Attack on Pearl Harbor
진주만 공격
The surprise attack by Japanese carrier forces on the US Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Hawaii, on 7 December 1941 (Hawaiian time). Planned by Isoroku Yamamoto to keep the American fleet from interfering with Japan's advance into Southeast Asia, it was carried out in two waves by 353 aircraft from six carriers under Chūichi Nagumo, damaging all eight battleships present and sinking four. 2,403 Americans were killed, and the United States declared war on Japan the next day, opening the Pacific War.
In depth
For months before the attack Japan and the United States negotiated over the future of the Pacific. Japan demanded an end to sanctions, an end to American aid to China in the Second Sino-Japanese War and access to the resources of the Dutch East Indies; the Hull note set out the American demand that Japan withdraw from China and French Indochina. The attack fleet sailed on 26 November, just before the Hull note arrived. The Japanese military called the attack the Hawaii Operation and Operation AI, and during planning Operation Z. On the same day Japan also attacked the Philippines, Guam and Wake Island, and British Malaya, Singapore and Hong Kong.
The attack began at 7:48 a.m. Hawaiian time. Besides the battleships, three cruisers, three destroyers and other vessels were sunk or damaged, more than 180 aircraft were destroyed, and 2,403 Americans were killed and 1,178 wounded. Japan lost 29 aircraft, five midget submarines and 130 men. But the three American carriers based at Pearl Harbor were at sea, and the oil storage and repair facilities were not attacked. Yamamoto's determination to destroy the surviving carriers led to the Midway operation the following year. On 11 December Germany and Italy declared war on the United States, merging the conflicts into a world war.