Chapter 2 - Japanese Navy Attack America's Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941

Some top American leaders did not know the Japanese will attack Pearl Harbor. It was a traitorous attack by the Japanese on the US Naval and Air Forces. A number of military and political observers said, that they saw the Japanese preparations and attacks of the American bases in Hawaii were forthcoming.

Unfortunately, the Americans failed to see the warnings.

According to war records, ( From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia ) “ In July 1939 the U.S. announced the termination of the 1911 Treaty of Commerce and Navigation with Japan. Beginning summer of 1940, the U.S. began to restrict the export to Japan of materials useful in war. Between June 1940 and the fateful crisis of December 1941, the tension constantly mounted.”1

“In July 1941, by which time the Japanese had occupied all of Indochina and had entered into an alliance with the Axis powers (Germany and Italy), the U.S. government severed all commercial and financial relations with Japan. Japanese assets were frozen, and an embargo was declared on shipments to Japan of petroleum and other vital war materials.

“Militarists were steadily gaining influence in the Tokyo government; They bitterly resented U.S. aid to China, which by this time had been stepped up. They saw in the German invasion of the Soviet Union an unrivaled opportunity to pursue a policy of aggression in the Far East without danger of an attack upon their rear by the forces of the Red Army.2

“Nonetheless, negotiations looking to find some kind of understanding between the United States and Japan took place through the autumn of 1941, and not until near the end of November did it become clear that no agreement was possible.”3

Still, the United States did not see these political and military developments as an indication of the Japanese-American war involvement.

On December 7, 1941, without warning, the Japanese Imperial Navy and Air Force attacked Pearl Harbor in Honolulo, Hawaii in the Pacific. It was the strongest US naval base in the United States Killed on that day were 2,403 Americans. It also wounded 2,178 other people in Hawaii. I learned of it thru my father, Restituto A. Bernal, a Private First Class in the USAFFE. I was born on November 23, 1940. I was barely 17 days old when the Japanese-American war came to our country.

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, according to Wikipedia and Goggle was a “surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service on the United States, a neutral country at that time…” The surprising attack occurred Sunday morning, at 7:48 a.m. in Honolulu, Hawaii.

The attack led the United States to enter World War 2, on December 8, 1941. The Japanese naval leaders referred to the Pearl Harbor attack, Hawaii Operation. Hawaii was a United States territory.

Operation Z.

According to Wikipedia, “Japan intended the attack as a preventive action to keep the United States Pacific Fleet from interfering with its planned military actions in Southeast Asia against overseas territories of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and the United States.

“Several countries in Europe, including the United States of America, made many countries in Asia their territories-where they established Asian governments under the military and political controls. They get different kinds of raw materials from these Asian territories for their factories and industries in Europe and America. The Asian territories also provide workers and slaves for their farms, the factories and industries in Europe.

“During the Pearl Harbor attack, in just seven hours, a coordinated Japanese attacks were launched in the U.S.-held cities in the Philippines, like Clark Air Field, Subic Bay, Baguio City and several other places. The Japanese also attacked Guam and Wake Island and the British Empire territories in Malaya, Singapore, and Hong Kong.”

“There was a big Japanese Naval force in the attack of Pearl Harbor. The base was attacked by 353 Imperial Japanese aircraft (including fighters, level and dive bombers, and torpedo bombers) in two waves, launched from six aircraft carriers. All eight U.S. Navy battleships were damaged with four sank.

“All but USS Arizona were later raised, and six were returned to service and went on to fight in the war. The Japanese also sank or damaged three cruisers, three destroyers, an anti-aircraft training ship, and one minelayer “188 U.S. aircraft were destroyed; 2,403 Americans were killed and 1,178 others were wounded.

Important base installations such as the power station, dry dock, shipyard, maintenance, and fuel and torpedo storage facilities, as well as the submarine piers and headquarters building (also home of the intelligence section) were not attacked.

‘”Japanese losses were light: 29 aircraft and five midget submarines were lost and 64 servicemen killed. One Japanese sailor, Kazuo Sakamaki, was captured.

“Japan announced a declaration of war on the United States later that day (December 8 in Tokyo), but the declaration was not delivered until the following day. On December 8, Congress declared war on Japan. On December 11, Germany and Italy each declared war on the U.S. The US responded with a declaration of war against Germany and Italy.

“There were numerous historical precedents for the unannounced military action by Japan, but the lack of any formal warning, particularly while peace negotiations were still apparently ongoing, led President Franklin D. Roosevelt to proclaim December 7, 1941, “a date which will live in infamy”

“Because the attack happened without a declaration of war and without explicit warning, the attack on Pearl Harbor was later judged in the Tokyo Trials to be a war crime”

(United States declaration of war on Japan)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia