Pearl_Harbor

Pearl Harbor Kara Easler COM/150 May 9, 2012 Heather Gregory It was a nice beautiful day on then beautiful island of Hawaii, but soon all of that was about to change. It was December 7, 1941, it was normal as any other day in Hawaii. They got up to a nice beautiful day, with no idea what was about to happen to them. That was the day that the Japanese planned a surprise attack on them. That is when everything was about to change for the people in Hawaii and their military personal that they have. The communication and the information that the government ignored brought on what happened to the United States in Pearl Harbor. The first sign that they got saying that the Japanese was going to attack them was on January 27, 1941. It came from the U.S ambassador of Japan, Joseph C. Grew to the U.S State Department. It came as a coded cablegram, that needed to be read by someone that code understand it. Instead of sending it to someone to read it, they laughed at and threw out because they didn’t want to believe that they were going to get attacked. The report told, that the Japanese military force, was planning a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. They were urged at the State Department to take it as a warning, because the information proved to be credible enough to deserve some attention. The English Intelligence Specialist and Mr. Grew didn’t believe the Japanese Intelligence Officer was right about the message, so they dismissed as a joke. Through the days and months leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor, there were morning warning signs that went ignored. They should have listened to them; they could have protected themselves better, and could of saved a lot of lives too. The morning of the attack, December 7, the ambassador of Japan in Washington, D.C., he was ordered by the government to destroy any and all official documents and deliver a 14-page document to Cordell Hall, who was the Secretary of State at a certain time that day. After hours and hours of manually decoding and translation, the document was delivered much later than the Japanese government wanted. The attack on Pearl Harbor had already reached the White House before the ambassador of Japan arrived at the three. The entire world was stunned by the news. They couldn’t believe that something like this was going happening to their country and fellow military personnel. Sunday, December 7 - Washington D.C. – When they finally read the last part of the Japanese message, they realize that the Japanese is going to break diplomatic relations off with the U.S., which reaches Washington in the morning and they finally decoded it around 9am. An hour or so later they get another message from the Japanese that was intercepted. It tells the Ambassador of Japan to make sure that they deliver the main message to the Americans around 1 p.m. They realize this time corresponds with morning time in Pearl Harbor, which are a lot of hours behind. “The U.S. War Department then sends out an alert but uses a commercial telegraph because radio contact with Hawaii is temporarily broken. Delays prevent the alert from arriving at headquarters in Oahu until noontime (Hawaii time) four hours after the attack has already begun.” (History Place, pearl harbor, pa 2). Around 6 a.m., on December 7, 1941, 183 Japanese planes takes off, which would be the first of three waves from the carriers, located around 230 miles north of Oahu, Hawaii and heads for the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor. Around 7:40am, Planes of the first wave take off from the Japanese carriers; they were coming with 43 fighters, 49 high-altitude bombers, 40 torpedo planes, 51 dive-bombers. They flew through clouds, hoping they were not spotted by Pearl Harbor. Then around 7:53 a.m., the first Japanese assault wave, with 51 'Val' dive bombers, 40 'Kate' torpedo bombers, 50 high level bombers and 43 'Zero' fighters, commences the attack with flight commander, “Mitsuo Fuchida, sounding the battle cry: "Tora! Tora! Tora!" (Tiger! Tiger! Tiger!)”. (History Place, Pearl Harbor, pa 7). Around 7:55 am hours, the Command Center on Ford Island, the Comdr. Logan C. Ramsey looks out the window and saw low flying plane. He thinks it is probably a reckless American pilot. While he is watching the plane, he sees something black fall out of it and he realizes it is a bomb. He runs to the radio room and orders the only telegraph operator to send out a message that is coded to every ship and base: There is going to be an air raid on Pearl Harbor, this is no drill. Around 8:10am an armor-piercing bomb, was dropped on the deck of the ship Arizona by a very powerful high-altitude bomber, setting off more over a million pounds of gunpowder, which created a huge fireball that killed 1,177 men. 0850 hours The Nevada gets her steam up in 45 minutes and, with antiaircraft guns blazing, heads for the open sea. “A sailor sees her U.S. flag flying in the smoke and thinks of the words of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” (National Geographic, Pearl Harbor, pa 31) The second wave happened around 8:54am, which included 78 dive-bombers, 35 fighters, and around 54 high-altitude bombers, which meet heavy antiaircraft fire from the US. Bombers attacked our navy yard dry dock and hit the battleship Pennsylvania. The second wave of Japanese planes targets other ships and shipyard facilities. The air raid lasts until 9:45 a.m. They damaged eight battleships and out that eight they sunk five. They sunk three of our light cruisers, three of our destroyers and three other smaller vessels were all lost along with 188 aircraft. They lost 27 planes and around five midget submarines which attempted to penetrate the inner harbor and by launching torpedoes to break through. Around 1300 hours on December 8th, The Pearl Harbor strike force turns for home. The US casualty list includes around 68 civilian were killed along with 2,335 servicemen and around 1,178 wounded. They included 1,104 men aboard the Battleship USS Arizona were killed after a bomb penetrated into the forward magazine which caused catastrophic explosions. All together they sank or severely damaged 18 of our ships, including eight battleships, a couple light cruisers, and three of our destroyers. On our airfields they destroyed 161 planes 74 of them were the Army and 87 of them were Navy, and damaged 102 that had heavy damage 71 of them were the Army and 31 one of them were the Navy. Our Navy and Marine Corps suffered 2,896 casualties of which 2,117 were deaths. The Navy lost around 2008 and the Marine Corps lost about 209 men. The around 779 were wounded from the battle; the Navy had about 710 wounded, while the Marines only list about 69 men. They lost 29 planes over Oahu Hawaii, they lost one large submarine abound December 10, even though the war was over, and also all five of their midget submarines. Their personnel losses were around 55 airmen, maybe around nine crewmen on the midget submarines, and they have an unknown number on the large submarines. Their carrier task force sailed away without being detected or attacked. News of the sneak attack by the Japanese was broadcasted to the American public through radio bulletins, with many of the popular Sunday afternoon programs being interrupted. The news sends a shockwave across our nation and shocks the public. Monday, December 8 - The United States and Britain declare war on Japan with “President Roosevelt calling December 7, "a date which will live in infamy..."” (The History Place, Pearl Harbor, pa 13) On Thursday December 11th, four days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the country of Germany and Italy declare war on the US. The Axis powers; Italy, Japan and the Germans decided to unite against America, France and Britain and some of their Allies. Both senior commanders Admiral Husband E. Kimmel of the Navy and the Army Lt. General Walter C. Short who were at Pearl Harbor; they were relieved of their duties following the attack. Numerous investigations will find the men at fault for failing to adopt adequate defense measures. If they would have done what they were told to do and not ignored the warning signs they were given, they would probably still have kept their job and we have not been involved in this mess. It makes me wondering. If they listened to the warning signs that they received months earlier and the warnings signs they got days before the attack happened, would Pearl Harbor been safe from the Japanese, or would we still have lost all the battleships, especially the USS Arizona in an attack that we could have been prepared for. May if they would have seen this coming, many of lives could have been saved. Plus the destruction would have never happened and the US would have never become part of World War II. Work Cited 1. Pearl Harbor timeline, www.nationalgeographic.com/pearlharbor, 2001. National Geographic Society 2. Pearl Harbor U.S. military ships, www.nationalgeographic.com/pearlharbor, 2001. National Geographic Society 3. World War II Timeline: 1941/pearl harbor, www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/timeline/pearl.htm , The History Place, 1997