This Date in Aviation History: December 7, 1941

"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn) 12/07/2019 at 12:35 • Filed to: wingspan, Planelopnik, TDIAH

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December 7, 1941 – The Empire of Japan launches a surprise attack on US military bases at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

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On November 24, 1852, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! embarked from Norfolk, Virginia under orders from President Millard Fillmore to force the opening of Japanese harbors to foreign trade. If the Japanese refused, Fillmore authorized military action if necessary. When the fleet dropped anchor near modern-day Tokyo on July 8, 1853, Perry found a closed society that was entirely self sufficient. But following contact with the outside world, and the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , Japan quickly became an industrialized nation that required increasingly more natural resources to keep her factories running. By the 1870s, Japan had begun stretching its tentacles outward from its home islands with its eyes on resources they did not possess, such as coal, oil, steel, tin and rubber. By 1940, Japan’s stated goal became the creation of what they called the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , which was really nothing more than a grandiose name for a hoped-for Japanese empire that would encompass most of the western Pacific, a large part of eastern China, southeast Asia, and as far south as New Guinea. Essentially, their goals were identical to those of Germany, as they sought to create their own !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in the Pacific.

As part of Japan’s expansion, the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! began with the Japanese invasion of China in 1937. But by 1940 the Japanese advance had become bogged down. In order to continue their offensive, the Japanese needed to sever the supply lines coming into China from the South. This meant that the Philippines, Guam and Wake Island would have to be taken, as well as the British Imperial possessions of Malaya, Singapore and Hong Kong. However, in order to accomplish this, they would first need to neutralize the American Pacific fleet based in Hawaii.

Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, the architect of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Yamamoto was killed on April 8, 1943 when his transport plane was shot down by US Army pilots. (US Navy)

While many believe that the Japanese attack on December 7 was entirely unprovoked, the US had actually provided Japan with a casus belli . Since the early 1930s, America had been engaged in an increasingly stringent !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! of sanctions against Japan as a protest against Japanese military actions in Indochina. The US was also providing limited military aid to China, which the Japanese believed was hampering their efforts to defeat the Chinese. So, in some ways, it might be argued that America was forcing Japan’s hand. By 1941, with war already under way in Europe, many Americans were non-interventionist. President Franklin Roosevelt, though, was not. He was looking for an excuse to join the war in Europe. With Germany and Japan fighting as allies, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor gave Roosevelt the justification he needed to take America into the Second World War. Some historians go so far as to suggest that Roosevelt had prior knowledge of the attack but allowed it to happen anyway.

On November 26, the Japanese fleet, which included the six aircraft carriers !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , stood out from northern Japan and steamed towards Hawaii. The fleet arrived north of the islands on December 6, completely undetected by the Americans. Early on the morning of December 7, two successive waves of !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! Type 0 fighters, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! dive bombers and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! torpedo bombers launched from the Japanese carriers. The first wave of 180 aircraft approached Oahu from the northwest, where it was detected by American radar installations. However, the radar operators believed that they had spotted a formation of !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! bombers that was scheduled to arrive that morning from California. The Japanese attackers found Pearl Harbor completely open to attack, with ships moored side by side and defensive emplacements unmanned.

The Japanese commenced their attack at 7:48 am local time with the slower torpedo bombers leading the way, since they would be most vulnerable once the Americans realized they were under attack and started shooting back. The torpedo bombers headed straight for !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , while the dive bombers attacked ships and other targets on Oahu, including !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and the seaplane base at !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . The second wave, made up of 171 aircraft, arrived at 8:54 am and attacked simultaneously from three separate directions. Of the eight US battleships moored in Pearl Harbor, all were damaged and four were sunk. The attacks also sank or damaged three cruisers, three destroyers, an anti-aircraft training ship, and a minelaying ship. Attacks on the airfields destroyed 188 aircraft, including four of the B-17s that arrived from the US while the attack was underway. In all, 2,403 Americans were killed, more than half of which perished in the battleship !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! when a bomb penetrated her deck and detonated the forward magazine. Against the American casualties, the Japanese lost 55 airmen, along with nine crewmen from six midget submarines that also took part in the attack.

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the island of Oahu ranks as one of the most audacious in military history. For the navies of the world, it demonstrated that the aircraft carrier, not the battleship, was now the most potent capital ship in the modern fleet. And though the attack was judged a tactical success, it ultimately turned out to be a serious strategic blunder. The goal of keeping the Americans from interfering with Japan’s immediate plans in the Pacific was successful, but the attack fell short of its aim of destroying the American Pacific fleet, nor did it put the strategic harbor out of action. The Japanese chose not to launch a third wave, which could have done crippling damage to or destroyed vital American oil and port facilities. Those facilities that sustained damage were quickly repaired, meaning that Oahu never stopped functioning as a forward naval base as the Japanese hoped. Due to the shallow draft of the harbor, all the battleships but Arizona were raised following the attack, and six of the ships were repaired and returned to fight later in the war. The loss of older ships also hastened the modernization of the American fleet. But, most importantly, the three American aircraft carriers stationed in the Pacific— !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! —were out to sea on December 7 and escaped the attack. Had they been sunk or seriously damaged, it would likely have set back American efforts in the Pacific for a year or more.

Destroyed US Army Air Forces aircraft at Wheeler Army Airfield, about 10 miles inland on the Island of Oahu from Pearl Harbor (US Army)

Though some Japanese military commanders advocated for the invasion and occupation of Hawaii, the nation’s leaders decided against it. They believed that simply destroying America’s ability to use Pearl Harbor as a base was enough. They did not consider Hawaii as a place from which to launch further attacks against the US mainland, and they failed to appreciate the importance of Hawaii as a base from which the Americans might launch attacks against Japan. Rather than occupy Hawaii, the Japanese hoped to win a quick, decisive victory in the western Pacific while America licked its wounds, and then defend the captured territory while eventually wearing down their enemies and negotiating treaties to maintain their conquered possessions. But that was not to be. By awakening the military and industrial might of the US and its allies, the Japanese merely sowed the seeds for their ultimate defeat. Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy Admiral !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! famously said,

In the first six to twelve months of a war with the United States and Great Britain I will run wild and win victory upon victory. But then, if the war continues after that, I have no expectation of success.

These turned out to be prophetic words. Just six months after the attacks on Pearl Harbor, the US Navy decisively defeated the Japanese in the pivotal !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , an American victory that, like the attack on Pearl Harbor, was fought entirely by aircraft. Though the battle cost the US the carrier Yorktown , the Japanese carrier force was crippled when four of the six carriers that had taken part at Pearl Harbor were sent to the bottom of the Pacific by American dive bombers. In a fitting footnote to the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Battle of Midway, which swung the course of the war decidedly in America’s favor, was won by aircraft from the very American carriers that escaped Japanese bombs and torpedoes on December 7, 1941.

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If you enjoy these Aviation History posts, please let me know in the comments. And if you missed any of the past articles, you can find them all at !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . You can also find more stories about aviation, aviators and airplane oddities at !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

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M.T. Blake > ttyymmnn 12/07/2019 at 13:02

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Good stuff. Thanks for posting. 

vondon302 > ttyymmnn 12/07/2019 at 13:39

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Glad you added the Midway part at the end.

Great post as always. 

ttyymmnn > vondon302 12/07/2019 at 18:57

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Thanks. Pearl Harbor and Midway are inextricably linked.

vondon302 > ttyymmnn 12/07/2019 at 19:17

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For sure but alot of middle school history books barely mention Midway.

Sore point with me wife's a history teacher. 

ttyymmnn > vondon302 12/07/2019 at 19:29

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considering it was the turning point of the Pacific war, I find it hard to believe that it doesn’t get a mention. But I’m not surprised. I took a college US history course in undergrad and we did the Vietnam War in one class period. 

vondon302 > ttyymmnn 12/07/2019 at 19:36

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Exactly!

Teaching to the test is my quick answer. I could go on but its Saturday night.

Cheers

gmporschenut also a fan of hondas > ttyymmnn 12/07/2019 at 21:56

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I was able to get a tour of Ford island in 2014, A view few folks see.

USS Utah. 

gmporschenut also a fan of hondas > ttyymmnn 12/07/2019 at 22:05

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“Hitler’s fate was sealed. Mussolini’s fate was sealed. As for the Japanese , they would be ground to a powder. . ” - Churchill

ttyymmnn > gmporschenut also a fan of hondas 12/07/2019 at 22:25

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Always wanted to go there. 

ttyymmnn > gmporschenut also a fan of hondas 12/07/2019 at 22:28

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Pretty much. No way to compete with the industrial might of the US, particularly when our factories weren’t getting bombed. America might have entered the war eventually, but the Japanese would have remained unstoppable with only the British Commonwealth fighting them. 

gmporschenut also a fan of hondas > ttyymmnn 12/08/2019 at 20:35

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Ford Island is tricky as the A rizona memorial, is right next to admirals’s houses, need to know someone in the military . There are tours that go to the air musuem, but the other sites are tricky.

Some photos getting a tour of Hickam

ttyymmnn > gmporschenut also a fan of hondas 12/08/2019 at 20:57

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I was just thinking of going to Pearl in general.

gmporschenut also a fan of hondas > ttyymmnn 12/09/2019 at 23:10

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Depends if the Soviets got involved. A contributing reason for german success in 19 41, was that the soviets had number of vetrean divisions in the east to counter a Japanese threat.

they clashed a couple times. And in 1945 unleased a massive offense. When you can bring in supplies by rail vs ship steamroller can be unleased. 

ttyymmnn > gmporschenut also a fan of hondas 12/10/2019 at 00:28

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Oh, man, I had forgotten about this fantastic show. Any discussion of events in 1945 that starts with 1905 is my kind of thing. Thanks for the link. 

gmporschenut also a fan of hondas > ttyymmnn 12/10/2019 at 22:47

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Yeah as far as I’m concerned the history channel is dead.

I can’t recommend the hardcore history podcast . It takes about 7 hours till you get to Pearl Harbor. The podcast is great if youre doing a lot of traveling