A Global War 1071pact with the Soviet Union, signed in April 1941, two months before the
German invasion of Russia, bolstered Japanese confidence that it could
attack and inflict a stinging defeat on the United States and force the Amer
icans to a negotiated settlement.
On Sunday morning, December 7, 1941, a Japanese force of fighters and
dive-bombers surprised the American naval and air force base at Pearl Har
bor, Hawaii. Three U.S. battleships were sunk, and five were severely dam
aged; ten other vessels were destroyed or disabled and 188 planes destroyed.
The attack killed 2,403 naval and other military personnel, and more than
1,000 were wounded. However, three aircraft carriers were at sea and could
still be readied to take on the Japanese fleet in the Pacific Ocean. Vast stocks
of oil, too, survived. Japan quickly followed with successful invasions of
Malaya, the Philippines, Singapore (where almost 60,000 British soldiers
surrendered), and Pacific islands as far distant as the Aleutians near Alaska
(see Map 26.3).
Because American intelligence officers had deciphered Japan’s coded
messages, President Roosevelt had known that Japan was planning to launch
a war against the United States. Yet the attack on Pearl Harbor came as a
surprise, in part because U.S. intelligence services were swamped with mes
sages suggesting attacks at other locations. Calling December 7, 1941, “a
day that will live in infamy,” Roosevelt declared war on Japan.
Hitler, bound by treaty to Japan, then declared war against the United
States. He believed that public opinion in the United States was against
American involvement in another European war. In fact, he knew amaz
ingly little about the United States.
Upon hearing the news of Pearl Harbor, Churchill exclaimed, “We have
won the war!” The entry of the United States into the war against Germany
provided, as in 1917, a crucial material advantage to the Allies. Despite its
slow recovery from the Depression, which hit it harder than any other nation,
the United States had become the largest industrial power in the world,
producing more than the next six powers combined. American factories were
quickly converted to military production. In response to wartime demand,
industrial production in the United States doubled by the end of 1943,
finally pulling the United States out of the Depression.
Despite the patronizing attitude of the self-assured British prime minis
ter, a warm personal relationship gradually developed between Churchill
and Roosevelt. Their rapport helped overcome the tension that had devel
oped between the two powers because of the original unwillingness of the
United States to join Britain in the war. The Japanese attack on Pearl Har
bor ended U.S. isolationism. American citizens rallied to the war effort, par
ticularly against the Japanese. “Remember Pearl Harbor!” struck a chord in
the United States that “Remember Belgium” or “Remember France” could
not have.
The fact that an Asian power had attacked the United States galled
Americans, many of whom believed that Asians were inferior. Amid rumors