From the standpoint of the defenders, the attack commenced at 7:48 a.m. Hawaiian Time. The base was attacked by 353 Japanese fighter planes, bombers, and torpedo planes in two waves, launched from six aircraft carriers. All eight U.S. Navy battleships were damaged, with four being sunk. All but one (Arizona) were later raised, and six of the eight battleships were returned to service and went on to fight in the war. The Japanese also sank or damaged three cruisers, three destroyers, an anti-aircraft training ship, and one minelayer. 188 U.S. aircraft were destroyed; 2,403 Americans were killed and 1,178 others were wounded. Important base installations such as the power station, shipyard, maintenance, and fuel and torpedo storage facilities, as well as the submarine piers and headquarters building (also home of the intelligence section) were not attacked. Japanese losses were light: 29 aircraft and five midget submarines lost, and 65 servicemen killed or wounded. One Japanese sailor, Kazuo Sakamaki, was captured.
The attack came as a profound shock to the American people and led directly to the American entry into World War II in both the Pacific and European theaters. The following day, December 8, the United States declared war on Japan. Domestic support for non-interventionism, which had been strong, disappeared. Clandestine support of Britain (e.g., the Neutrality Patrol) was replaced by active alliance. Subsequent operations by the U.S. prompted Germany and Italy to declare war on the U.S. on December 11, which was reciprocated by the U.S. the same day.
Years later several writers alleged that parties high in the U.S. and British governments knew of the attack in advance and may have let it happen (or even encouraged it) with the aim of bringing America into war. However, this advance-knowledge conspiracy theory is rejected by mainstream historians.
There were numerous historical precedents for unannounced military action by Japan. However, the lack of any formal warning, particularly while negotiations were still apparently ongoing, led President Franklin D. Roosevelt to proclaim December 7, 1941, "a date which will live in infamy". Because the attack happened without a declaration of war and without explicit warning, the attack on Pearl Harbor was judged by the Tokyo Trials to be a war crime.
I could hardly blame her. She was living on the West Coast at the time and the folks there were POSITIVE that the West Coast was the next target for the "divine wind," Kamikaze".
The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor ended at approx. 3:00 A.M., Manila-time.
Gen. Douglas MacArthur was informed by telephone at 3:40 A.M.
Before 7:00 A.M., President Quezon had issued a statement to the radio: "The zero hour has arrived. I expect every Filipino - man and woman - to do his duty. We have pledged our honor to stand by the United States and we shall not fail her, happen what may."
At 9:25 A.M., Major General Brereton, MacArthur's air commander, had learned that carrier-based Japanese planes had bombed Tarlac, Tuguegarao, and Camp John Hay in northern Luzon.
And yet, sometime between 12:10 P.M. and 12:35 P.M., some 54 Mitsubishis and 56 Zeros swooped down on Clark Field.
"The Japanese could hardly believe their good fortune," writes William Manchester in his biography of MacArthur, American Caesar, "There lay their prey, bunched together, wing tips almost touching [...] By 1:37 P.M., when the last Japanese plane soared away, Clark was unrecognizable."
Regards,
More Americans were killed on 9/11 than at Pearl Harbor. And they were innocent civilians.
The Japanese were held to be war criminals for launching an unannounced, unprovoked attack on a military installation. Muslims are regularly defended as “peaceful” after an equally unannounced, unprovoked attack on a pair of office buildings and the seat of America’s military machine.
The bombing of Pearl Harbor prompted our immediate declaration of war against Imperial Japan. 9/11 brought hand-wringing angst and fears of “backlash” against muslimes.
What a nation we have become.
Later