Introduction: An Overview of the Pacific War (1941–1945)

Abstract

A little before daybreak in the early morning hours of Sunday, December 7, 1941, a total of 185 dive bombers, torpedo and fighter planes roared off from the flight decks of Japanese naval aircraft carriers that had surreptitiously cruised all the way from Hitokappu Bay in Etorofu island, of the Chishima island chain, and were now anchored just 320 kilometers north of the American island colony of Hawaii. The planes, with their bright red Rising-Sun emblems painted on their wings, stealthily flew unopposed over the sunny skies of Oahu and at a little before eight o’clock commenced what became the first wave of a bombing raid on the United States (US) Navy Pacific Fleet anchored at Pearl Harbor. In a meticulously planned, rehearsed, and executed two-wave attack that lasted approximately 90 minutes, eight American battleships, three light cruisers, and three destroyers were sunk or severely destroyed, 188 planes were destroyed on the ground, and 3,435 US military personnel were killed. The Japanese suffered a little over 100 casualties, and lost only five midget submarines and 29 planes out of a total of 353 planes that had participated in the attack.¹ ^