Japanese planes bomb Pearl Harbor
A surprise attack on its Pacific fleet brings the US into the Second World War
Theclock had just ticked past five to eight in the morning when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Tension between Tokyo and Washington had been building for weeks. Even so, none of the American airmen and sailors at Pearl Harbor that day had any expectation that Japan would strike with such devastating speed.
Some 353 Japanese planes descended in two thick black waves on the Hawaiian naval base. What followed was hell on earth. More than 2,400 Americans were killed, almost 200 aircraft were destroyed, four battleships were sunk and another four were badly damaged. Just two hours after they had screamed out of the sky, the Japanese were gone. They left a scene of total devastation, black smoke pouring from the wreckage of the ships.
In Washington, it was lunchtime. President Franklin D Roosevelt was in the Oval Office, having lunch with his close adviser Harry Hopkins, when the phone rang. It was the Navy Department: Pearl Harbor was under attack, and this was no drill. While his aides scrambled to get confirmation, Roosevelt’s wife Eleanor watched his face. It was clear, she said later that “the final blow had fallen and we had been attacked”. Yet while others panicked, Roosevelt himself remained calm. After talking to his military advisers, he spoke on the phone to Winston Churchill, and said: “We are all in the same boat now.”
The next day, Roosevelt went to Congress to ask for a declaration of war. The American people, he assured them, would not rest until they had avenged the horror of 7 December 1941, “a date which will live in infamy”.