On Sunday, December 7th, 1941, an event occurred that arguably tipped the balance on the future of Europe. At 7:58 local time, 177 Japanese planes approached the island of Hawaii, and bombed the American naval base of Pearl Harbour.
On this date I feel it is suitable to write a short piece on Pearl Harbour.
The slower torpedo naval bombers led the way, remedying their speed by their element of surprise, and attacked the USA's capital ships. In total 414 planes as well as well as 2 battleships and 9 destroyers would be used in the attack on the moored American fleet. 4 of 8 American battleships were sunk, and the rest damaged. 2,400 Americans died, including 68 civilians. Naval strategy in the USA was forced to move away from battleship primacy, and began to focus on carrier primacy. The face of the second world war was changed.
The USA would go on to help the Allies chase the 3rd Reich all the way back to Berlin, and would eventually defeat Japan too. But Pearl Harbour represents how significant the USA is, both in spirit and power, and to international politics. The attack on Pearl Harbour drew the Americans into the European Theatre too, and would open up the Western Front on D-Day with an allied force landing in Normandy. Their influence in WW2 solidified them as a superpower for decades to come, but it originated from a tactical loss, which was ultimately overcome.
At Pearl Harbour, the American's captured their first prisoner of war of the conflict. Kazuo Sakamaki had been part of a two man crew in a midget submarine as part of the attack on Pearl Harbour. His submarine had become stuck on Waimanalo Beach, and attempted to set off an explosive charge, which failed. He swam to the bottom of the submarine to check the explosives, but fell unconscious. He woke up on hospital, under American guard.
Later, Sakamaki made a request to commit suicide, but was refused. By the end of the war he returned to Japan, as a pacifist.
This is just one story of the many thousands of soldiers and sailors involved in the attack on Pearl Harbour. It was bloody and ironically, in the long term it established the USA as a superpower, as cut above the rest. But on the infamous date, Pearl Harbour should be remembered as what it was - a horror of war, which will hopefully never happen again.
