Pearl Harbor
December 7th, 1941 – “A Day That Will Live In Infamy”
Think of it, you are relaxing on a Sunday afternoon in early December. You decide to listen to the football game on the radio.
Family listening to radio
Picture taken at the game on December 7th, 1941 between the Washington Redskins and Philadelphia Eagles
You are having fun listening and then you hear this.:
What do you think??? Why did the Japanese do that? Where is Pearl Harbor? What does it mean for the country? What does it mean for me, my brother, my father? How will ALL my family be affected?
Where Did It Happen?
See japan on the left, and the U.S. on the right
WHY Did It Happen???
The strike was intended to hurt the U.S. Pacific Fleet (U.S. Navy In The Pacific Ocean). This would allow Japan to continue to conquer more territory as they went looking for natural resources such as oil and rubber in Malaya and the Netherlands East Indies.
Notice the highlighting to locate of both Malaya and Netherlands East Indies. Japan could get natural resources there they did not have on their own islands.
Japan felt they needed to attack us because we were starting to tell them to stop expanding and conquering their neighbors for selfish reasons. In fact we had stopped sending them materials they needed to keep making weapons. What made Japan the most angry with the U.S. was that after the Japanese had moved into the nearby country of French Indochina (Modern day Vietnam), the U.S. stopped sending oil to Japan in the Summer of 1941. THAT was when Japan started developing final plans to attack.
They felt that if they could hurt our Navy at Pearl Harbor enough then we would not have the power to stop them from expanding.
WHEN and HOW did It Happen???
The U.S. Navy ships the Japanese were attacking were kept at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. Hawaii is a series of Islands, so the attack had to be made by Japanese navy ships. The distance was 3,901 miles, so they had to start out WAY ahead of time. In fact they left Japan November 26th, 1941.
In the mean time, their government people were in Washington D.C. bargaining for a deal so the two countries could get along. This had been going on for a long time, and they had decided they could not come to an agreement with the U.S., but they had decided to not tell the them right away so they could continue preparing their attack. The morning of December 7th, 1941 they were finally delivering a message to the U.S. about their desire to stop bargaining with the U.S. Government. However, this message said NOTHING about them going to war against us.
The Japanese government people are on the left and right of the U.S. government man they had been talking to. This picture was taken AFTER they had talked on December 7th, and AFTER the U.S. was aware the attack had started. Look at the expression on the face of the man in the middle. What do you think he was thinking at that moment?
The problem for them was that even this message was delivered after the attacks had started. That means it was considered a sneak attack, which made EVERYONE in the U.S very angry, and MUCH more likely to agree to go to war and do anything necessary to win.
The Attack
Both of these movie clips are from the same movie, and use some of the same scenes, but are not exactly the same. One starts earlier, and the other goes longer into the movie. You should watch both of them so you get the fullest view of the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Clip #2
It started at 6:53 a.m. in Hawaii on a Sunday morning, December 7th, 1941. People were sleeping. People were going to church. People were doing assigned jobs. People were relaxed because we were NOT at war.
This clip shows something that actually happened. An African American cook, Dorrie Miller, had been only allowed to work as a cook due to the discrimination of the time. however, when tit was needed, he got on this weapon, twin- 50 caliber machine guns, and shot down at least one Japanese plane.
The main targets of the Japanese were the U.S. Air Craft Carriers. Their names were: USS Lexington , the USS Enterprise, and USS Saratoga. The reason these were the main target was that they could carry their airplanes anywhere and launch them against the Japanese. However, NONE of them were at home in Pearl Harbor for the Japanese to hit.
U.S.S. Lexington with planes on deck
Instead the Japanese started attacking everything else. They attacked the Battleships.
You can see the white splash of the 1st Japanese bomb hitting a U.S. Ship
They attacked smaller ships called Destroyers.
Bigger Ships on Fire that had been hit
They even attacked the air base where some of the larger planes were kept. There were even bombs dropped on the Hospital by Japanese planes.
Some of the Sailors who could not be identified after being killed that morning were buried here
The Result:
The U.S. people wanted Japan to pay for what they had done, and not with money.
The Japanese surprise attack was the single biggest thing that changed the minds of people in the United States. They moved quickly from ISSOLATIONISM (REMEMBER WHAT THIS MEANS???) to direct involvement.
- We declared war on Japan on December 8th, , 1941 Listen to this first video to hear how President Roosevelt was greeted. when he starts speaking stop this one and move to the next.
This one lets you better hear him speaking, and see movement.
- See some of the words you just heard him say:
- Yesterday, December 7th, 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.
The United States was at peace with that nation and, at the request of Japan, was still in conversation with its government and its emperor looking toward tkeeping peace in the Pacific.
Indeed, one hour after Japanese air squadrons had commenced bombing in the American island of Oahu, the Japanese ambassador to the United States and his colleague delivered to our Secretary of State a formal reply to a recent American message. And while this reply stated that it seemed useless to continue the existing diplomatic negotiations, it contained no threat or hint of war or of armed attack. - Japan declared war on the U.S. officially on December 8th (Don’t you think they did it with the first bomb dropped on December 7th???).
- Germany declared war on the U.S. on December 11th, 1941.
- The U.S. declared war on Germany and Italy on December 11th, 1941.
Four years later between 62 to 78 million people would be dead who were alive when the war started in 1939. 418,500 of them were U.S service people who had given their lives (died) fighting for freedom. In comparison, the Soviet Union had 26,954,000 men and women, both civilians and military (army) killed.
