#Cite day of infamy by walter lord code

But despite losing only twenty‐nine planes, Nagumo feared a counterattack and turned for home. Yamamoto's plan called for a third wave to destroy the repair facilities as well as the storage tanks containing 4.5 million gallons of fuel oil. Among American sailors, Marines, and soldiers, casualties were 2,335 killed, along with 68 civilians, and 1,178 persons wounded. At the airfields, 164 planes were destroyed and 128 damaged. (The Japanese had secretly developed aerial torpedoes that could operate in such shallow water and bombs that could penetrate deck armor.) In all, the Japanese attack sank or disabled nineteen ships, including all eight battleships, three light cruisers, three destroyers, and several support vessels. Along Battleship Row, the Arizona, the California, and the West Virginia were sunk the Oklahoma capsized the Nevada was grounded and the three others were damaged. While Japanese fighters strafed the Army Air Corps' planes at Hickman Field, the torpedo planes and dive‐bombers attacked the navy ships. in Washington, D.C.), and the attack continued until 9:45 A.M. The first wave arrived over Pearl Harbor at 7:55 A.M. it launched the first attack wave, consisting of 49 bombers, 40 torpedo planes, 51 dive‐bombers, and 43 fighter aircraft this was followed by a second wave of 54 bombers, 78 dive‐bombers, and 36 fighters. On 7 December, Nagumo's force arrived 275 miles northwest of Oahu, and at 6:00 A.M. Both considered sabotage from among the sizable Japanese population to be the main threat in Hawaii. So did the two American commanders on Oahu, Rear Adm. But while recognizing that war might be imminent, Washington and Pacific commanders did not know whether this would include an attack on American territories if it did, they assumed it would be on the Philippines. Americans saw Japanese naval vessels and troops ships headed south in the China Sea.

#Cite day of infamy by walter lord code

The United States had secretly broken the Japanese diplomatic codes in a system called MAGIC, and the few authorities in Washington who were informed of them understood that relations between the two countries had reached a final crisis as the Japanese envoys received Tokyo's last negotiation offer and were told to destroy their code machines and deliver the proposal to the secretary of state on Sunday morning, 7 December. Navy was monitoring Japanese naval radio traffic (they did not break the naval code until 1942), naval intelligence did not know where Japanese carriers were but knew that they had gone on radio silence on earlier deployments. To avoid detection, it followed a storm front and maintained strict radio silence, while Tokyo used signals deception from other sites to disguise the true location of the carriers. Chuichi Nagumo, was composed of two fleet carriers, two converted carriers, and two light carriers, along with two battleships, and a number of cruisers, destroyers, and support ships.īetween 10 and 18 November, Nagumo's ships left separately from Kure Naval Base, assembling 22 November by the Kurile Islands. It was an extremely risky gamble-projecting a naval task force composed of six of Japan's nine aircraft carriers 3,400 miles across the northern Pacific without discovery or major loss. Isoroku Yamamoto, commander in chief of the Combined Japanese Fleet, devised a secret plan for a preemptive air strike against the American fleet in order to give Japan time to fortify its newly conquered territories. Navy, which had moved to its forward base at Pearl Harbor in May 1940.

The major opposing naval force in the Pacific would be the U.S. Thus, while negotiating with Washington, Tokyo also planned a major Japanese offensive into British Malaya, the Dutch East Indies, and the American Philippines. The attack followed the decision of the government of Premier Hideki Tojo that the Roosevelt administration would not abandon China and Southeast Asia to the Japanese military nor continue to supply Tokyo with oil and other vital supplies. Roosevelt called a “day which will live in infamy” led Congress to declare war on Japan on 8 December. Navy's base at Pearl Harbor and on Oahu in the Hawaiian Islands on Sunday morning, 7 December 1941, destroyed much of the American Pacific Fleet and brought the United States into World War II. Pearl Harbor, Attack on (1941).The Japanese surprise attack on the U.S.