t 7.55am on 7 December
1941, a first wave of
183 Japanese aircraft
attacked the US Naval
base Pearl Harbor at
Oahu, Hawaii. A second wave of 170
Japanese planes followed an hour-and-
a-half later, and in total 2,403 American
service personnel were killed, with 18
warships and 188 aircraft either destroyed
or damaged. The attack would not only
lead to the US entering World War II but
also leave an indelible mark upon its
population, creating a national trauma
that remains to this day.
On 1 September 1939 Adolf Hitler had
invaded Poland, following his invasion of
Czechoslovakia in March. Two days later,
British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain
declared war on Nazi Germany and her
allies, and the ensuing six-year conflict
altered the course of history and left
almost no corner of the globe untouched.
But for two years America avoided any
direct involvement in the war, and it
would be only Pearl Harbor that would
push them into the fray. Still reeling from
the devastating effects of World War I,
the US had a strong isolationist policy
that mandated they should have no
involvement in the affairs of other nations.
For many Americans, another war in
Europe was to be avoided at all costs.
However, across the Pacific, Japan had
aligned itself with the Axis powers of
Germany and Italy. In September 1940
they had invaded French Indochina and
in July of the following year advanced
into the southern part of the region,
threatening European and, crucially, US
possessions in the area. This built on a
history of difficulties with the US following
Japan’s attack on China in 1931 and the
Second Sino-Japanese war that began in- That same year, Japanese forces had
sunk the USS Panay on the Yangtze River.
Despite a formal apology and the payment
of reparations, tensions continued to rise.
Following the 1940 attacks on Indochina,
the US retaliated by placing an embargo on
trade with Japan, which had a devastating
effect on the supply of key resources such
as iron and petrol.
“Japanese oil reserves meant that
action had to be taken before the Imperial
Navy was crippled through lack of fuel,”
says Mark E Stille, a retired US Navy
commander and author of 12 books on
the Pacific War. “The real issue is that
the Japanese chose to double-down on
aggression after being called to account for
their expansionist policies since 1937. To
do this, they decided to go to war with the
world’s largest empire and the world’s most
powerful nation, all while being tied down
in a huge war with the Chinese.”
David Kilton, Chief of Interpretation
at the Pearl Harbor National Museum
explains: “The economic strains of the
embargoes came to a head, and the
Japanese could either have conflict while
they were expanding in other areas or
strike first. They decided to strike first,”
The decision was taken to launch an
attack directly against the US military,
and Pearl Harbor was selected as the
target because it was relatively remote
and vulnerable. The Japanese intention, it
seems, was not to start a war with the US
but instead to inflict a blow so devastatingthat the US would be forced to negotiate.
Stille explains: “There is only one reason
why the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor:
because [commander in chief of Japan’s
Combined Fleet] Yamamoto Isoroku
thought it would be a good idea. Without
Isoroku’s vision and determination to
pull off the attack, it would never have
occurred. Apparently, he actually believed
that the loss of several battleships would
shock the Americans into making peace.”
Isoroku had graduated from the
Japanese Naval Academy in 1904. In 1919
he was sent to study at Harvard in the
United States and during his career would
spend much time in the country, gaining
an excellent knowledge of its industry.
Later, he worked in naval aviation and it
was this expertise that led him to be one
of the key military strategists behind the
Pearl Harbor attack. The operation was to
centre around the use of aircraft carriers,
something that Isoroku was convinced
would deliver complete success despite his
deep misgivings about going to war with(FROM LEFT TO
RIGHT) The USS
West Virginia, the
USS Tennessee
and the USS
Arizona in flames
during the attack
“At 07:53 on the morning of
7 December, the signal ‘Tora! Tora!
Tora!’ was sent by the strike leader”
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