The US defeat at Pearl Harbor
December 7th, 1941
“A date which will live in infamy.”
A politically motivated, self-inflicted defeat, or
just US military incompetence?
KA
The traditional story.
Once upon a time…..
Background.
• The year is 1941. Japan has been
waging a war of aggression in Asia
since the 30s. She has conquered all
before her. Her navy, army and
airforce are undefeated.
• She possesses modern technology
and her soldiers use the latest
thinking in strategy.
• She has signed a pact with Nazi
Germany (and Italy) because
Germany looks like becoming the
preeminent power in the West
(Sept.1940). The Tripartite Pact.
• Only the United States of America is
managing to curb Japan’s ambition
by restricting her oil supplies.
• Japan realizes that to succeed in her ambitions she must
remove American influence from the Pacific. Because
America is bigger and more powerful than Japan a
surprise assault is the only realistic way to defeat her.
• 7.12.1941 Imperial Japan’s First Air Fleet launches a
surprise attack against the United States Navy (USN)
based at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.
• The President of the USA, Franklin Roosevelt, called it ‘a
date which will live in infamy’ because the attack came
before war had been declared.
• The result was that the United States joined World War
Two as an ally of Britain against Germany and Japan.
The Place.
The Pacific ocean showing the proximity of USA, Japan and Hawaii.
Pearl Harbor
The islands of Hawaii
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, today. Ford island is in the middle,
and battleship row is the dent on the SE side.
Battleship Row
The attack force.
Kido Butai. The Japanese Carrier
Striking Task Force.
• 6 aircraft carriers, 2 battleships, 3 cruisers, 9
destroyers,8 tankers, 23 submarines, 5
midget submarines, 441 aircraft.
• This was the largest carrier task force the
world had ever seen.
The Japanese aircraft carrier
Soryu
The Japanese Aircraft carrier Hiryu. There were 5
aircraft carriers in all.
Ko-hyotekiJapanese midget attack submarines
• They were about the size of a bus. They held
two crew and two torpedoes.
• At least one of these machines would get past
US defenses and into the harbor before the
attack.
A Japanese carrier torpedo bomber.
The Japanese attacked with over 400 planes like this. When was
the last time you saw more than 2 aeroplanes in the sky at once?
Just imagine what 400 would be like…
Map of Hawaii showing the Japanese bombing routes to Pearl
Harbour, Oahu island, Hawaii. The plan was simple: destroy the
US air force on the ground and then destroy all the defenceless
US ships in the harbour. To ensure surprise- attack on a Sunday.
Pearl
Harbour
The military commanders.
Isoroku Yamamoto- the Japanese
commander.
Fleet Admiral and Commander in Chief of
the Imperial Japanese Navy.
Lost two fingers at Tsushima (1905)
fighting the Russian navy.
He was well aware of what war meant
and was a political ‘dove’ as a result . He
believed that fighting was to be avoided
and only used as a last resort. But once
engaged in, war had to prosecuted with
the utmost strength.
A formidable strategist and high calibre
military leader he led the move to attack
Pearl Harbour.
He had visited Italy after the British Navy
air strike at Taranto had crippled the
Italian navy. He realised the potential of
air power.
Rear Admiral Husband E. Kimmel
- the US commander.
Commander in chief, US Pacific
Fleet.
He had the responsibility for the
ships, planes and personnel of the
US navy.
In his view steel nets to stop
torpedoes were not needed in
harbour and merely got in everyones’
way.
He relied upon the army air force to
provide defence for him. He only had
enough ‘spotter’ (reconnaissance)
planes to cover 30% of the sea
around Hawaii.
Lieutenant Commander Walter Short
- commander of the US Army Air force
Responsible for the defence of military
installations at Pearl Harbour.
He had control of the majority of the
aeroplanes on the base; fighters, bombers
and reconnaissance.
He had the idea of parking all aeroplanes
close together in the open so that they could
be guarded easily against saboteurs.
Sabotage was feared because of the
number of Japanese people who lived in
Hawaii.
He had insufficient reconnaissance planes
and was not allowed more despite requests.
He set up new chains of command and
didn’t tell his superiors. This led to
confusion.
The targets.
Battleships.
The battleship USS
Arizona.
Part of the US power in the
Pacific.
She could fire shells that
weighed a tonne over 25
miles.
The USA had at least 8 of
these powerful ships in the
Pacific.
The US Navy placed more
faith in these ships as a
deterrent to Japanese
aggression than their
aircraft carriers.
Aircraft carriers
The USS
Enterprise 1941.
The United States
had 2 large aircraft
carriers in the Pacific
in 1941.
More aware than the
Americans, of the
strategic advantage
of carriers, the
Japanese knew that
they had to destroy
them if they were to
gain control over the
Pacific.
The Enterprise was
scheduled to dock
in Pearl Harbour
7.12.1941
US army air force.
The US military had not made its mind up about who should control aeroplanes. As a
result the navy had some and the army had some. Control was confused and coordination hampered. At Pearl Harbour the majority of planes were under army control.
The US navy frequently took a superior attitude to the US army and this did not help
efficiency.
The Curtis Kittyhawk fighter.
Heavy and lumbering. No
match for the nimble Japanese
Zeke “Zero”.
The B 17 Flying Fortress
bomber. Useful for
reconnaissance. Pearl
Harbour did not have
enough. More arrived on Dec
7 1941 during the attack- and
were destroyed.
Prelude.
Observing radio silence and taking advantage of squally
weather, the Japanese fleet arrives to the NW of Hawaii
undetected. Planes were heavily laden with fuel and
bombs
Japanese carrier
planes waiting to
take off.
The attack commences
Japanese planes are waved off
their carriers early morning Dec7
1941.
Dec7 1941. Japanese bomber over Hickam field (US army air force)
(Hawaii). Notice large plumes of smoke.
Hickam Field. An army B17 bomber lies cut in half.
The seaplane base- just wreckage where there used to be aeroplanes
US airfield under attack- notice all the planes lined up in neat rows.
Easy targets for the Japanese fighters.
Ford Island in the middle of the harbourOne building is burning, and wrecked aircraft are
scattered about. Notice the planes parked in the
open.
Battleship Row as seen from a Japanese bomber 7.12.1941.
Notice torpedo trails, and oil on the water. Notice the absence
of torpedo nets.
US ships sinking at anchor.
With the air force destroyed, the naval ships were now easy targets.
Many sailors found ammunition stores locked as a peacetime security
measure.
Water is already up to deck level, and fire is raging.
With engines off there was no power to work fire hoses. Guns
also had no power to operate, and ammunition hoists would not
work.
One ship has turned over, and fires
burn unchecked everywhere.
The USS Shaw explodes spectacularly.
The navy would repair her though, and she would fight again.
USS Nevada.
A single valiant crewman managed to get this ship moving from a
stone-cold start (quite some achievement). Bomb damaged and
sinking she was to be beached by her captain. He didn’t want to
take the risk of blocking the harbour entrance by sinking in it.
USS California. Notice the ship listing
severely and her crew abandoning ship to
the left. Notice the oil in the water- some
of which is already on fire.
Battleship Row. The front and rear ships
have already sunk to the harbour floor.
Fire and smoke become major problems to
rescue efforts, let alone fighting back.
Battleship Row from above. Notice the spreading oil slicks
Airfield wreckage. The policy of parking all planes close together was
disasterous. Notice the sailor just standing still- in the middle of a
‘battle’! It shows the utter helplessness of the defenders.
More of the same…
The USS Arizona.
A bomb blows up her ammunition and she is totally destroyed. She is the only
ship deemed irrecoverable. In her lie the majority of casualties from the attack.
Her wreckage forms the base of the Pearl Harbour memorial which you can see
today.
• The US lost 2,403 people dead, 1,178 wounded. 5
battleships, 3 cruisers, 3 destroyers and 188
planes were destroyed.
• Japan lost 64 men dead and 1 captured.
29 planes and 4 midget submarines destroyed.
• It was shocking to America because it was the first
time since 1812 that the United States had been
attacked on its own soil. (The next occasion would
be 9/11- it too led to US involvement in a foreign
war)
Aftermath
The United States joined WWII on the side of Britain and against the
Tripartite ‘Axis’ of Japan, Germany and Italy. Recruiting posters used
Pearl Harbour to get men to enlist. Ultimately Japan would be
defeated.
Courts-martial of the US navy and
army air force commanders
Both Kimmel
and Short were
dismissed the
service on the
grounds that
they had
neglected the
defence of the
fleet and were
therefore in
dereliction of
duty
Japanese Americans
• There was an understandable backlash of
public hatred against Japanese
Americans.
• FDR signed an internment bill and these
people spent the war in prison camps.
• Most lost all their property and goods.
The memorial to the US dead.
The Pearl Harbour war memorial.
This is built on top of the sunken USS Arizona to remind
people of the 1177 sailors who died trapped inside her.
Yamamoto.
Already highly regarded,
Yamamoto now achieved a huge
status in Japanese public
opinion.
Yamamoto himself knew,
however, that this was
unjustified. The attack had not
achieved a primary objectivethe sinking of American carriers.
In addition this public status
would backfire on Japan. When
Yamamoto was killed later in the
war there was a large drop in
Japanese morale.
So it was a brilliant surprise
attack?
…….Some other evidence to
consider!!
COMMUNICATIONS
A radio transmitter/receiver 1940.
Messages.
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Saturday Dec 6. US intercepts a 14 part Japanese transmission. It takes
time to decode it. The US military is aware of Japanese military activity and
expects further Japanese advances- maybe into Malaya.
Sunday Dec 7. Last part of the message is decoded and reads that
diplomatic relations between Japan and the USA are to be severed. This is
received in Washington DC at 9am.
Sunday Dec 7. Another Japanese message is received instructing the
Japanese ambassador to tell the message to the Americans at 1pm.
The US military realises that 1pm Washington is early morning Hawaii. US
military sends out an alert- but radio contact with Hawaii is lost.
General George Marshall needs to be found to send the message, but is out
horseriding. He can’t be found.
Message is sent by commercial telegraph. Message received in Hawaii
before the attack-7.33am- but although marked urgent it still isn’t received at
HQ (by Japanese-American on a bicycle!) for 4hours.
Questions:
Was the decoding process very slow- or was it deliberately held up?
How reliable were radios in the 1940s?
Why was a message not received at Hawaii Command until 4 hours
after the attack? Was this ineptitude or policy?
Why was General Marshall ‘out of touch’ with his command?
PRECEDENT
Brigadier general ‘Billy’ Mitchell- United States Army Air
Service.
•The US Army air force was looked down upon by the US navy which considered itself
superior (an idea it inherited from the British Royal Navy).
•When US army airman Mitchell claimed, then, that a single plane could sink a
battleship the navy was furious. It was even more furious when in 1928 Mitchell took a
plane and sank the target battleship Ostfriedland (see above).
•To rub salt into the wound Mitchell then repeated the exercise with the retired
battleship Alabama- just to prove his point.
•The navy claimed he had broken ‘the rules’ and chose to ignore his results.
Mitchell was a much decorated war hero from WW1.He
wasn’t going to be ignored and so he spoke to the
press. He was posted to Hawaii, 1924, to keep him off
the newspaper front pages. Mitchell returned with a
report detailing why there would be a war with Japan
and why there would be an attack on Pearl Harbour.
This was ignored.
Mitchell was posted to Texas. Here he argued for one
united US airforce. Currently the army and navy ran
their own separate air forces. The navy quoshed the
idea.
After an airship crash in which men died Mitchell
accused both the army and navy of incompetence. He
resigned before he could be dismissed.
Later on he would be the only person to have an
airplane named after him in the US airforce.- the
‘Mitchell’ bomber. It would be the first US plane to bomb
Tokyo in the war.
Admiral Harry Yarnell - US Navy.
Conducted US Army/Navy exercises in February 1932.
He had a fleet of ships with which to launch a practice
attack on Pearl Harbour.
He took a chance and left all his battleships out of his
plan, launching a carrier air attack on Pearl Harbour, on
a Sunday morning.
His fleet arrived NW of Hawaii, observed radio silence
and hid behind rain storms.
In the event the attack was a complete success and the
defenders had little effective resistance. Not one
‘defending’ airplane left the ground.
These results were regarded as false by the US Navy.
‘It is doubtful if air attacks can be launched against
(Hawaii)….’. They were well documented by Japanese
observers however.
Harry retired in 1939 baffled.
USS Lexington
- Admiral Yarnell’s flag ship.
Admiral Ernst King
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1938 Admiral Ernst King on board the USS Saratoga launched a trial attack on
Pearl Harbour for the US Navy.
Just as in 1932. The defenders were taken completely by surprise, and the
attack was overwhelmingly successful.
Once again the results were ignored.
The USS Saratoga
1942
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Battle of Taranto Nov 1940
The British navy attacks the Italian navy at Taranto in Italy as WW2 escalates in Europe.
The British have 1 aircraft carrier and 19 old bi-planes.
The British modify torpedoes so that they can be dropped from the planes into shallow water.
The Italians lose 3 out of their 5 battleships. The British lose two planes.
The Japanese took a keen interest in this result. The US apparently ignored it.
The British ‘swordfish’
aircraft. Obsolete- but still
able to defeat a battleship.
HMS Illustrious. One of
the most modern aircraft
carriers in 1940.
Italian battleship casualty at
Taranto.
Questions:
If this attack had been planned and carried out successfully on at least 2
previous occasions, why were the results ignored by the high command?
Why did the US ignore the lessons of Taranto?
Is it evidence of inefficiency caused by prejudice within the US forces at
the time?
Is it evidence of incompetence in the US armed forces and US
Intelligence?
Does it imply that a competent US military was being handicapped by
some other force?
Real damage.
Real damage?
• Of all the US ships involved, all but one US battleship
was recovered, rebuilt and re-entered the war. (the USS
Arizona was too badly damaged)
• Although there were thousands of dead, there were
many thousands more to take their place. FDR had
stepped up recruitment of soldiers before December
1941.
• US war production would rapidly replace damaged war
material.
• Real naval power lay with aircraft carriers, and the US
had lost none of these.
• The harbour facilities lay largely untouched, especially
the oil and pumping facilities.
• Conclusion: the US could afford the temporary loss of its
less useful ships and still win the war.
The USS Oklahoma is pulled
upright again by giant cables
Questions:
Did the US Command realise that battleships were disposable assets by
1941?
Did FDR realise that the sinking of battleships could be useful as a tool
to lever the US public into the war?
Is it likely that US political commanders would willingly sacrifice their
sailors to achieve a political goal?
Is it just a coincidence that the American carriers were not in Pearl on
Dec7 1941?
Senior Leadership factor
Winston Churchill.
• Prime Minister of Great
Britain. 1940-45.
• Realised that if Britain
was to survive the war
against Germany it had
to find much greater
resources in terms of
manpower and
materials.
• These things were
available in the USA.
• Conclusion:He had to
involve the USA in the
war.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR)
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President of the United States of
America (USA) 1933-1945
‘The only thing we have to fear is
fear itself.’
From 1940 he began sending all
the aid he could to help Britain
without actually joining the war.
Began increasing US war
production, and military
recruitment before 1941.
Wanted a ‘good neighbour’ policy
to other nations, but after Pearl
Harbour he organised global war
as a way to restore global balance
with the USA at the fore.
Became concerned with a
mechanism to keep world peace
and consequently thought much
about a new United Nations.
Good friends with Churchill and
General George C.Marshall.
Churchill and Roosevelt 1941
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They were close personal friends.
•
On one occasion FDR unexpectedly came
to see Churchill when he was staying with
FDR in the White House. Churchill was in
the bath. Churchill stood up in the bath,
completely naked, saying ‘you see,
Mr.President, I have nothing to hide!’ FDR
found this highly amusing.
•
Met in August 1941 to discuss the war, cooperation, and the atom bomb.
•
Churchill later wrote of FDR ‘he not only
anticipated history but altered its course’.
• Questions:
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To what lengths were Churchill and Roosevelt prepared to go to win the war?
Was Roosevelt’s friendship with Churchill that strong that he was willing to
sacrifice American lives to keep it?
Was Roosevelt’s vision of a non-imperial future dependent on a US-British
alliance?
Did Roosevelt see US involvement in the war as a way to fully recover from the
effects of the Great Depression?
Churchill and Churchill were both good political showmen. Did Roosevelt realise
that to get America involved in the war, he had to put on a ‘good show’ of
some sort?
‘Lost ground can always be regained’ FDR.
Did FDR see Pearl Harbour ships as ‘lost ground’ before Dec7?
Was Churchill right; did FDR alter the course of history by creating an
occurrence that would not have happened in normal circumstances?
Did FDR see Pearl Harbour as a way to crush fascism,and imperialism at the
same time, leading to a world dominated ultimately by the USA?
Technological Inertia
Battleship belief.
• The faith placed in battleships in the 1930s is today hard to
understand.
• It lay in the investment, size and sheer monstrousness of
these weapons.
• The battleship represented the crowning technological
achievement of the nation state.
• So much money was to be made in building and
maintaining these ships it would upset many people if they
weren’t built!
• In appearance the ships were meant to show power. They
could deliver unheard of devastation whilst remaining
invisible beyond the horizon.
• They could hit harder, and strike further away than any
other weapon before.
• An example of the astounding strength of the old battleships is
the IJN Nagato. She survived the war and was used as an
atomic bomb target ship in 1946.She survived the blast with
‘only minor damage’ !!!
•No wonder people were unwilling to believe that these ships
were outdated.
Battleships are superior?
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This may’ve been true in 1906, but
by 1939 airships could travel much
further, and faster than battleships.
Fleets of aeroplanes could deliver
greater hitting power than battleships
(although at shorter ranges).
The development of the ‘aircraft
carrier’ ship in WW1 gave the aeroplane
the decisive advantage over the
battleship.
Despite this the US still started building
12 battleships, but only 1 aircraft carrier,
between1936-40.
The German airship Hindenburg famously crossed the Atlantic.
The Japanese Zeke , or ‘Zero’, fighter.
Superb manoeverability and long range meant it outclassed all other fighters when
originally produced.
Made of top secret aluminium it had no armour, was incredibly light and very fast. It could
also fly very slow, at only 60 mph, meaning that it could practically turn around on itself.
It was the plane of choice for the Japanese navy.
US pilots learned that to stay safe they had to stay out of range!
In 1940 13 zeros shot down 27 enemy planes over China in under 3 minutes.
When news of the zero reached the US the Americans claimed that it was impossible that
the Japanese could build such an aircraft and dismissed the reports.
Torpedo nets
Since WW1 battleships had
carried metal nets to protect
them against torpedoes. The
nets were held out on poles all
around the ship. In harbour
there were often permanent
nets.
None of the ships in Pearl
Harbour were protected by nets.
Admiral Kimmel said that they
got in the way of running the
harbour efficiently and slowed
the rapid deployment of the
ships should they need to leave
harbour quickly.
Radar.
• A brand new system was
operational in Hawaii to detect
aeroplanes. It was called ‘radar’.
• It was rather primitive and only
showed ‘blips’ on a screen to
indicate an object approaching or
leaving.
• Dec7th the radar picked up the
incoming attack but the officer in
charge dismissed it as an
expected flight of US B17s
arriving.
The actual Pearl Harbour radar.
Question:
Was it incompetence that led the US navy to build 12 battleships but
only 1 aircraft carrier between 1936-40?
If battleships were so important, why did the US leave such precious
assets badly defended ?
Why was battleship row not surrounded by torpedo nets?
In their attitude to Japanese know-how were the Americans basically
racist and was this the reason for their complacency?
Why else would the US military ignore the reports of Japanese military
technological advances?
Why might US military personnel be slow to pick up on the
advantages of radar?
If Kimmel did not want torpedo nets because they impaired the speed
of the fleet’s rapid deployment doesn’t it imply that he was expecting
some form of attack? Doesn’t it make ‘peacetime’ measures, such as
locked ammunition stores, even more inexcusable?
Political interference
Admiral Richardson
Commander of the US Fleet until
relieved by Admiral Kimmel. Feb 1941
Oversaw the deployment of the US
fleet to Pearl Harbour.
May 1940 was ordered to state to the
press that ‘at his request’ the fleet was
to stay at Pearl Harbour.
Richardson protested that this was
improper and that the fleet should stay
on the West Coast of the USA.
Dismissed by FDR and replaced by
Kimmel.
Other Admirals, including Kimmel,
approached FDR to return the fleet to
the US. They were ignored.
The idea was promoted that the fleet
would act as a deterrent to Japanese
aggression.
May 25 1999
• The US Senate votes that the
Commanders at Pearl Harbour Kimmel
and Short be exonerated for their part in
the defeat.
• The reason for this is that they were
deemed to have been denied vital
intelligence reports that had been
available to the US government in
Washington DC.
Questions:
Why would FDR ignore the advise of his top naval adviserRichardson- to keep the fleet on the US mainland coast?
Why would FDR replace one of his top naval advisers when the
world was at war around him and he would need all the advice
he could get? Does the replacement of a high ranking official
herald a change in policy?
Admiral Halsey argued that if there was to be a fight then the
fleet would be better off if it was closer to its enemy. Other
Admirals said that in war you don’t lengthen your supply lines
unnecessarily. Who do you think was correct?
Why has the US Senate exonerated the Pearl Harbour
commanders if they were guilty?
Other factors.
Ko-Hyoteki. Midget submarines.
The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour with 5 of these.
Here one lies beached on the coast of Hawaii after the attack.
At least one of these machines had got past US defences and into the
harbour before the attack.
One was attacked by a US guard boat outside the harbour before the air
attack, yet this did not provoke a general alert. This is puzzling because
they were extremely short range and their presence indicated the
presence of other, larger forces.
Pearl Harbour has a great disadvantage. It only has one very narrow
entrance. This means that if there was an attack any ships inside the
harbour would find it almost impossible to escape. Worse still-if an
escaping ship sank in the entrance then the whole harbour would be
out of action .
Peacetime?
• The US air force kept its anti-aircraft ammunition
locked away for safety in peacetime.
• Anti-aircraft guns were carefully stored in the
base and not strategically distributed around so
as not to alarm the local populace.
• Sunday stand-down routine was acceptable
procedure during peacetime. Many crewmen left
their ships as a result.
• The government had sent a war threat memo to
Admiral Kimmel- but it went on to outline
possible Japanese aggressions in Borneo and
Malaya- hundreds of miles away.
Questions:
Why were ‘all the eggs in one basket’ : why were all the battleships in one place
at the same time?
Why were all the battleships docked in a harbour which was proven to be
vulnerable to attack, and which was difficult to get out of in a hurry?
Do armed forces, in peacetime, really wait to be attacked without taking any
precautions for self-defence?
Was the concentration of badly defended battleships proof of a political intention
to provide bait to Japanese aggressors?
Why was no general alert sounded when the submarine threat was detected?