forces scored a major victory in the Battle of Midway, decisively turning the tide of war in the Pacific. In June 1942, this failure came to haunt the Japanese, as U.S. aircraft carrier was present during the attack. The Japanese bombers missed oil tanks, ammunition sites and repair facilities, and not a single U.S. Japanese forces went on to capture a string of current and former Western colonial possessions by early 1942-including Burma (now Myanmar), British Malaya (Malaysia and Singapore), the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) and the Philippines-giving them access to these islands’ plentiful natural resources, including oil and rubber.īut the Pearl Harbor attack had failed in its objective to completely destroy the Pacific Fleet. battleships, sinking four and damaging four others, destroyed or damaged more than 300 aircraft and killed some 2,400 Americans at Pearl Harbor. Japan’s surprise attack on Pearl Harbor would drive the United States out of isolation and into World War II, a conflict that would end with Japan’s surrender after the devastating atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945.Īt first, however, the Pearl Harbor attack looked like a success for Japan. Navy, so that it would not be able to fight back as Japanese forces began to advance on targets across the South Pacific. As Americans didn’t expect the Japanese to attack first in Hawaii, some 4,000 miles away from the Japanese mainland, the base at Pearl Harbor was left relatively undefended, making it an easy target.Īdmiral Isoroku Yamamoto spent months planning an attack that aimed to destroy the Pacific Fleet and destroy morale in the U.S. In May 1940, the United States had made Pearl Harbor the main base for its Pacific Fleet. Destroying the Base at Pearl Harbor Would Mean Japan Controlled the Pacific The day after the attack, President Franklin D. Islands in the Pacific and the bombs, such as these, left the planes aimed at the Pearl Harbor Naval base and other Strategic U.S. naval base near Honolulu, Hawaii, was the scene of a devastating surprise attack by Japanese forces on December 7, 1941. The scene changed and afterwards, Japanese bombers flew over U.S. Proudly, the Japanese Army author ties sent out this bombing photograph as the Akiyama Squadron of Japanese planes, as they bombed an objective in China.
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