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HISTORY
Beyond Pearl Harbor: Things You Probably Didn’t Know
“Yesterday, December 7th, 1941 — a date which will live in infamy”
On the morning of December 7, 1941, Japan launched a sneak attack on the U.S. Pacific Fleet’s base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, as part of a plan to eliminate any potential challenge to Japanese conquests in Asia.
The Japanese attack force-which included six aircraft carriers and 420 planes-sailed from Hitokappu Bay in the Kurile Islands, on a 3,500 mile voyage to a staging area 230 miles off the Hawaiian island of Oahu.
The attack killed 2,403 service members and wounded 1,178 more, and sank or destroyed six U.S. ships,. They also destroyed 169 U.S. Navy and Army Air Corps planes.*
THERE ARE a lot of things that happened that are seldom noted when we remember this historic event. That same day, the Japanese followed up with assaults on the Philippines, Guam, Midway Island and the Wake Islands. They also attacked the British colonies of Malaya, Singapore and Hong Kong. Soon after they invaded Thailand. Within months all of these were conquered, the Japanese flag flying over all.
Most history books describe the assault on these Southwest Pacific islands as taking place the next day. The history books state that they were bombed and attacked on December 8. This is because the International Date Line is West of Hawaii. The Japanese, according to their history books, place the attack on Pearl Harbor as having occurred on December 8.
What I also find interesting is that in our contemporary minds, we consider the attack on Hawaii an attack on the United States when in reality Hawaii was no more a state than the Philippines, Guam or the Wake Islands. In fact, all of these island territories had been colonies of the United States at one time. Because the term “colony” was out of favor and politically incorrect, we began calling them…
