliation was to drop atomic

bombs on Hiroshima and other cities in Japan. After that many people died that day from the

bombing itself. But 5 years later people were still dying and 10 years later due to the radiation

that was left over by the bombs. So people were not just destroyed that day but also their

children’s lives afterwards because pregnant women were also infected by the radiation. So this

meant that the radiation kept killing people years after the bombing took place.

In conclusion, President Franklin D. Roosevelt was right when he said that December 7,

1941 was a day that would live in infamy, because that day is truly remembered and will never

be forgotten. Many lives were lost on both The United States and the Japanese sides.
 Works Cited

Potts, Mark. “A respectful stillness at Pearl Harbor.”Copyright Cowels Enthusiast Media.

February/ March 2009: pp. 22-24 sirsresearcher.web. 19 January 2011. www.sirs.com.

Ritter, John. “Dec. Sept. 11: years apart, forever linked”. USA today. 7 December 2001: N.P.

Sirsresearcher.web. 19 January 2011. www.sirs.com.

Kennedy, David. “New war, old lessons” Modern Maturity. January/ February 2002: N.P.

sirsresearcher.web. 19 January 2011. www.sirs.com

Garamone, Jim. “Dec. 7, 1941: sixty years after a day that changed the world.” Defense

Department. 7. December 1941: N.P. sirsresearcher.web. 19 January 2011.

www.sirs.com.

Hasenauer, Heike. “Pearl Harbor: the real attack” Defense Department. May 2001: N.P.

sirsresearcher.web. 19 January 2011. www.sirs.com.

Roosevelt, Franklin. “Franklin D. Roosevelt’s message asking for war against Japan December

8, 1941.” Sirsresearcher.web. 19 January 2011. www.sirs.com.