Pearl Harbour

The Attack on Pearl Harbor has been discussed by many historians and its result created many controversies. It is known that this attack was due to many years of disagreement between the US and Japan over the Philippines and Chinese territories. The Japanese knew that they would not gain these territories without trouble from the USA and they decided to attack the USA by surprise. Japan attacked the naval base in Pearl Harbor (Hawaii) on December 7, 1941. Japanese force was made up of six carriers and they had 423 planes in total and 30 battle ships. The first wave consisted of 181 planes took off and headed to the island Oahu, towards Pearl Harbor. They were moving towards, more failure then successful, attack and one notorious period of the Japanese history caused by this event.

That wave arrived at the port around 6 a.m. and started bombing the US ships. Americans were caught completely unprepared and disorganized. Japanese planes succeeded to destroy most of the US ships, but not the main targets though. This mission's primary objectives were to destroy fuel tanks, US carriers and destroyer ships. Most of the destroyer ships were sunk but some of fuel tanks and most of carriers were not reachable for the Japanese due to their inability to find them (they were hidden in barracks and inside the harbor). In addition to this, the main three carriers (Lexington, Enterprise and Saratoga) were not in the port when the attack took place. They were out in the sea and the Japanese did not know it. Due to not achieving to complete primary tasks and returning, makes this attack overall a failure.

The blame is placed on both the Japanese and the USA.

This controversial attack directly impacted the US entry into the Second World War. Just one day after, on 8th of December, the US Congress declared war on Japan. Americans remember that date as a date of a dishonorable and notorious act. At the top of the USA's priority list of World War II was helping Allies in Europe, but after this attack, the elimination and revenge on Japan was the top objective for the US military. The attack on Pearl Harbor also served to the USA as a perfect excuse to enter the war even though the USA had tried to stay out of it. This changed the end of war as the USA was crucial to the outcome of whole World War II.