Pearl Harbor Dbq

“As costly as it was in the lives of our men and women in uniform, in military assets, and in esteem and pride, Pearl Harbor was a watershed moment for America” said former United States Representative Joe Baca, after the attack on Pearl Harbor (“Joe Baca”). The attack on Pearl Harbor changed the course of the war for an unprepared America by driving the United States and other nations into World War II. The Hawaiian island of Oahu was the location of an American Naval base, a few supporting army forts, and airfields (Shirer). The United States was publically clear with not sending American military into battle with the Germans of Japanese (“Japan Launches”). America was isolated from the beginning of World War II and believed the military

The plan of the attack began when Japan was becoming greedy and wanted to begin expanding to different Pacific land. To the Japanese, the attack was only seen as strategy, to secure the Pacific for oil shipments (“Pearl Harbor” International). The operation for the attack was formulated by Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto (Advantage “Military”). Under commands, the Japanese fleets had based themselves 200 miles north of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 at approximately 06:00 am Hawaiian time. For little over the next hour, the Japanese launched the three waves of approximately 360 aircrafts for the attack (“Japan Launches”). The Japanese looked to attack and destroy the United States military fleet in three waves. The first wave of the attack occurred at 07:55 am Sunday morning (“Japan Launches”). The other two waves were sent out shortly after 06:15 am (“Japan Launches”). The attack transpired without any worry or warning. Pearl Harbor had consequential effects due to damages that had been leftover, the unpreparedness from earlier economic struggles, shock from the attack, and the entrance of the United States and numerous other countries into World War

The following damages left a scar on America and caused many nations to come together and fight. Many Americans and weapons were destroyed, damaged, and wounded through this attack. The total number of aircrafts that were destroyed or damaged was approximately 350. Roughly 200 aircrafts were destroyed and about 150 planes were damaged, but salvageable (“Pearl Harbor” International). There were 21 ships that were sunk, intensely damaged, or beached (“Pearl Harbor” International). Providentially the United States Navy did not have the two aircraft carriers, Lexington and Enterprise, in the port at the time of the attack (“Pearl Harbor” International). The largest effect from the attack was from the U.S.S. Arizona; the ship had been hit by an armor piercing explosive (“Military.com”). The explosion and fire from the explosive ended lives of approximately half of the Americans killed that day. Out of about 2,400 about 1,200 crewmen were killed on the Arizona, this was one of the greatest loss of life on any ship on December 7th (“Pearl Harbor” International; Tierney “The Impact”). Fortunately, around 335 men aboard the U.S.S. Arizona escaped and survived the disaster the Japanese had planned (“Remembering”). All together approximately 2,000 in the Navy, 110 in the Marine Corps, 235 in the Army, and 50 Civilians were killed in