The Battle of Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941 – “Day of Infamy”

Published in 1948

Our fleet at Pearl Harbor must be destroyed to pre­vent it from rendering assistance to the Philip­pines, which stood astride Japan’s ambi­tious program of expansion into southeast Asia and the East Indies. It became necessary, also, for the Japanese to de­stroy or neutralize all the stepping stones from Ha­waii to the Philippines, such as Midway, Wake, and Guam. Pearl Har­bor was Japan’s first step, and the others would follow in close succession.

The unheralded attack by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor, the citadel of American power in the Pacific, at 7:45 a.m. on Sunday, 7 December 1941, plunged the U.S. into the global conflict and at the same time transformed the American people from an easygoing, half-isolationist peo­ple into a unified fighting force with a grim de­ter­mination to avenge the dastardly crime. The attack was by carrier-based planes of the Japan­ese Fleet and lasted for about two hours, result­ing in the most devastating de­feat ever suffered by our Navy.

Our airfields for the protection of Pearl Har­bor at the time were Wheeler Field, Hickam Field, the naval air base at Kaneohe, and the Marine base at Ewa—all in a few minutes’ reach of Pearl Harbor. The Japanese plan was to ground every plane we had so as to avoid be­ing pursued. It seems that the attack was begun by striking at Kaneohe; then dive bombers swarmed over the Army Air Base at Hickam Field and the Naval Air Station at Ford Island; then it was that torpedo planes and dive bomb­ers came in and concentrated their attack on our ships lying at anchor in Pearl Harbor. The gen­eral assault, beginning at 7:55 a.m., con­tinued until 9:45 a.m., when the enemy force, considerably crip­pled by our counteroffensive, retired from the scene.

The enemy force of some 105 bombers not only destroyed or damaged many ships of the U.S. Pacific Fleet but also destroyed most of the aircraft in the islands. Twenty of the enemy planes were shot down by our surprised and some­what be­wildered forces. Fortunately, only eighty-six ships of our fleet were at Pearl Harbor at the time; two task forces were at sea carrying out as­signed missions, leaving two such task forces in the harbor; and five of our battleships with auxi­liary craft were in the Atlantic as a guard against Germany. But the loss to our Navy was for the moment exceed­ingly severe. Five battleships (the Arizona, Oklahoma, California, Neva­da, and West Virginia), three de­stroyers (the Shaw, Cassin, and Downes), the old battleship Utah converted to a target vessel, the mine layer Oglala, and a large floating dry dock were all either sunk or so damaged that they could not be of any ser­vice for many months there­after. Heavily damaged but back into service in a few months were three battle­ships (the Penn­syl­vania, Mary­land, and Tennessee); three crui­sers (the Helena, Honolulu, and Raleigh); the sea­plane ten­der Curtis; and the repair ship Ves­tal.

Nearly all of the 273 Army planes at Hickam and Wheeler Fields were destroyed, and of the Navy’s 202 planes, 150 were destroyed early in the attack. Alto­gether, thirty-eight American planes were able to rise from the ground to meet the enemy. Anti-air­craft fire was the principal defense avail­able to our fleet.

The real gravity of this battle consisted of the long list of casualties suffered by our forces: 2,343 American service men dead, 1,272 wounded, and 966 missing. The Navy suffered the heavier losses: 2,117 killed, 876 wounded, and 960 missing. The Army losses were 226 killed or later dying of wounds and 396 wounded survivors.

The people of Hawaii were naturally more af­fected by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor than were most Americans. They arose in­stantly to meet the crisis. Honolulu was the first American city on which bombs from the air had fallen in any war, and its people gave their blood, rolled bandages, dug trenches, built shel­ters, and with little hesi­tancy surrendered most of their civil rights, as they of necessity were subjected to martial law.

In a remarkable fashion the Hawaiians be­came alert, keeping a watchful eye on the resi­dent Japan­ese, who make up more than one-third of the popu­lation of the islands. Among these Japanese were some, comparatively few, who had come to the islands under the guise of friendly tourists or la­borers, but who in reality were spies sent by Japan for the purpose of keeping the enemy informed of activities and plans of our Army and Navy.

The line of troops and supplies from the U.S. be­gan after 7 December to pour into Hawaii in ever-increasing amounts. Military posts and bases were established all over the islands, for it was widely believed that the enemy would make an at­tempt to invade the country. From the big guns at Fort Barrette on Oahu to the smaller en­campments on the less populated islands of Kauai and Molo­kai-everywhere there were mech­anized and fast-moving troops, some trained for mountain fighting and some for jungle warfare.

The joint command of Hawaii by General Wal­ter C. Short for the Army and Admiral Husband E. Kimmel for the Navy was im­me­diately terminated, and in the reorganization of the islands’ defenses, Lieu­tenant General Delos C. Emmons was put in com­mand of all military and civil affairs and Ad­miral C. W. Nimitz was made commander of the fleet.

The work of rehabilitating the islands’ de­fen­ses was an epic of American ingenuity and skill. The harbors were dredged, the docks re­paired and en­larged; working day and night, car­penters and wel­ders and machinists gave them­selves without re­serve to the work of repair and new construction, and in a few months’ time not only Pearl Harbor but all Hawaii became the greatest bastion of strength in the world, ready to meet any onslaught by a treacherous enemy.

The Pearl Harbor attack partially wrecked and completely immobilized for several months a great part of the U.S. Naval forces in the Pacific. Among the battleships sunk or damaged was the Okla­homa, one of the older ships of the fleet. She lay with about a third of her bottom exposed and slop­ing at a 30-degree angle. By skill and hard work it was possible after some fifteen months to float her. First, a scale model was built and mounted in exactly the same position as the cap­sized ship. Divers studied this model before going down in the oily much be­low decks to close compartments. When this was done, steel cables anchored to the ship’s hull and powered by elec­tric motors set up on nearby Ford Island slowly drew the 29,000-ton ship over until she was up­right. Then the salvage men removed as much weight as possible from the ship, sealed the breeches, re-floated the ship, and removed it to a dry dock to be cleaned, rewired and rebuilt, and furnished with the latest equipment.

The audacity and daring of the Japanese at­tack was only exceeded by their barefaced dupli­city. No warning was given, not even a Hitler­esque ulti­ma­tum so often used when German legions were poi­sed to invade some neighboring coun­try. At the very moment when the first bombs were falling on Hawaii, two Japanese en­voys were sitting in the office of Secretary of State Hull, making their bland­est protestations of friendship and peaceful in­tentions.

Ambassador Namura and Envoy Kurusu were typical of the Japanese spirit and attitude on mat­ters of international importance; neither they nor their superiors knew what honor is in international dealings. As Secretary Hull care­fully read the docu­ment handed to him by these two men, the states­men schooled in many years of honorable diplomatic experience found his tem­per rising-the temper of a righteous man shocked by the low depths to which humanity can sometimes sink-and he flung in the faces of the envoys these words: “In all my thirty years of public service I have never seen a document that was more crowded with infamous false­hoods and distortions-on a scale so huge that I never imagined until today that any govern­ment on this planet was capable of ut­ter­ing them.”

With the public announcement of the attack on Pearl Harbor and the duplicity of the Japan­ese en­voys, something happened to the Ameri­can people. The country sprang to arms, the fleets went into action, and everywhere in the Pacific our garrisons were readied. Within a week after the Pearl Harbor attack, two divi­sions of infantry were rushed by train to the Pacific Coast; air reinforcements flew to the Pana­ma Canal; detachments of Coast Guard ar­til­lery were sent as far as Chile to help defend the western coast of South America. Within ten days all the critical areas on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts were reinforced. Within six weeks, 600,000 troops with their equipment were moved by rail to defensive positions. One Ameri­can divi­sion arrived in Northern Ireland in late January 1942. During the first ten days of the war, two fast convoys left San Francisco for Pearl Harbor. Two transports with 4,500 troops en route from Hawaii to the Philippines at the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor were diverted from their intended destination and after fifteen days reached Brisbane, Aus­tralia.

All these movements of troops were only a promise of what was to follow in ever-increasing tempo. By June 1942, the defenses of the South­west Pacific found 150,000 American ground troops ready to defend Australia and New Zea­land from the Japanese. All across the nation, from coast to coast, from border to border, the U.S. Army was on the move. Trucks rumbled along the high­ways; numberless trains moved east and west, north and south, carrying troops to ports, coastal strong­holds, recruits to training camp-all military secrets as to destination. Ameri­can sprang to arms, and this unheralded military movement began within forty-eight hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Pearl Harbor may have been the most costly naval defeat in all history, for, by eliminating U.S. naval power in the Pacific temporarily the Japan­ese were able to establish themselves in the islands and on the shores of the Southwest Pacific with in­credible rapidity. They had time to dig in, and it took nearly four years to dis­lodge them. The long-range results of Pearl Har­bor were indeed cata­s­trophic!

The Japanese apparently did not at the time know of the extent of their victory at Pearl Har­bor, and the U.S. government saw to it that they could not know. Even the American public did not know the whole story until a full year had pas­sed. When Secretary Knox issued his report on 15 December 1941, eight days after Pearl Har­bor, he listed cer­tain ships damaged, but much was withheld for mili­tary security; he also revealed many deeds of heroism, unforgettable bravery, and resource­ful­ness by U.S. officers and men during the inferno of Japanese assault.

America Goes to War

When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on 7 De­cember 1941, they set in motion certain forces that would spell their doom. On 8 De­cem­ber the Con­gress of the United States at the re­quest of the President issued a Declaration of War against Japan; in the Senate the vote was unanimous, in the House there was but one dis­senting vote. Two days later, the same Congress declared war on Ger­many and Italy. “The lights went out, the power went on.” In Washington and the coastal cities and even in many cities in the interior, the lights went out for the duration or were subdued against pos­si­ble air attack. Steel-helmeted troops with shining bayo­nets stood before the gates of military estab­lish­ments and in areas where war production was in progress. Enemy aliens, German, Japanese, Italian, were hurried to prisons or detention camps. In­terceptor and patrol planes sailed cease­lessly about the shores of the Atlantic and Pacific. Con­gress prepared to muster the man­power of the United States: 10,000,000 men be­tween 19 and 45 for military service; 30,000,000 men up to 65 for defense activities of all kinds. The American peo­ple marched forward without indecision or fear.

Japanese in Hawaii

The population of the Hawaiian Islands when the war broke out was less than 500,000. Of these, 160,000 were Japanese, by far the largest ethnic group. Early in the war about 2,000 were sent to the mainland of the U.S. for internment, the princi­pal reason for shipping out such a small number being the lack of vessels. Military intelligence offi­cers kept a close watch on those remaining in the islands, and interned several hundred more in camps located in Hawaii. Not all of these were thought capable of subversive ac­tivities or sabo­tage, but circumstances in­di­cated that they had rea­son to be disloyal. A con­siderable number were taken into custody be­cause they gave expression to their favoritism for Japan, such as: “I hope Japan will win.” “Japan is my country.” “I am more Japan­ese than American.” “I like America, and have no hatred for it. But I am a Japanese, and I natu­rally want Japan to win.” These Japanese were in the main honest and outspoken in their sym­pa­thies.

George Horn, writing from Pearl Harbor in Sep­tember 1944, said: “Since Pearl Harbor, there has not been a single real case of Japanese sabo­tage or espionage in the Hawaiian Islands. In fact, there has been only one instance of any kind since the beginning of the war, and that involved a Ger­man.”

There is no doubt, however, that the Pearl Har­bor fiasco was assisted actively by Japanese spies planted in the island for this specific pur­pose, and passively by Japanese citizen resi­dents of Hawaii.

The activities of the Japanese spies were var­ied: many mysterious single men, with no local fam­ily ties, and few possessions, were found mov­ing from place to place, and were ap­prehended. There were Japanese taxi drivers, who it is known drove Japanese consular agents on prewar spying journeys near the islands’ busiest war areas. There were others gathering military information for the authorities back home. Many of the rumors of Japan­ese spying were run down and proved false. Some, how­ever, were only too true. One of the true ones is the story of a Japanese resident of Honolulu talking by phone with someone in Tokyo. During that conversation in cabalistic language, there was talk of flowers, such as “Yes, the hi­bis­cus is flower­ing, quite a few of them,” and talk of the numbers of planes seen in the skies, of search­lights, and other matters of military im­portance. The many flowers probably referred to ships.

That story was one of the true ones. The call came on Saturday night, twelve hours before the ene­­my struck. The American Army authorities inter­cepted the conversation. A complete tran­script was made within an hour and given to the experts who set to work to decipher it. General Short was noti­fied. Early next morning the Japan­ese struck.

To show the way in which the Japanese who had been planted in Hawaii as spies worked, Lieu­­tenant Clarence E. Dickinson, Navy flyer, gives us the following graphic account. At the time the attack on Pearl Harbor began, Lieu­tenant Dick­in­son was returning from Wake Is­land where he had gone to deliver twelve Grumman Wildcats of the Marine Fighter Squadron 211 to our garrison there. He was returning in the ear­ly morning of 7 De­cem­ber, and as he approached Pearl Harbor he saw great volumes of smoke rising thousands of feet into the air. Not know­ing the cause, he suddenly be­came aware of the true situation when Japanese Zeros came out of the smoke clouds and attacked him. In the fight that followed, his tail gunner, W. C. Miller, shot down one Zero and then himself was killed at his station. The controls of the ship hav­ing been shot away, it began to lose altitude, and Lieu­tenant Dickinson was forced to bail out, land­ing in a freshly plowed dirt road on the main­land.

Although slightly wounded in the ankle and suffering from the shock of landing, Dickinson, several miles away, made many futile attempts to get to Pearl Harbor in order to enter action again against the enemy. He met many Japan­ese men, women, and children, whom he en­treated to assist him in getting to Pearl Harbor where the battle was still raging. They “ex­cused” themselves, showing full well that they had foreknowledge of the attack, were expecting it, and waiting eagerly for it. Some smirked at him.

Finally, through the efforts of a government employee, Lieutenant Dickinson was able to reach Pearl Harbor in time to see the big dive bombing attack that was going on about nine o’clock in the morning. Lieutenant Dickinson’s words tell the story: “The air was filled with false tips. Japs in the islands were sending out confusing messages from secret radio stations... We heard these messages on American fre­quen­cies, such as: ‘Carrier sighted here. Carriers sighted there. Troop transports and carriers approaching this place, transports just off that point.’ “

Kibei, Isseii, and Nisei

The group of Japanese most potentially dan­gerous were the Kibei, about 2,500 of them, native-born Japanese who had received most of their educa­tion, along with indoctrination in the holiness of the Nipponese mission, back home in Japan. For the most part these were arrogant, truculent, con­fi­dent that Japan would win. All such as were in the least suspicious were ap­pre­hended and placed in con­finement.

If the Kibei were the dangerous Japanese edu­cated in their homeland, the Isseii are Japan-born aliens, about 37,500 of them, mostly elderly peo­ple, and although fanatically loyal to Japan, they did not present any serious prob­lem. They enjoyed their loyalty to Japan by keep­ing quiet, and while they were carefully watched by the American au­thori­ties, they sel­dom wanted to cause any trouble.

The third class of Japanese in the islands are the Nisei; these are American-born citizens and are with scarcely an exception loyal and de­voted to American democracy and cherish the ad­vantages it offers. The early days of the war brought great an­guish to the members of the Nisei. They were mis­understood, suspected, and often suffered dis­crimi­nations of the most humi­li­ating sort. But the way that the Nisei have stood up under this discrimi­na­tion demon­strates their loyalty. And as time has pas­sed, they have proved in a hundred ways that loyalty to the United States.

One entire battalion of the Territorial Guard (the National Guard units having been called to ac­tive duty) was composed of Nisei, most of whom were college students, and the battalion was as­signed to important guard duty; but the question of security was raised by suspicious per­sons, and so the battalion was disbanded, to the great dis­ap­point­ment of the members. The Nisei then formed the Varsity Victory Volun­teers (VVV) and offered their services to the mili­tary governor of Hawaii, ap­pealing for any kind of work, even without pay. They were given labor-battalion tasks such as carpen­try, ditch digging, and all sorts of heavy work. In the begin­ning they steadfastly refused to accept any pay, but the government insisted, and paid them a nominal sum.

At first the government was unwilling to accept the Nisei into the fighting forces; but hav­ing proved their loyalty, these Nisei were ac­cepted for military service. A call was issued by the Army for 1,500 men; but more than 9,600 re­sponded, in­cluding the VVV in a body. The Army then raised its quota to 2,400, and this num­ber were inducted into the service. They were trained and have proved to be among the best and most dependable men in the Army. Some of the Nisei in this country were drafted, but many did as those in Hawaii had done—volunteered.

The 100th Infantry Battalion, composed of Japanese-American soldiers, spearheaded Fifth Army advances through Italy and became the most decorated unit in Army history. Members of the bat­talion were recruited almost entirely from Japan­ese-Americans in Hawaii, and re­cei­ved more than a thousand Purple Hearts, fifty-five Silver Stars, thirty-one Bronze Stars, nine Distinguished Service Crosses, three Legion of Merit Medals, and two Presi­dential Unit Citations. They were the first Americans to take Ger­man prisoners in Italy and the first to knock out a Nazi tank. They ran up another impressive record with not one de­ser­tion and not a single hour of ab­sence without leave in three years of their exis­tence as a bat­talion.

Japanese Attack on the Island Way-stations to the Philippines

The Battle of Pearl Harbor was accompanied by a series of attacks on the island way-stations to the Philippines.

Midway Island

As tension in the Pacific had increased during the months prior to Pearl Harbor, Midway Is­land came to be looked upon as an extremely important out­post, a focal point in our defense system. On 7 December 1941 there were 1,931 civilian workers camped on Midway, construct­ing ground, naval, and air defenses, for which Congress had ap­pro­pri­ated the sum of $5,000,000. The island was garri­soned by a bat­talion of U.S. Marines.

The first attack on Midway seems to have been by surface vessels on 7 December 1941 and was fol­lowed by repeated attacks from the air. Two ene­my task forces were hurled against the de­fenders, but both were repulsed. The well-trained Marines waited until the Japanese ships came within close range, and then the shore batteries opened up. A cruiser and a de­stroyer were sunk. On 10 March 1942, U.S. Marine aviators from Mid­way intercepted an ap­proaching formation of Japan­ese bombers, shot down one and forced the others to turn back. The garrison at Midway sur­vived all ene­my attacks and remained in American hands throughout the war. From this vantage point, our forces were able to inflict heavy damage on the Japanese Fleet some months later.

Wake Island

Wake Island, lying west of the International Date Line where time is one day ahead of Hawai­ian time, was attacked on the morning of 8 December 1941 (7 December 1941 Hawaiian time), a few minutes after the attack at Pearl Harbor. We had pre­sent on Wake at the time a garrison of 443 Marines under the command of Major J. P. S. Devereux and about a thousand civilian workers from the U.S. who were engaged in building the de­fenses of the island. The battle of Wake Island is one of the most heroic episodes of this war. The Ame­ricans put up a long battle, surviving attacks by land and by sea. On 10 December 1941 the Japan­ese attempted to land, but were beaten off with heavy loss to them, a cruiser and a destroyer being sunk. For two weeks the Marine garrison was under bom­bard­ment. They had only twelve planes, twelve anti-aircraft guns, no gun over five inches, no bombers, and no naval support. Yet they endured the battle for fourteen days.

To this fourteen-day attack, by about three hundred enemy bombers and two attempts of the Japanese Fleet to make landings, our garrison responded with stiff resistance, making one of the most re­source­ful defenses of all time. Civilian workers helped the Marines repair planes so that they could take to the air again, and in so doing a number of civilian workers were killed. The heavi­est naval attack came on 11 December and was followed by a large force of enemy tanks attempting to land. The Marines were over­whelmed by enemy numbers and were finally forced to surrender on 24 De­cem­ber 1941.

The victory was a costly one for the Japan­ese, who lost a cruiser, four destroyers, and a sub­marine, while several other warships were dam­aged and a dozen Japanese planes were shot down.

In a dispatch from Nagasaki, Japan, 24 Sep­tem­ber 1945, George Weller revealed to a wait­ing world some facts about the Americans taken pri­soners on Wake:

American troops that landed at the huge Japanese naval base of Sasebo this weekend saw a 75-foot tall concrete irrigation dam-but few knew it was built with American blood. Japan owes the United States more than fifty lives for the building of this dam, lives of American civilians captured at Wake who literally were starved and worked to death at notorious camp No. 18. The imposing array of Japanese admirals and vice-admirals who greeted Lieutenant General Walter Krueger’s Sixth Army vanguard said nothing about the death camp. All traces now have been removed. But in an obscure plot of land, on a hill overlooking the dam, are row upon row of graves of Americans, who died from starvation, disease and pneumonia that Japan might be strong. Such is Sasebo’s “horio haka” or prisoner graveyard of camp No. 18. Two hundred and sixty-five Ame­r­i­cans were captured on Wake Island where they worked for the Pacific Naval Airbase Company. Many of them had gal­lantly helped defend the is­land during the bloody battle. They were brought to Sasebo on 13 October 1942.

Guam

Guam was an isolated port in the Marianas. In 1939 the U.S. Congress had refused the Presi­dent’s request to fortify the island. About five hundred Americans constituted the entire garrison, but had no heavy artillery and lacked adequate air strength.

The Japanese attack coming from nearby Rota Island on 11 December 1941, the American garri­son was not able to defend itself; however, it made a brave stand, but was compelled to surrender on 12 December 1941.

Pearl Harbor “Too Successful” Says the Jap High Command

Almost four years after the Pearl Harbor attack, the world was still learning facts about this ini­tial as­sault which flung the U.S. so violently in­to the war. Following the Japanese surrender, American correspondents secured the Japanese view­point from the Secretary of the Naval Min­is­try of Japan, Captain Ryonosuke Imamura, who said that the at­tack on Pearl Harbor was “too successful,” so that the Japanese Navy had no sufficiently prompt plan to capitalize on the unexpectedly crushing blow. The Japanese had expected a much greater defense at so im­por­tant a base, he said. The fleet had been told to bomb and leave, and had no troops ready to make a landing which, if made, probably would have resulted in the taking of Hawaii.

The Japanese said that the attack was made by planes from four aircraft carriers, protected by three battleships, eight cruisers, and twenty de­stroyers. It was six months later before the Japanese under­took the next operation accord­ing to their plan, when they made the unsuc­cessful assault against Mid­way. The Japanese had planned to occupy Mid­way Island, 1,450 miles northwest of Pearl Har­bor, but the Ameri­can victory in the Battle of Mid­way, 3-6 June 1942, wrecked their hopes.

Following Pearl Harbor, Japanese sub­ma­rines showed excellent results, and were able to patrol all the way from Hawaii to the western coast of the United States, according to Ima­mura. But when the Americans invaded the Solo­mons, the Japanese sub­marines were no longer able to attack convoys at will, because those islands provided bases for American planes to protect the convoys. Alto­gether 126 Japan­ese submarines were lost during the war, the majority sunk by aerial attack. At the end of the war, Japan had left sixty submarines intact to be surrendered to the United States.

The Japanese stated that their submarine shell­ings of oil tanks in certain California coas­tal cities was done because they were regarded as important war assets, not to terrorize the popu­lation. And the strategic purpose of the Japan­ese attacks in the Aleutians was to pro­tect the Japanese home is­lands, not to invade the United States.

Imamura expressed the belief that Japan lost the war because she did not concentrate on air power until too late. He said: “We started the air war at Pearl Harbor and Singapore but made the mis­take of not following those tactics. In my opin­ion, the defeat of our fleet at Midway, where we lost four aircraft carriers, was the turn­ing point of the war. In the later period of the war, we did not have enough planes and had to send out a few instead of many.”

In spite of these mistakes, Japan undeniably won the first round of the war in the assault on Pearl Harbor and the island way-stations of Midway, Wake, and Guam. The way now lay wide open for the enemy to wear down the de­fenses and land in the Philippines. All danger of flank attacks from the U.S. Pacific islands was over, for our out­posts had been captured or neu­tralized.

We now turn our attention to the effect the attack on Pearl Harbor had on the people of the Uni­ted States and the other democracies of the world. Nothing could have happened that so quickly and so effectively cemented the Ameri­can people into one solid phalanx with unflinch­ing re­solve to avenge this dastardly act.

Nothing could have happened that instantly brought to our side the voluntary offerings of al­li­an­ces and aid from other free nations.

The great blunder of the Japanese was in strik­ing at Pearl Harbor when and as she did.

"The Japanese Sneak Attack on Pearl Harbor". Charcoal and chalk by Commander Griffith Bailey Coale, USNR, Official U.S. Navy Combat Artist, 1944. This artwork ... shows the destruction wrought on ships of the U.S. Pacific Fleet attacked in their berths by scores of enemy torpedo planes, horizontal and dive bombers on December 7, 1941. At the extreme left is the stern of the cruiser Helena, while the battleship Nevada steams past and three geysers, caused by near bomb misses, surround her. In the immediate foreground is the capsizing minelayer Oglala. The battleship to the rear of the Oglala is the California, which has already settled. At the right, the hull of the capsized Oklahoma can be seen in front of the Maryland; the West Virginia in front of the Tennessee; and the Arizona settling astern of the Vestal ..., seen at the extreme right. The artist put this whole scene together for the first time in the early summer of 1944, from 1010 Dock, in Pearl Harbor, where he was ordered for this duty. Coale worked under the guidance of Admiral William R. Furlong, Commandant of the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard, who stepped from his Flagship, the Oglala, as she capsized (quoted from the original Combat Art description).

 

Japanese war art painting, in oils, by Tsuguji Fujita, 1942, depicting attacks around Ford Island. The original painting measures about 2.7M by 1.7M.

Chief Boatswain Edwin J. Hill . During the 7 December 1941 Japanese air raid on Pearl Harbor, he was serving on board USS Nevada (BB-36). In the midst of the attack, he led the ship's line handling detail in casting off from the quays alongside Ford Island so that Nevada could get underway. He was killed by enemy bombs while attempting to drop anchor at the end of the battleship's brief sortie. For his heroism during the Pearl Harbor action, Chief Boatswain Hill was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.  "For distinguished conduct in the line of his profession, extraordinary courage, and disregard of his own safety during the attack on the Fleet in Pearl Harbor, by Japanese Forces on 7 December 1941. During the height of the strafing and bombing, Chief Boatswain Hill led his men of the line-handling details of the U.S.S. Nevada to the quays, cast off the lines and swam back to his ship. Later, while on the forecastle attempting to let go the anchors, he was blown overboard and killed by the explosion of several bombs."

Captain Donald Kirby Ross. During the 7 December 1941 Japanese air raid on Pearl Harbor, he was serving on board USS Nevada (BB-36). When the ship was badly damaged by bombs and torpedoes, he kept the dynamo rooms operating until he was overpowered by smoke, steam, heat and exhaustion. For his courageous conduct, Machinist Ross was awarded the Medal of Honor.  "For distinguished conduct in the line of his profession, extraordinary courage and disregard of his own life during the attack on the Fleet in Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii, by Japanese Forces on 7 December 1941. When his station in the forward dynamo room of the U.S.S. Nevada became almost untenable due to smoke, steam and heat, Lieutenant Commander Ross forced his men to leave that station and performed all the duties himself until blinded and unconscious. Upon being rescued and resuscitated, he returned and secured the forward dynamo room and proceeded to the after dynamo room where he was later again rendered unconscious by exhaustion. Again recovering consciousness he returned to his station where he remained until directed to abandon it." (Note the Medal of Honor ribbon on his jacket.)

"This is not a Drill" Dispatch, 12/7/1941: This Navy dispatch sent from the Commander in Chief of the Pacific announces the attack on the U.S. Naval Base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii by the Japanese Navy. It was received at the Squantum Naval Reserve Aviation Base on December 7, 1941 from the First Naval District. It states, "AIR RAID ON PEARL HARBOR X THIS IS NOT DRILL."

Panorama view of Pearl Harbor, during the Japanese raid, with anti-aircraft shell bursts overhead. The photograph looks southwesterly from the hills behind the harbor. Large column of smoke in lower right center is from the burning USS Arizona (BB-39). Smoke somewhat further to the left is from the destroyers Shaw (DD-373), Cassin (DD-372) and Downes (DD-375), in drydocks at the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard.

Halftone reproduction of a photograph taken from a Japanese plane during the torpedo attack on the ships moored on both sides of Ford Island. View looks about southeast, with Honolulu and Diamond Head in the right distance. Torpedoes have just struck USS West Virginia and USS Oklahoma on the far side of Ford Island. On the near side of the island, toward the left, USS Utah and USS Raleigh have already been torpedoed. Fires are burning at the seaplane base, at the right end of Ford Island. Across the channel from the seaplane base, smoke along 1010 Dock indicates that USS Helena has also been torpedoed.

View looking toward the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard from the Aiea area, in the morning of 7 December 1941, during or soon after the end of the Japanese air raid. USS Nevada (BB-36) is in the center distance. Large column of smoke to the left of her is from USS Shaw (DD-373), burning in the floating drydock YFD-2. Battleship Row is in the right center. Largest mass of smoke there comes from USS Arizona (BB-39).

A Navy photographer snapped this photograph of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on December 7, 1941, just as the USS Shaw exploded. The stern of the USS  Nevada can be seen in the foreground.

View looking down Battleship Row from Ford Island Naval Air Station, shortly after the Japanese torpedo plane attack. USS California (BB-44) is at left, listing to port after receiving two torpedo hits. In the center are USS Maryland (BB-46) with the capsized USS Oklahoma (BB-37) alongside. USS Neosho (AO-23) is at right, backing clear of the area. Most smoke is from USS Arizona (BB-39).

View of Battleship Row from the head of 1010 dock, during or immediately after the Japanese raid. USS Arizona (BB-39) is sunk and burning at right. USS West Virginia (BB-48) is in the right center, sunk alongside USS Tennessee (BB-43), with oil fires shrouding them both. The capsized USS Oklahoma (BB-37) is in the left center, alongside USS Maryland (BB-46). Note wire spools in the right foreground, one marked Crescent Wire & Cable Co., Trenton, N.J.

View of Battleship Row during or immediately after the Japanese raid. USS West Virginia (BB-48) is at the right sunk alongside USS Tennessee (BB-43), with oil fires shrouding them both. The capsized USS Oklahoma (BB-37) is at the left, alongside USS Maryland (BB-46). Crewmen on the latter's stern are using firehoses to try to push burning oil away from their ship.

Vertical aerial view of Battleship Row, beside Ford Island, during the early part of the horizontal bombing attack on the ships moored there. Photographed from a Japanese aircraft. Ships seen are (from left to right): USS Nevada; USS Arizona with USS Vestal moored outboard; USS Tennessee with USS West Virginia moored outboard; USS Maryland with USS Oklahoma moored outboard; and USS Neosho, only partially visible at the extreme right. A bomb has just hit Arizona near the stern, but she has not yet received the bomb that detonated her forward magazines. West Virginia and Oklahoma are gushing oil from their many torpedo hits and are listing to port. Oklahoma's port deck edge is already under water. Nevada has also been torpedoed.

USS Phoenix (CL-46) steams down the channel off Ford Island's Battleship Row, past the sunken and burning USS West Virginia (BB-48), at left, and USS Arizona (BB-39), at right, 7 December 1941.

Battleship Row. This Japanese propaganda photograph, circulated to neutral countries, carried the caption, "Our Sea Eagles' determined attack had already opened, and a column of water from a direct torpedo hit on a Maryland class is rising [the West Virginia, which is listing to port]. On the surface of the water concentric waves are traced by the direct torpedo hits, while murky oil flows out. The three bright white streaks between the waves are the torpedo tracks. In the distance the conflagration at the Hickam Field hangars is seen."

On the first anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japan issued a stamp bearing a photograph of the attack, taken within seconds of the previous photograph.

Vertical aerial view of Battleship Row, beside Ford Island, soon after USS Arizona was hit by bombs and her forward magazines exploded. Photographed from a Japanese aircraft. Ships seen are (from left to right): USS Nevada; USS Arizona (burning intensely) with USS Vestal moored outboard; USS Tennessee with USS West Virginia moored outboard; and USS Maryland with USS Oklahoma capsized alongside. Smoke from bomb hits on Vestal and West Virginia is also visible.

View looking up Battleship Row on 7 December 1941, after the Japanese attack. USS Arizona (BB-39) is in the center, burning furiously. To the left of her are USS Tennessee (BB-43) and the sunken USS West Virginia (BB-48).

Sailors in a motor launch rescue a survivor from the water alongside the sunken USS West Virginia (BB-48) during or shortly after the Japanese air raid on Pearl Harbor. USS Tennessee (BB-43) is inboard of the sunken battleship. Note extensive distortion of West Virginia's lower midships superstructure, caused by torpedoes that exploded below that location. Also note 5/25 gun, still partially covered with canvas, boat crane swung outboard and empty boat cradles near the smokestacks, and base of radar antenna atop West Virginia's foremast.

American sailors fight the fires on the battleship USS West Virginia.

USS Nevada (BB-36) headed down channel past the Navy Yard's 1010 Dock, under Japanese air attack during her sortie from "Battleship Row". A camouflage Measure 5 false bow wave is faintly visible painted on the battleship's forward hull. Photographed from Ford Island. Small ship in the lower right is USS Avocet (AVP-4). Note fuel tank "farm" in the left center distance, beyond the Submarine Base.

USS Nevada (BB-36) afire and down at the bow, after she was bombed by Japanese planes while attempting to get to sea. Photographed from Ford Island. Note men in Nevada's main top, manning .50 caliber machine guns.

USS Nevada (BB-36) heading down channel, afire from several Japanese bomb hits, as seen from Ford Island during the latter part of the attack. Ship whose boom and flagstaff are visible at left is USS Avocet (AVP-4). Note camouflage Measure 5 false bow wave painted on Nevada.

USS Nevada (BB-36) afire off the Ford Island seaplane base, with her bow pointed up-channel. USS Shaw (DD-373) is burning in the floating dry dock YFD-2 in the left background. Photographed from Ford Island, with a dredging line at left.

Gunners on board USS Avocet (AVP-4) look for more Japanese planes, at about the time the air raid ended. Photographed from atop a building at Naval Air Station Ford Island, looking toward the Navy Yard. USS Nevada (BB-36) is at right, with her bow afire. Beyond her is the burning USS Shaw (DD-373). Smoke at left comes from the destroyers Cassin (DD-372) and Downes (DD-375), ablaze in Drydock Number One.

USS Nevada (BB-36) headed down channel after being intensely attacked by Japanese dive bombers. Photographed from Ford Island, with USS Avocet (AVP-4) in the foreground and the dredge line in the middle distance.

USS Nevada (BB-36) aground and burning off Waipio Point, after the end of the Japanese air raid. Ships assisting her, at right, are the harbor tug Hoga (YT-146) and USS Avocet (AVP-4).

USS Nevada (BB-36) beached and burning after being hit forward by Japanese bombs and torpedoes. Her pilothouse area is discolored by fires in that vicinity. The harbor tug Hoga (YT-146) is alongside Nevada's port bow, helping to fight fires on the battleship's forecastle. Note channel marker bouy against Nevada's starboard side.

Damage to the forecastle deck of USS Nevada (BB-36), caused by the explosion of a Japanese bomb below decks. Gun barrels of the battleship's forward 14"/45 triple turret are in the background. Photographed on 12 December 1941 from on board USS Rail (AM-26), which was tied up alongside Nevada's starboard bow, assisting with salvage efforts. Note officer in center, wearing a .45 caliber pistol.

View on deck looking aft toward the forward 14"/45 gun turrets and superstructure, showing bomb damage received during the Pearl Harbor attack on 7 December 1941. Photographed was taken five days later, on 12 December.

Hole in the ship's port side caused by a Japanese Type 91 aerial torpedo that hit her during the 7 December 1941 air raid. Photographed on 19 February 1942, in Pearl Harbor Navy Yard's Drydock Number Two. The view runs from about Frame 37 at left to about Frame 44 at right. The battleship's side armor is visible inside the hole's upper section.

Hole in the ship's port side, between about Frame 38 and Frame 46, caused by a Japanese Type 91 aerial torpedo that hit her during the 7 December 1941 air raid. Photographed on about 19 February 1942, in Pearl Harbor Navy Yard's Drydock Number Two. The battleship's side armor is visible inside the hole's upper section.

The sunken battleship West Virginia (BB-48) after her fires were out, possibly on 8 December 1941. USS Tennessee (BB-48) is inboard. An OS2U floatplane (marked 4-O-3) is upside down on West Virginia's main deck. A second OS2U is partially burned out atop the Turret # 3 catapult. Note radar antenna atop West Virginia's foremast.

USS Tern (AM-31) fighting fires aboard the sunken USS West Virginia (BB-48), on 7 December 1941, immediately after the Japanese raid. Note radar antenna, paravanes and 16/45 twin gun turrets on the battleship.

The capsized hull of USS Oklahoma (BB-37), with a barge alongside to support rescue efforts, probably on 8 December 1941. USS Maryland (BB-46) is at right, and USS California (BB-44) is in the center distance.

The damaged USS Curtiss (AV-4), at left, and USS Medusa (AR-1), at right, at their moorings soon after the Japanese raid. Note that Curtiss has been fitted with an air search radar.

USS Downes (DD-375), at left, and USS Cassin (DD-372), capsized at right, burned out and sunk in the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard drydock on 7 December 1941, after the Japanese attack. The relatively undamaged USS Pennsylvania (BB-38) is in the background,

A sailor killed by the Japanese air attack washes ashore at Naval Air Station, Kanoehe Bay.

Admiral Chester W. Nimitz awards the Navy Cross to Ship's Cook Second Class Petty Officer Doris (Dorie) Miller for heroism on the U.S.S. West Virginia battleship. March 1942.

Doris Miller showing Navy Cross received in ceremony at Pearl Harbor.

Chief Watertender Peter Tomich, USN, who was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for heroism on board USS Utah (AG 16) during the Dec. 7, 1941 Japanese air attack on Pearl Harbor.