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A second wage of planes
A second wave of 167 planes followed about an hour later. American sailors fought back, struggling to get their planes off the ground and fire their guns at targets they couldn't quite see.
A fleet of midget submarines was also part of the Japanese attack. These subs dropped deadly torpedoes, which had been modified with wooden fins to run their course in the shallow waters of Pearl Harbor. -
Opana Radar Statio
At 7:02 a.m. at the Opana Radar Station on Oahu, privates Joseph Lockhard & George Elliott saw something on their screen. It looked like a lot of planes flying toward them. Lockhard and Elliott reported what they saw. The commanding officer on duty knew that a squadron of American planes was due in from California about the same time. Reasoning that what Lockhard and Elliott saw was that squadron of American planes, the commanding officer told the two privates not to worry. -
Ships damaged
Eight battleships were damaged in the attack, along with three destroyers and four other smaller ships. Among the battleship casualties:
The USS Arizona was struck by a torpedo, which hit a gun magazine.
The USS Oklahoma rolled over on its side
The USS West Virginia was struck numberous times by both torpedos and bombs.
The USS Nevada was struck numberous times by both torpedos and bombs.
Two other smaller ships, the Shaw and the Oglala, were badly damaged. (The Oglala capsized.) -
The first wage of planes
Japanese planes had taken off at 6 a.m. from aircraft carriers 230 miles away.The Japanese were attacking Pearl Harbor.At 7:55, the Japanese attacked with force. The first wave of 183 planes dropped bombs and fired bullets at the American ships and planes at three nearby airfields. -
The Damage
When the attack was finished, 21 of the 96 ships at anchor had been sunk and others had been severaly damaged. Of the 394 planes at Hickam, Wheeler, and Bellows airfields, 188 were destroyed and 159 were damaged. The death total was 2,403 (including 68 civilians). The wounded total was 1,178. The Japanese attack force lost 29 planes and a handful of midget submarines. -
The Result
When U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan the day after the attack, the answer was a resounding yes. An American that had been deeply divided over how much aid to give the Allies was not united in a common purpose: make the Japanese pay for their attack and rid the world of Nazism and Fascism. Moreover, the American aircraft carriers were not in port. They were out to sea.
