The attack on Pearl Harbor was the event that entered the United States into World War II. The December 7th 1941, Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was a great defining moment in history. A single carefully planned and well-executed attack removed the United States Navy's battleship force as a possible threat to the Japanese Empire's southward expansion. America, unprepared, and now weakened, was abruptly brought into World War II.

Early in the morning of December 7, 1941, Japanese submarines and planes attacked the U.S. Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor. Nearby military airfields were also attacked by the Japanese planes. Eight American battleships and 13 other naval vessels were sunk or badly damaged and almost 200 American aircraft were destroyed.

On Saturday, December 6th, U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt made a final appeal to the Emperor of Japan for peace. There was no reply. Later that same day, the U.S. code-breaking

With most of the United States Pacific fleet temporarily out of action, Japan was able to proceed with its conquests with comparative ease. Guam fell on December 10th, Wake Island on December 23rd and the British surrendered Hong Kong on December 25th. Air attacks on the Philippines severely damaged the defending air force.

Now, let’s look at the attack on Pearl Harbor from the side of the Japanese. The Japanese attack fleet left its home waters on November 26th, steaming an indirect route towards Pearl Harbor. Fleet Commander, Vice Admiral Nagumo, received his final orders on December 1st, and on the morning of December 7th, the battle group was in position 275 miles north of Hawaii. At 6:00 AM, the first elements of the air attack consisting of fighter aircraft, torpedo bombers, high-level bombers and dive-bombers were aloft and assembling in the pre-dawn gloom.

Soon after the attack, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed a commission of inquiry to determine whether negligence had contributed to the success of the Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor. The commission's report found the naval and army commanders of the Hawaiian area, Rear Admiral Husband E. Kimmel and Major General Walter C. Short, guilty of “derelictions of duty” and “errors of judgment”; the two men were subsequently retired. Other later inquiries, however, differed in their conclusions. The Congress of the United States, in an effort to dispose of the controversy, decided on a full, public investigation after the war. The Bipartisan Congressional Committee opened its investigation in November 1945. Testimony from many people reviewed all known information about the attack on Pearl Harbor. The committee reported its findings in July 1946. It placed the primary blame on General Short and Admiral Kimmel, who, however, were declared guilty only of errors of judgment, and not of derelictions of duty. The committee recommended the unification of the U.S. armed forces, which occurred the following year.

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