![]() ![]() It was a “meatball.”ĭespite the heroic efforts of American sailors, commanders, pilots and even galley hands, the Japanese prevailed in two waves of attacks for two hours and then broke off and returned to their fleet where their commander made a huge mistake in what had been up to then a textbook military operation.Īdmiral Chuichi Nagumo, the Japanese officer in charge, canceled a third wave of attacks, worried that the American defenders had by 10:00 AM sufficiently organized themselves to launch what could be a devastating counter attack. They repeatedly referred to the bright red circle against a white background the rising sun, on the Japanese planes diving on their targets. The killing began.Īmerican survivors I talked to fifty years later all had terrifying experiences and a common memory. (University of Arizona Special Collections)Īs a decorated Japanese fighter pilot named Mitsuo Fuchida led the attack he shouted into his radio TORA, TORA, TORA which translates to Tiger, Tiger, Tiger. ![]() Since it was Sunday morning sailors were sleeping in or still ashore from the night before.įires burn on an airfield after the surprise attack by Japanese forces on Pearl Harbor Dec. These inexplicable command decisions and catastrophic miscalculations converted the American battleships, aircraft carriers, destroyers, airfields, fighter planes and bombers into a shooting gallery for the waves of Japanese aircraft strafing and bombing the U.S. ![]() Parked wing tip to wing tip they, too, were an inviting target. On land, American fighter planes were similarly arranged. The assortment of American battleships, destroyers and cruisers were anchored bow to stern in the warm waters of the harbor, a cozy arrangement that served the attackers well. military commanders had reinforced vigilance to the southwest, guessing wrongly any Japanese assault would come from that direction. In fact, it was a flight of Japanese fighter planes and bombers launched from carriers northwest of the island chain when U.S. bombers being ferried over from San Francisco. On the day of the Japanese assault, two forward American observers warned a squadron of planes was fast approaching Hawaii but their commander waved them off, explaining it was a formation of U.S. Roosevelt was officially warned the prospects of a Japanese attack were ever greater. In the autumn of 1941, President Franklin D. Seventy five years ago on December 7th, 1941, a surprise Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in Honolulu stunned the military commanders on that sunny Sunday morning even though there had been warnings as early as January of that year the Japanese could be planning just such an ambush. In short order America was at war in Afghanistan and Iraq against jihadist groups and the dictatorial regime of Saddam Hussein. We later learned the CIA and other Washington intelligence agencies had spent the summer in states of high anxiety after picking up signals Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden were planning a surprise strike against the U.S. In rapid succession the Pentagon was attacked by a hijacked American flight and a United flight went down in Pennsylvania after a passenger revolt. It was a bold, brutal sneak attack for which we had no warning until the first airliner crashed into the upper reaches of the south tower. About ninety minutes into our NBC News coverage of 9-11, with the eery, almost slow motion television images of the fatally wounded twin trade towers dominating every television screen I thought, “My God, is this our Pearl Harbor?” ★ There were so many similarities and yet so many differences. ![]()
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