“I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, December 7th, 1941, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese empire.”
—President Franklin D. Roosevelt, addressing Congress Dec. 8th, 1941.
Japanese military leaders had sought to achieve a decisive victory against the United States and its Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor. Forcing America to the negotiating table meant neutralizing its navy, which would allow Japan to secure a permanent hold on the Pacific and the natural resources of South East Asia. While Japan fulfilled its mission to sink or neutralize the Pacific Fleet’s battleships, the raid itself would ironically render battleships obsolete. In a mere matter of hours, the era of the battleship came to an end and the age of the aircraft carrier began. The unwavering resolve of the American people in the aftermath of the attack, in combination with Adolf Hitler’s declaration of war, brought the United States into World War II and pitted them against Japan and its Axis allies. Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, who had planned the attack on Pearl Harbor would reputedly write, “I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.” Japan would soon feel the industrial might and spirit of the United States. Ominously, with the U.S. carriers having been out at sea during the attack, Japan had failed to sink or even damage the heart of the American’s striking power at Pearl Harbor. This costly omission would soon return to haunt the Japanese Navy. Six months later, at the Battle of Midway, Japan’s own carrier force suffered disastrous consequences.
Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, USS Arizona (BB-39) afire.
USS New Jersey (BB-62) took to the water December 7, 1942. One year after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Forthcoming and Recent Titles from the Naval Institute Press
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This Is No Drill, The History of NAS Pearl Harbor and the Japanese Attacks of 7 December 1941
Great Naval Battles of the Twentieth Century: Tsushima, Jutland, Midway
Battleships and Battle Cruisers
Cruisers
Selected photos from the archives of the Kure Maritime Museum; the best of the collection of Shizuo Fukui's photos of Japanese warships.
