USS Arizona Sinking
Japan launched a surprise attack against the US naval base at Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941, by aircraft laden with torpedoes and bombs, and escorted by Zero fighters. The planes took off from carriers that had made their way in secrecy and radio silence to launch positions 200 miles north of Hawaii, and executed a strike nearly a year in planning. The attack sought to cripple America’s Pacific fleet and impede US interference with planned Japanese conquests of American, British, and Dutch territories.
It was a daring strike that caught the defenders off guard. Starting at 7:48 AM local time, 353 Japanese aircraft, in two waves, devastated anchored American vessels. Armed with torpedoes modified for Pearl Harbor’s shallow waters, and with bombs designed to pierce thick armor, the attackers sank four battleships and damaged another four.
They also sank or damaged three cruisers, three destroyers, a minelayer, and a training ship. It was a lopsided slaughter: for the loss of 29 airplanes, 5 midget submarines, and 64 personnel killed and 1 captured, the Japanese killed more than 2400 Americans and wounded around 1200, sank or beached twelve ships and damaged nine others, while destroying 160 airplanes and damaging 150 more. A photo of the burning battleship, the USS Arizona, billowing smoke as it sank, became the emblematic image of Japanese perfidy.
However, the Japanese had focused on ships while ignoring important infrastructure, such as oil storage facilities, docks, power stations. The destruction of such installations would have impeded the use of Pearl Harbor as a base for the US war effort in the Pacific. There were no US aircraft carriers in Pearl Harbor that day, so America’s carrier arm remained intact. Between the intact installations, and the fortuitously spared American carriers, the seeds of Japan’s eventual doom had been sown even before the dust had settled in Pearl Harbor.